Sqlite3 WebAssembly

This site is home to the documentation for the SQLite project's WebAssembly- and JavaScript-related APIs, which enable the use of sqlite3 in modern WASM-capable browsers. These components were initially released for public beta with version 3.40 and will tentatively be made API-stable with the 3.41 release, pending community feedback.

Disclaimer: this site requires a modern, JavaScript-capable browser for full functionality. This site uses client-side storage for storing certain browsing preferences (like the bright/dark mode toggle) but does not store any user information server-side, except for logged-in developers. The only user-level details this site shares with any other systems are the public SCM-related details of this site's own developers.

Site Overview

About the sqlite3 WASM subproject:

• 📰 Project news
• 💬 Frequently Asked Questions
• 🚧 TODOs and (un)planned features
• ☎ Technical support is provided, and feedback gladly accepted, via the sqlite forum. Those with commercial SQLite support contracts may use their usual support channels.

Making use of this project:

• 👣 The three-step HOWTO demonstrates how to include and run the sqlite3 WASM module and its associated JavaScript APIs.

• 💾 Downloads are available via the main project downloads page.

  • 📸 Prerelease snapshots are updated from time to time
  • 📦 npm module

• 🛠 Building sqlite3 WASM and its associated JS code.

  • Emscripten build specifics

• 📇 The API index describes the various API variants and how to load and access them.

  • 🧑‍🍳 Cookbook of recipes for client-level code
  • 💾 Persistent storage options
  • 🤓 Using C-structs in the JS API
  • 🧱 Creating virtual tables and table-valued functions in JS
  • 💣 API changes which might affect clients
  • 🔭 The module symbols app generates lists of sqlite3 API symbols from the JavaScript/WASM module.

About this documentation:

• 📜 License
• 🚧 Doc and repository maintenance

In the Wild

Third-party projects known to be using this project include (in order of their addition to this list)...

• SQLime provides a database browser interface.
• Evolu Evolu is a local-first platform designed for privacy, ease of use, and no vendor lock-in.
• SQLiteNext provides a demo of integrating this project with next.js.
• sqlite-wasm-esm demonstrates how to use this project with the Vite toolchain.
• sqlite-wasm-http provides an SQLite VFS with read-only access to databases which are served directly over HTTP.

Related Works

(In the order in which we became aware of them...)

• Alon Zakai's sql.js is the first known direct usage of sqlite3 in a web browser, dating back to 2012, not counting WebSQL (which was a native-level feature and has long since been removed from most browsers).
• Roy Hashimoto's wa-sqlite is home to the first known implementation of OPFS storage of sqlite3 databases.
• James Long's absurd-js demonstrates storing sqlite3 databases inside IndexedDB databases.
• postgres-wasm runs a Postgres database server in a browser.
• Jaccwabyt is a small JS library for manipulating WASM-hosted C structs via JS code, created specifically to support the OPFS sqlite3_vfs implementation in this project. This project embeds a copy but does not expose it to client applications.
• CoWasm is "Collaborative WebAssembly for Servers and Browsers". Their demo app includes a WASM build of the sqlite3 shell application.
• Evan Brass's build uses a WASI SDK build, instead of Emscripten, and demonstrates some novel features which this project's WASM build does not.

Third-party Documentation and Articles

The following links reference articles and documentation published about SQLite WASM by third parties:

• Porting WebSQL to OPFS, by the Google Chrome dev team
• The VMWare OCTO team writes about building SQLite3 for WASI