Software engineering, distributed systems, databases, and the teams that build them
Software engineering, distributed systems, databases, and the teams that build them
rqlite is a lightweight, open-source, distributed relational database built on SQLite and Raft. rqlite.io is the Hugo-based website for rqlite, built on the Docsy theme. It introduces people to the database, as well as serving all the technical documentation. Last month I decided to…
OpenAI has given me six months of ChatGPT Pro through its Codex for Open Source programme, which backs maintainers of projects the wider ecosystem depends on. I will be putting it to work on rqlite — primarily coding and PR…
rqlite is a lightweight, open-source, distributed relational database built on SQLite and Raft. After my initial experience with Fable, it got me thinking. I created rqlite, I maintain it. Why won’t Fable help me find and fix bugs in the software? Why does it…
Today I tried Anthropic’s latest model, Fable, for the the first time. I asked it to run a full code review of the core Go code of rqlite. Fable reject my first prompt as unsafe – review the rqlite code…
Today at Lowe’s I passed a Simbe robot doing inventory. A tall pole on a wheeled base, moving the aisles, looking at shelves. I was startled, but only because it appeared behind me. And then I felt nothing. No one…
Last week I started using some of the new coding agents properly. Not in a careful, experimental way, but properly — for three days on rqlite. Claude Code. Copilot CLI. Tools I had yet to fully integrate into how I…
While working with Claude Code, I quickly needed it to operate on multiple versions of the rqlite codebase at the same time. Cloning the repository repeatedly would have worked, but it felt wasteful.
After many months of direct ChatGPT use, I’ve finally started coding with the help of Copilot and Claude Code. It’s definitely an intriguing experience. The biggest difference so far? I’m going to hit my Claude Code Pro limits pretty quickly,…
I’ve been surprised by – and enjoy – one aspect of using large language models more than any other. They often put into words things I have long understood, but could not write down clearly. When that happens, it feels…
I was recently interviewed by Noah Brier for his BRXND Tokens & Tactics AI newsletter. Noah and I used to work together a few years ago at Percolate so it was good to connect again. You can check out the…
Two years ago, I appeared on Contributor, a podcast hosted by Eric Anderson of Scale Venture Partners. I was there to talk about rqlite, the open-source database I maintain.
We built the old software systems by hand. Line by line. Module by module. That era is ending. Something profound is happening. For the first time in the history of software, we are not the only entities capable of understanding…
rqlite is a lightweight, open-source, distributed relational database written in Go. It uses SQLite as its storage engine and Raft for consensus. Last week, I wrote about my experience with language models, how they evolved from simple Python helpers to full-blown design partners and even…
rqlite is a lightweight, open-source, distributed relational database written in Go. It uses SQLite as its storage engine and Raft for consensus. I’ve been developing rqlite for about ten years, and until recently, the workflow hadn’t changed much. I write the code. Others contribute here…
I recently installed the Gemini code review tool for GitHub. It’s free, and installation was easy. Today Gemini found its first real issue with my code. While the bug was very minor, it’s helpful to even have these minor bugs…
rqlite is a lightweight, open-source distributed relational database implemented in Go, and which uses SQLite as its storage engine. I have developed a new Java client for rqlite. It provides minimal abstraction and interacts directly with the rqlite HTTP API.…
rqlite is a lightweight, open-source distributed relational database implemented in Go, and which uses SQLite as its storage engine. I’ve decided to code a new, high-quality HTTP client library for rqlite. My hope is that this library will be useful…
rqlite is a lightweight, open-source, distributed relational database written in Go, which uses SQLite as its storage engine. As part of the 7.14.2 release, I ran most of the source code through GPT-4. Let’s take a look at some of…
rqlite is a lightweight, open-source, distributed relational database written in Go, which uses SQLite as its storage engine. 7.14.2 adds various bug fixes and improvements. Most of the rqlite source code was also run through GPT-4, and many of its…
rqlite is a lightweight, open-source, distributed relational database written in Go, which uses SQLite as its storage engine. 7.14.0 has been released and adds comprehensive support for Mutual TLS. What makes this release of rqlite different is that much of…
Stephen Wolfram has published an eminently readable description of what ChatGPT does, how it’s designed, and offer some insights into why it appears to work so well.