# alchemy-utils 0.1a0

> Source: <https://simonwillison.net/2026/Aug/12/alchemy-utils/>
> Published: 2026-08-12 19:51:30+00:00

**Release:** [alchemy-utils 0.1a0](https://github.com/simonw/alchemy-utils/releases/tag/0.1a0)

I've long pondered what a database agnostic version of my [sqlite-utils](https://sqlite-utils.datasette.io/) Python library and CLI utility might look like. This morning (literally a shower project) I tasked Codex and GPT-5.6 Sol Ultra with building a prototype:

`Do a research spike to see what it would take to build a library with the same core API as SQLite-utils - in particular the insert and upsert and insert_all and upsert_all and create and update methods, and the table introspection stuff - but backed by SQLalchemy so it works for multiple database engines`

`Test against PostgreSQL and SQLite and duckdb`

`Use ~/dev/sqlite-utils for reference`

`Create a git repo for this and commit and early and often - use uv init to start the project - use red/green TDD and pytest, see ~/dev/django-sql-dashboard for one idea as to how the PostgreSQL tests could work`

It took [very few follow-up prompts](https://gist.github.com/simonw/bd10e4886688e0fd1b833e4afaabf19e) to produce this project in a state good enough to release as an alpha.

Here's a one-liner I can use to list the rows in a table in my local PostgreSQL copy of my blog's database:

`uvx --with 'alchemy-utils[postgresql]' alchemy-utils rows 'postgresql+psycopg://simon@localhost:5432/simonwillisonblog' redirects_redirect`

The output from that starts like this:

```
[
  {
    "id": 2328,
    "domain": "simonwillison.net",
    "path": "2020/May/21/apple-photos-sqlite/",
    "target": "/2020/May/21/dogsheep-photos/",
    "created": "2020-05-21T13:03:46.591692-07:00"
  },
  {
    "id": 3,
    "domain": "feeds.simonwillison.net",
    "path": "swn-links",
    "target": "https://simonwillison.net/atom/links/",
    "created": "2017-10-01T14:12:54.820729-07:00"
  }
```

Or if you'd like a DuckDB database with [every tree in San Francisco](https://github.com/simonw/sf-tree-history/blob/main/Street_Tree_List.csv), schema created automatically to match the file:

`curl 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/simonw/sf-tree-history/refs/heads/main/Street_Tree_List.csv' | uvx --with 'alchemy-utils[duckdb]' alchemy-utils insert 'duckdb:////tmp/trees.db' trees - --csv`

(That one took nearly an hour the first time I ran it, so I [had Codex optimize it](https://github.com/simonw/alchemy-utils/commit/e3b8d03e040867b256aeff7db322a0b0eb1f8b06) and got it down to around 35 seconds.)

Tags: [databases](https://simonwillison.net/tags/databases), [postgresql](https://simonwillison.net/tags/postgresql), [projects](https://simonwillison.net/tags/projects), [python](https://simonwillison.net/tags/python), [sql](https://simonwillison.net/tags/sql), [sqlalchemy](https://simonwillison.net/tags/sqlalchemy), [sqlite](https://simonwillison.net/tags/sqlite), [sqlite-utils](https://simonwillison.net/tags/sqlite-utils), [duckdb](https://simonwillison.net/tags/duckdb), [coding-agents](https://simonwillison.net/tags/coding-agents), [codex](https://simonwillison.net/tags/codex)