{"slug": "quack-turn-duckdb-into-a-client-server-database", "title": "Quack: Turn DuckDB into a client-server database", "summary": "DuckDB has released a beta of Quack, a protocol that turns the in-process analytical database into a client-server database management system, enabling multi-client access and remote querying. Announced by DuckDB co-founder Hannes Mühleisen at AI Council 2026, Quack supports the full DuckDB feature set over the wire and can handle a few thousand writes per second on an 8-CPU, 32 GB RAM server. The extension is available now and works with all DuckDB extensions, including DuckLake and community extensions.", "body_md": "Beta release available now\n\n#\nQuack: Turn DuckDB\n\ninto a client-server database\n\nThe Quack protocol unlocks multi-client access for DuckDB,\n\nturning it into a general-purpose database system\n\n### Quack protocol\n\nClient-server access · Beta release\n\n## Introducing Quack\n\nHannes Mühleisen introduced Quack at AI Council 2026.\n\nWatch his talk, the “Super-Secret Next Big Thing for DuckDB”.\n\n## Architecture\n\n#### Clients\n\n#### Server\n\n#### Storage\n\n## How it works\n\n### Client-server setup\n\nYou can take any two DuckDB processes on a network and turn them into client and server by using the Quack extension. The Quack protocol supports the full DuckDB feature set – over the wire.\n\n### Optimized for performance\n\nWe designed the Quack protocol for performance. We minimized the number of round trips, and ensured that the protocol can handle small updates and large batches just as well.\n\n## Try Quack today\n\nInstall and configure Quack in seconds\n\nStep 1\n\n### Install DuckDB\n\nStep 2\n\n### Launch Quack on the server\n\nStep 3\n\n### Connect from the client\n\n## Frequently asked questions\n\n### What is Quack?\n\nQuack allows DuckDB to connect to a DuckDB server through the `quack:`\n\nprotocol. You can think of Quack as a Remote Procedure Call (RPC) protocol for DuckDB. Quack enables DuckDB instances to talk to each other, effectively turning DuckDB into a client-server database management system, where both the client and the server are DuckDB instances.\n\n### Why is it called Quack?\n\nMallard ducks communicate by [quacking](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck#Communication), so it's only fair that DuckDB instances communicate through the protocol `quack`\n\n.\n\n### When should I use Quack?\n\nQuack can be beneficial in a number of scenarios, including the following:\n\n- You need concurrent read-write access to the same DuckDB database.\n- Your data is on a server and you want to move the computation as close to the data as possible.\n- You have a powerful server that can process the data but would like to see the results on your local computer.\n- And many more – we are excited to see what the community comes up with.\n\n### Can I use DuckDB with Quack for transactional (OLTP) workloads?\n\nYes. DuckDB with Quack can handle a few thousand writes per second on a server with 8 CPUs and 32 GB RAM. See [the benchmarks in our announcement blog post](https://duckdb.org/2026/05/12/quack-remote-protocol).\n\n### Can I still run DuckDB as an in-process database?\n\nYes, DuckDB as an in-process database will continue working just as it did before, and we will treat the in-process deployment model as a first-class citizen in the DuckDB ecosystem.\n\n## Quack in the DuckDB ecosystem\n\n### Client-server DuckDB\n\nQuack turns DuckDB into a client-server database for multi-writer and remote access.\n\n### DuckLake server\n\nQuack supports querying DuckLake and other data lake formats.\n\n### Community extensions\n\nQuack works with all DuckDB extensions, including the Community Extension ecosystem.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/quack-turn-duckdb-into-a-client-server-database", "canonical_source": "https://duckdb.org/quack/", "published_at": "2026-08-04 07:31:35+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-04 07:52:39.003704+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["developer-tools"], "entities": ["DuckDB", "Quack", "Hannes Mühleisen", "AI Council 2026", "DuckLake"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/quack-turn-duckdb-into-a-client-server-database", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/quack-turn-duckdb-into-a-client-server-database.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/quack-turn-duckdb-into-a-client-server-database.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/quack-turn-duckdb-into-a-client-server-database.jsonld"}}