# Show HN: I "built" Sana, a vector DB on object storage

> Source: <https://github.com/djakish/sana>
> Published: 2026-06-21 14:40:13+00:00

An object-storage-native search database: vectors, full-text, and attribute
filters over documents whose only durable home is an object store — a local
directory or S3. A [turbopuffer](https://turbopuffer.com)-inspired open-source
clone, built in staged, documented commits.

AI disclaimer:this is an AI-assisted project (built with Claude and Codex). It exists to learn from, not to run your production on.

**What works:**

- Durable writes — WAL with a CAS-advanced commit cursor in object storage; strongly consistent reads through the unindexed overlay; idempotency keys, conditional writes, patch/delete-by-filter, write backpressure.
- Indexes — LSM document SSTs, delta-tiered attribute postings, BM25 full-text with rank-safe block MAXSCORE, IVF vectors with faithful RaBitQ quantization (SIMD kernels) and SPFresh-style local split/merge maintenance.
- One binary — a CLI, API-only serving, looped indexing/maintenance roles,
all-in-one dev serving, operator GC dry-runs, and a Prometheus
`/metrics`

endpoint. - Backends — local filesystem for dev; S3-compatible stores with server-enforced conditional writes (verified against MinIO).
- Operations — namespace branch, cross-store copy, deterministic export, leased replica pinning, cache warming, ANN recall endpoint.

```
cargo run --release -- demo ./data        # tiny end-to-end demo
cargo run --release -- serve ./data       # HTTP service on 127.0.0.1:8080
cargo run --release --example usage       # library API tour
cargo run --release --example latency     # benchmark harness
```

[User guide](/djakish/sana/blob/main/docs/guide.md) ·
[Architecture](/djakish/sana/blob/main/docs/ARCHITECTURE.md) ·
[Build log & decisions](/djakish/sana/blob/main/docs/PROGRESS.md) ·
[Contributing](/djakish/sana/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md) ·
[Benchmarks](/djakish/sana/blob/main/docs/benchmarks.md)

MIT — see [LICENSE](/djakish/sana/blob/main/LICENSE).