Show HN: Minigraf – An embedded, bi-temporal graph database in Rust

Minigraf 2.0.2, an embedded bi-temporal graph database written in Rust, has been released as a single-file library with Datalog queries, time travel, window functions, and prepared statements, targeting AI agents, mobile apps, and the browser. The project requires Rust 1.89 or newer and documents a known v2.x bug (#371) in which two values of the same attribute written in a single transact call can read back as one value; the fix changes the file format and ships in v3.0.0, with v2.x receiving data-integrity and security fixes for 12 months after v3.0.0 ships.

Embedded graph memory for AI agents, mobile apps, and the browser — the SQLite of bi-temporal graph databases A tiny, self-contained graph database with Datalog queries and bi-temporal time travel . Think SQLite, but for connected data with full history. Try it in your browser — no install needed → https://minigraf-playground.vercel.app/ Watch time travel in the visualizer → https://project-minigraf.github.io/minigraf-visualizer/ sample=careers&tx=7&e=:alice&view=map Scrub transaction time and valid time, and see the graph change. Minigraf is a single-file embedded graph database that lets you: - ✅ Query relationships with Datalog - Recursive rules, natural graph traversal - ✅ Time travel through history - Bi-temporal queries transaction time + valid time - ✅ Window functions - sum/count/min/max/avg/rank/row-number :over partition-by … :order-by … in :find clauses - ✅ Prepared statements - Parse + plan once with $slot bind tokens, execute thousands of times - ✅ Embed anywhere - Native, WASM, mobile, IoT - one .graph file - ✅ Zero configuration - Just Minigraf::open "data.graph" and you're done Status : See ROADMAP.md https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf/blob/main/ROADMAP.md for planned work and current direction. Datalog is fundamentally better for graphs than SQL-like languages: 1. Recursive by design - Multi-hop traversals are natural, not an afterthought 2. Simpler to implement - Smaller spec = more reliable, faster to production 3. Perfect for temporal - Time is just another dimension in relations 4. Proven at scale - 40+ years of research, production use Datomic, XTDB 5. Graph-native - Facts Entity-Attribute-Value are literally edges 6. LLM-friendly - The small, uniform grammar ?e :attr ?v patterns, no JOIN variants, no subquery nesting is easy for AI coding assistants to generate correctly from a few examples; the entire language fits in a system prompt dependencies minigraf = "2.0.2" Or via cargo: cargo add minigraf Requires Rust 1.89 or newer the minimum supported Rust version, set in Cargo.toml . Bugs present in the current release, with affected versions, workarounds and fix versions, are listed in the pinned Known issues in the current release https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf/issues/421 issue. The most important one on v2.x: - Two values of the same attribute for one entity written in a single transact or retracted in a single retract can read back as one value 371 https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf/issues/371 . Write or retract each value of a multi-valued attribute in its own call. The fix changes the file format and ships in v3.0.0. v2.x gets data-integrity and security fixes for 12 months after v3.0.0 ships. See the support policy https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf/blob/main/PHILOSOPHY.md support-policy . use minigraf::{Minigraf, OpenOptions}; // Open or create a file-backed database let db = OpenOptions::new .path "myapp.graph" .open ?; // Add facts db.execute r " transact :alice :person/name "Alice" :alice :person/age 30 :alice :friend :bob :bob :person/name "Bob" " ?; // Query with Datalog let results = db.execute r " query :find ?friend-name :where :alice :friend ?friend ?friend :person/name ?friend-name " ?; // Explicit transaction — all-or-nothing let mut tx = db.begin write ?; tx.execute r " transact :alice :person/age 31 " ?; tx.commit ?; // Time travel — query as of past transaction counter db.execute " query :find ?age :as-of 1 :where :alice :person/age ?age " ?; // Recursive rule — transitive reachability db.execute r " rule reachable ?a ?b ?a :friend ?b rule reachable ?a ?b ?a :friend ?m reachable ?m ?b " ?; // Prepared statement — parse + plan once, execute many times use minigraf::BindValue; let pq = db.prepare " query :find ?name :as-of $tx :where $entity :person/name ?name " ?; let r1 = pq.execute & "tx", BindValue::TxCount 1 , "entity", BindValue::Entity alice id ?; let r2 = pq.execute & "tx", BindValue::TxCount 2 , "entity", BindValue::Entity bob id ?; cargo run interactive Datalog REPL cargo test run 1212 tests cargo run < demos/demo recursive.txt recursive rules demo See a working implementation of temporal reasoning with Minigraf at github.com/adityamukho/temporal reasoning https://github.com/adityamukho/temporal reasoning — an AI agent that uses Minigraf's bi-temporal model to store, correct, and audit beliefs. The time travel visualizer https://project-minigraf.github.io/minigraf-visualizer/ runs Minigraf in your browser and draws its history. Step through transactions, move the valid-time cursor, and see each fact version on a bitemporal map. It opens .graph files too. For example, see a salary that was recorded wrong and then corrected https://project-minigraf.github.io/minigraf-visualizer/ sample=careers&tx=7&e=:alice&view=map . See the Datalog Reference https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf/wiki/Datalog-Reference wiki page for the complete syntax. No other database offers this combination: | Feature | Minigraf | XTDB | Cozo | Neo4j | SQLite | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | Query Language | Datalog | Datalog | Datalog | Cypher | SQL | | Single File | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ❌ No | ❌ No | ✅ Yes | | Bi-temporal | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | | ❌ No | ❌ No | | Embedded | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ✅ Yes | | Graph Native | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | | Rust | ✅ Yes | ❌ Clojure | ✅ Yes | ❌ Java | ❌ C | | WASM Ready | ✅ Yes browser + WASI | ❌ No | | ❌ No | ✅ Yes | | Platform | Tier | Package | Install | |---|---|---|---| | Rust native | 1 | minigraf on crates.io | cargo add minigraf | | Python | 1 | minigraf on PyPI | pip install minigraf | | Browser WASM | 2 experimental | @minigraf/browser on npm | npm install @minigraf/browser | | WASI | 2 experimental | @minigraf/wasi on npm | npm install @minigraf/wasi | | Node.js | 2 experimental | minigraf on npm | npm install minigraf | | Java/JVM | 2 experimental | io.github.project-minigraf:minigraf-jvm on Maven Central | see wiki https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf/wiki/Use-Cases | | Android | 2 experimental | io.github.project-minigraf:minigraf-android .aar on Maven Central | see wiki https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf/wiki/Use-Cases | | iOS / macOS | 2 experimental | .xcframework via Swift Package Manager minigraf-swift https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf-swift | see wiki https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf/wiki/Use-Cases | | C / FFI | 2 experimental | header + tarball on minigraf-c releases https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf-c/releases | see wiki https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf/wiki/Use-Cases | Tier 1 bindings are fully tested and released at the same time as every core release. Tier 2 bindings are built and smoke-tested, released on a best-effort schedule, and experimental. A binding moves to Tier 1 when real users need it. Tier 1 operating systems and filesystems are Linux ext4, xfs , macOS APFS and Windows NTFS on local disk; NFSv4 is supported with caveats, and NFSv3 nolock is unsupported for multiple writers. Details: support tiers https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf/blob/main/PHILOSOPHY.md support-tiers . Embedded graph memory for agents, mobile, and the browser — SQLite's simplicity + Datomic's temporal model. | Language | Package | Repo | |---|---|---| | Python | minigraf on PyPI https://pypi.org/p/minigraf | minigraf-python https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf-python | | Node.js | minigraf on npm https://www.npmjs.com/package/minigraf | minigraf-node https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf-node | | Browser WASM | @minigraf/browser on npm https://www.npmjs.com/package/@minigraf/browser | minigraf-wasm https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf-wasm | | WASI | @minigraf/wasi on npm https://www.npmjs.com/package/@minigraf/wasi | minigraf-wasm https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf-wasm | | Java | io.github.project-minigraf:minigraf-jvm on Maven Central | minigraf-java https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf-java | | Android | io.github.project-minigraf:minigraf-android on Maven Central | minigraf-android https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf-android | | iOS/macOS | Swift bindings | minigraf-swift https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf-swift | | C | C bindings | minigraf-c https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf-c | See the Comparison https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf/wiki/Comparison wiki page for detailed analysis including temporal vs. time-series databases. Store what an agent believes, retract and correct without losing history, and replay past states to audit decisions. Every fact carries both transaction time when it was recorded and valid time when it was true , so you can reconstruct the exact knowledge state at the moment of any past decision. Pairs well with vector stores GraphRAG pattern : the vector store answers "what is similar?"; Minigraf answers "what are the relationships, who recorded them, and what did we believe at time T?" See it in the visualizer: what an agent believed when it made a recommendation https://project-minigraf.github.io/minigraf-visualizer/ sample=agent-memory&tx=3&vt=any&e=:user-ana , and the correction that followed press → to step forward . Offline-first storage with retroactive corrections — the bi-temporal model lets you correct a mis-entered value while preserving the original record see a correction in the visualizer https://project-minigraf.github.io/minigraf-visualizer/ data=KHRyYW5zYWN0IHs6dmFsaWQtZnJvbSAiMjAyNS0wNi0wMSJ9CiAgICAgICAgICBbWzp1c2VyIDpoZWFsdGgvd2VpZ2h0LWtnIDgyLjVdXSkKKHJldHJhY3QgW1s6dXNlciA6aGVhbHRoL3dlaWdodC1rZyA4Mi41XV0pCih0cmFuc2FjdCB7OnZhbGlkLWZyb20gIjIwMjUtMDYtMDEifQogICAgICAgICAgW1s6dXNlciA6aGVhbHRoL3dlaWdodC1rZyA4MC41XV0p&title=Record+facts+offline%2C+correct+on+sync&vt=any&e=:user&view=map . Native Kotlin and Swift bindings ship as an Android .aar Maven Central and an iOS .xcframework Swift Package Manager via UniFFI https://github.com/mozilla/uniffi-rs . No Rust required. // Android Kotlin val db = MiniGrafDb.open context.filesDir.absolutePath + "/myapp.graph" db.execute """ transact :alice :person/name "Alice" :alice :person/age 30 """ val json = db.execute " query :find ?name :where ?e :person/name ?name " js // iOS Swift let db = try MiniGrafDb.open path: docsURL.appendingPathComponent "myapp.graph" .path try db.execute datalog: " transact :alice :person/name "Alice" :alice :person/age 30 " let json = try db.execute datalog: " query :find ?name :where ?e :person/name ?name " See the Mobile Integration https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf/wiki/Use-Cases mobile-apps wiki section for full setup and usage docs Gradle config, SPM integration, error handling, threading . Published as @minigraf/browser https://www.npmjs.com/package/@minigraf/browser on npm IndexedDB-backed, wasm-pack . WASI build wasm32-wasip1 available as @minigraf/wasi https://www.npmjs.com/package/@minigraf/wasi on npm and as a GitHub Releases artifact Wasmtime / Wasmer . See the Use Cases wiki https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf/wiki/Use-Cases . The playground https://minigraf-playground.vercel.app/ and the time travel visualizer https://project-minigraf.github.io/minigraf-visualizer/ are both built on @minigraf/browser . Language bindings ship as minigraf on PyPI, minigraf on npm Node.js native addon , io.github.adityamukho:minigraf-jvm on Maven Central, and a C header + prebuilt shared library on GitHub Releases. See the Use Cases wiki https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf/wiki/Use-Cases . Minigraf runs as: - ✅ An embedded library - ✅ A standalone binary interactive REPL - ✅ Browser WASM — @minigraf/browser IndexedDB-backed, wasm-pack - ✅ Server-side WASM — wasm32-wasip1 / WASI Wasmtime, Wasmer, Cloudflare Workers - ✅ Android, iOS, Python, Node.js, Java, C — via UniFFI / napi-rs / cbindgen Minigraf will not be by design : - Distributed — no clustering, no sharding, no replication; each agent instance owns its own .graph file - Client-server — no network protocol in core - Billion-node scale — optimised for <1M nodes like SQLite - A time-series database — Minigraf is a temporal database; see Comparison https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf/wiki/Comparison influxdb--prometheus--timescaledb-time-series-databases See ROADMAP.md https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf/blob/main/ROADMAP.md for planned work and current direction. See BENCHMARKS.md https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf/blob/main/docs/BENCHMARKS.md for the current reproducible local snapshot and benchmark commands. | Point query at 1M facts | 4.3–4.5 s selective B+tree lookup for bounded patterns; O N for full-attribute scans | | Open time at 1M facts | 1.31 s 2.4× faster than v5 — indexes no longer loaded into RAM | | Peak heap at 1M facts | 1.05 GB ~21% less than v5 — indexes paged in on demand | File-backed databases enforce a maximum fact size of 4 080 serialised bytes per fact. In-memory databases have no limit. Durability tuning: every write is fsync 'd immediately by default SyncMode::Full . Bulk loaders/migrations that can safely re-run from a checkpoint watermark on failure can trade that for throughput with OpenOptions::new .synchronous SyncMode::Normal — checkpoint still fsyncs unconditionally in both modes. See the Performance Tuning wiki page https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf/wiki/Performance-Tuning configuration-knobs for the full tradeoff and the write-batching pattern that pairs with it. This is a solo-maintained project with a long-term vision. Read PHILOSOPHY.md https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf/blob/main/PHILOSOPHY.md and ROADMAP.md https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf/blob/main/ROADMAP.md before proposing features. See CONTRIBUTING.md https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup, code standards, and the PR process. Licensed under either of: - Apache License, Version 2.0 LICENSE-APACHE https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf/blob/main/LICENSE-APACHE or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 - MIT license LICENSE-MIT https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf/blob/main/LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT at your option. Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.