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Deploying DuckDB-Wasm

A DuckDB-Wasm deployment needs to access the following components:

  • the DuckDB-Wasm main library component, distributed as TypeScript and compiled to JavaScript code
  • the DuckDB-Wasm Worker component, compiled to JavaScript code, possibly instantiated multiple times for threaded environments
  • the DuckDB-Wasm module, compiled as a WebAssembly file and instantiated by the browser
  • any relevant DuckDB-Wasm extension

Main Library Component

This is distributed as either TypeScript code or CommonJS JavaScript code in the npm duckdb-wasm package, and can be either bundled together with a given application, served in a same origin (sub-)domain and included at runtime or served from a third party CDN like jsDelivr. This does need some form of transpilation and can't be served as-is, given it needs to know the location of the follow up files for this to be functional. Details will depend on your given setup, examples can be found at https://github.com/duckdb/duckdb-wasm/tree/main/examples. An example deployment is https://shell.duckdb.org, which transpiles the main library component together with shell code (first approach). Or the bare-browser example at https://github.com/duckdb/duckdb-wasm/tree/main/examples/bare-browser.

JS Worker Component

This is distributed as a JavaScript file in 3 different flavors, mvp, eh and threads, and needs to be served as is. The main library components need to be informed of the actual location.

There are 3 variants for 3 different platforms:

  • mvp targets WebAssembly 1.0 spec
  • eh targets WebAssembly 1.0 spec WITH Wasm-level exceptions handling added, which improves performance
  • threads targets WebAssembly spec WITH exception and threading constructs

You could serve all 3, and feature detect, or serve a single variant and instruct duckdb-wasm library on which one to use

Wasm Worker Component

Same as the JS Worker component, 3 different flavors, mvp, eh and threads, each one is needed by the relevant JS component. These WebAssembly modules need to be served as-is at an arbitrary [sub-] domain that is reachable from the main one.

DuckDB Extensions

DuckDB extensions for DuckDB-Wasm, similar for the native cases, are served signed at the default extension endpoint: https://extensions.duckdb.org. If you are deploying duckdb-wasm you can consider mirroring relevant extensions at a different endpoint, possibly allowing for air-tight deployments on internal networks.

SET custom_extension_repository = 'https://some.endpoint.org/path/to/repository';

Changes the default extension repository from the public https://extensions.duckdb.org to the one specified. Note that extensions are still signed, so the best path is downloading and serving the extensions with a similar structure to the original repository. See our additional notes on Creating a Custom Repository.

Community extensions are served at https://community-extensions.duckdb.org, and they are signed with a different key, so they can be disabled with a one way SQL statement such as:

SET allow_community_extensions = false;

This will allow loading only of core duckdb extensions. Note that the failure is at LOAD time, not at INSTALL time.

Please review the Extension Distribution page for general information about extensions.

Security Considerations

Warning Deploying DuckDB-Wasm with access to your own data means whoever has access to SQL can access the data that DuckDB-Wasm can access. Also, DuckDB-Wasm in the default setting can access remote endpoints, so it can have a visible effect on the external world even from within the sandbox.

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