What Is DataVo?

DataVo is an embedded database engine for .NET applications. You add it to a process, create a DataVoContext, and run SQL against local storage. There is no separate database service to deploy for the core engine.

The simplest mental model is SQLite-style deployment with a C#-native implementation. DataVo is not trying to look like PostgreSQL in v0.1 Alpha. It is trying to make local storage fast and ergonomic for .NET workloads that benefit from in-process execution, allocation-aware hot paths, vector search, and Native AOT-friendly code.

The smallest DataVo program creates an in-memory database, defines a table, inserts a row, and reads it back.

using DataVo.Core;
using DataVo.Core.StorageEngine.Config;

using var db = new DataVoContext(new DataVoConfig
{
    StorageMode = StorageMode.InMemory
});

db.Execute("CREATE DATABASE Demo");
db.Execute("USE Demo");

db.Execute("""
CREATE TABLE Users (
  Id INT PRIMARY KEY,
  Name VARCHAR(80)
);
""");

db.Execute("INSERT INTO Users (Id, Name) VALUES (1, 'Ada')");

var result = db.Execute("SELECT Id, Name FROM Users WHERE Id = 1")[0];
Console.WriteLine(result.Data[0]["Name"]);

For persisted data, the same API switches to disk-backed storage. The high-throughput path is StorageMode.Lsm, which uses WAL-covered MemTables and SSTables.

using var db = new DataVoContext(new DataVoConfig
{
    StorageMode = StorageMode.Lsm,
    DiskStoragePath = "./datavo_lsm_data",
    LsmStrictFsync = true
});

DataVo also has SQL support for vector columns. That makes it possible to keep application records and embeddings in the same embedded engine.

CREATE TABLE Documents (
  Id INT PRIMARY KEY,
  Title VARCHAR(200),
  Embedding VECTOR(1536)
);

CREATE INDEX idx_documents_embedding
ON Documents (Embedding)
USING HNSW;

The project is early. DataVo v0.1 Alpha is useful for experiments, local-first applications, game tooling, simulations, vector-search prototypes, and performance research. It should not be presented as a mature RDBMS, a SQLite replacement for production data, or a PostgreSQL-compatible server.

v0.1 Positioning

In v0.1, DataVo supports an embedded C# storage engine (DataVoContext runs in-process), InMemory, Disk, and Lsm storage, its own compact SQL dialect for DDL/DML/queries, and vector columns and indexes (VECTOR(n), USING HNSW, USING FLAT, <=>, <->). Source-generated, AOT-sensitive paths avoid reflection-heavy execution where possible. DataVo is deliberately not a full RDBMS — it is not PostgreSQL, SQLite, or SQL Server compatible — and it has no client/server protocol yet (PostgreSQL-wire compatibility would require a future DataVo.Server). See the SQL compatibility matrix for the authoritative feature status.