This site is home to the documentation for the SQLite project's WebAssembly- and JavaScript-related APIs, which enable the use of sqlite3 in modern WASM-capable browsers.
Cookie/storage disclaimer: this site requires a modern, JavaScript-capable browser for full functionality. This site uses client-side storage for persisting certain browsing preferences (like the bright/dark mode toggle) but its server does not process any user-level information beyond (A) the cookies required to maintain the login and certain display-related preferences (B) user-provided email notification info. With the obligatory exception of email notifications, it does not share any state with any other services.
Site Overview
About the sqlite3 WASM subproject:
- Project news
- FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
- TODOs and (un)planned features
- Technical support is provided, and feedback gladly accepted, via the sqlite forum. Those with commercial SQLite support contracts may use their usual support channels.
Making use of this project:
The three-step HOWTO demonstrates how to include and run the sqlite3 WASM module and its associated JavaScript APIs.
Downloads are available via the main project downloads page.
- Prerelease snapshots are updated from time to time
- npm module
Building sqlite3 WASM and its associated JS code.
- Emscripten build specifics
The API index describes the various API variants and how to load and access them.
- Cookbook of recipes for client-level code
- Persistent storage options
- Using C-structs in the JS API
- Creating virtual tables and table-valued functions in JS
- API changes which might affect clients
- The module symbols app generates lists of sqlite3 API symbols from the JavaScript/WASM module.
About this documentation:
In the Wild
Third-party projects known to be using this project include (in order of their addition to this list)...
- SQLime provides a database browser interface.
- Evolu Evolu is a local-first platform designed for privacy, ease of use, and no vendor lock-in.
- SQLiteNext provides a demo of integrating this project with next.js.
- sqlite-wasm-esm demonstrates how to use this project with the Vite toolchain.
- sqlite-wasm-http provides an SQLite VFS with read-only access to databases which are served directly over HTTP.
Related Works
(In the order in which we became aware of them...)
- Alon Zakai's sql.js is the first known direct usage of sqlite3 in a web browser, dating back to 2012, not counting WebSQL (which was a native-level feature and has long since been removed from browsers).
- Roy Hashimoto's wa-sqlite is home to the first known implementation of OPFS storage of sqlite3 databases. It is also the home of much innovation regarding JS-side SQLite VFSes.
- James Long's absurd-js demonstrates storing sqlite3 databases inside IndexedDB databases.
- postgres-wasm runs a Postgres database server in a browser.
- Jaccwabyt is a small JS library for manipulating WASM-hosted C structs via JS code, created specifically to support the OPFS sqlite3_vfs implementation in this project. This project embeds a copy but does not expose it to client applications.
- CoWasm is "Collaborative WebAssembly for Servers and Browsers". Their demo app includes a WASM build of the sqlite3 shell application.
- absurder-js is Nicholas G. Piesco's re-imagining of absurd-js. See also: his announcement of it on the SQLite forum.
- sqlite-wasm-rs provides
Rust SQLite bindings for
wasm32-unknown-unknownbuilds. - sqlite-sparse SQLite extension that runs learned sparse retrieval (OpenSearch's inference-free SPLADE models) as a virtual table.
Third-party Documentation and Articles
The following links reference articles and documentation published about SQLite WASM by third parties:
- Porting WebSQL to OPFS, by the Google Chrome dev team
- The VMWare OCTO team writes about building SQLite3 for WASI