{"slug": "ladybugdb", "name": "LadybugDB", "category": "databases", "category_name": "Databases", "description": "", "recommenders": 5, "commenters": 9, "warners": 1, "score": 4.606, "rising": 1.02, "first": "2026-03-22", "latest": "2026-10-05", "why": "If you like kuzudb check out https://github.com/LadybugDB/ladybug", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 3, "compare": 0, "warn": 1}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "If you like kuzudb check out https://github.com/LadybugDB/ladybug", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/ladybugdb/ladybug", "official_url": "https://github.com/LadybugDB/ladybug", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["LadybugDB", "Ladybug"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 799486754, "item_id": 49967922, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49967922", "by": "canadiantim", "date": "2026-10-05", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it's still open-sourcing' as LadybugDB", "excerpt": "How does it compare with the since-discontinued embedded graph database cozodb? https://github.com/cozodb/cozo It also used datalog, written in rust Great to see tho, I'm always eagerly hoping for a successful embedded graph database. Most recently my hope was for kuzudb, but they got acquihired; though it's still open-sourcing' as LadybugDB. Highly recommend taking inspiration from Kuzudb/Ladybugdb and cozodb. Godsp", "context": "", "use_case": "embedded graph database", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Minigraf \u2013 An embedded, bi-temporal graph database in Rust"}, {"id": 791098464, "item_id": 49443654, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49443654", "by": "adsharma", "date": "2026-08-26", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "A columnar storage engine means you get indexes and the relational goodness for free.", "excerpt": "Wikidata doesn't imply RDF/SPARQL. Cypher works fine too. A columnar storage engine means you get indexes and the relational goodness for free. https://huggingface.co/datasets/ladybugdb/wikidata-20260401", "context": "", "use_case": "Graph database", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: LatticeDB \u2013 Like SQLite but for graph databases"}, {"id": 784663040, "item_id": 49041440, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49041440", "by": "srhtftw", "date": "2026-07-24", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If you like kuzudb check out https://github.com/LadybugDB/ladybug", "excerpt": "If you like kuzudb check out https://github.com/LadybugDB/ladybug", "context": "", "use_case": "graph database", "switched_from": "", "story": "DuckPGQ \u2013 A DuckDB community extension for graph workloads"}, {"id": 771723808, "item_id": 48232738, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48232738", "by": "jauntywundrkind", "date": "2026-05-21", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "LadybugDB is carrying on the Kuzu torch.", "excerpt": "FYI LadybugDB is carrying on the Kuzu torch. https://github.com/LadybugDB/ladybug Cool project though! Very nice!!", "context": "", "use_case": "Graph database", "switched_from": "", "story": "A open-source graph database that lives in your S3 bucket"}, {"id": 759820801, "item_id": 47488800, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47488800", "by": "gdotv", "date": "2026-03-23", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "LadybugDB (https://github.com/LadybugDB/ladybug) at this point seems to be the only sustainable fork.", "excerpt": "LadybugDB (https://github.com/LadybugDB/ladybug) at this point seems to be the only sustainable fork. When deciding what to do about the Kuzu archival on https://gdotv.com, we've gone with maintaining support for the last available version of Kuzu (it's still heavily used from what I'm seeing) whilst introducing support for LadybugDB. I've looked into a few other forks and at this point in time none seem to be active", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Grafeo \u2013 A fast, lean, embeddable graph database built in Rust"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 774816784, "item_id": 48426049, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48426049", "by": "lvca", "date": "2026-06-06", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Ladybug is still very limited in terms of use cases and functionalities.", "excerpt": "Ladybug is still very limited in terms of use cases and functionalities. Unless you just want some OLAP graph query to be faster, and that's it... You could use a fully functional DBMS with Graph OLAP functionalities, like ArcadeDB (Apache2 license): https://arcadedb.com/blog/graph-olap-engine-the-fastest-graph-analytics-with-zero-compromises/. Most importantly, ArcadeDB committed to never change its license, to avoi", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ladybug: DuckDB of Graph Databases"}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["graph database", "embedded graph database", "graph database for knowledge triples"], "compared": [{"slug": "kuzu", "name": "Kuzu", "co": 10, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "duckdb", "name": "DuckDB", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "cozodb", "name": "CozoDB", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [{"id": 791293762, "item_id": 49455860, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49455860", "by": "adsharma", "date": "2026-08-26", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Work continues as LadybugDB.", "excerpt": "Several \"Graph on DuckDB\" efforts started on DuckDB and ended up reinventing a basic columnar codebase to innovate on because of these reasons. Even though people didn't document why, lack of outside contributor friendly flows is likely one of the reasons. KuzuDB folks worked on something called GRainDB in 2022: https://vldb.org/cidrdb/2022/graindb-a-relational-core-graph-relational-dbms.html But circa 2023 decided t", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "AWS Acquires DuckLabs"}, {"id": 786039457, "item_id": 49127466, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49127466", "by": "adsharma", "date": "2026-07-31", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Icebug and LadybugDB can be tightly integrated to efficiently move tables encoded as compressed sparse row (CSR) into arrow memory.", "excerpt": "The idea of graph algorithms on Apache arrow at scale originated here. 100+ graph algorithms running on columnar memory. https://github.com/Ladybug-Memory/icebug Out of core with datafusion is the main innovation here in graphframes-rs. But it has only 2 algorithms so far. Icebug and LadybugDB can be tightly integrated to efficiently move tables encoded as compressed sparse row (CSR) into arrow memory. Jupyter notebo", "context": "", "use_case": "graph database", "switched_from": "", "story": "Algorithms on billion-scale graph using 10GB RAM: I love DataFusion"}, {"id": 759672240, "item_id": 47479515, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47479515", "by": "adsharma", "date": "2026-03-22", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "it's a graph database with relational internals and some internal warts that makes it hard to compose queries", "excerpt": "I maintain LadybugDB which implements WCOJ (inherited from the KuzuDB days). So I don't disagree with the idea. Just that it's a graph database with relational internals and some internal warts that makes it hard to compose queries. Working on fixing them. https://github.com/LadybugDB/ladybug/discussions/204#discussioncomment-15877639", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Grafeo \u2013 A fast, lean, embeddable graph database built in Rust"}, {"id": 759497536, "item_id": 47468596, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47468596", "by": "adsharma", "date": "2026-03-21", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "You can judge for yourself what work has been done in the last 5 months.", "excerpt": "LadybugDB is backed by this tech (I didn't write it) https://vldb.org/cidrdb/2023/kuzu-graph-database-management-system.html You can judge for yourself what work has been done in the last 5 months. Many short videos here. New open source contributors who I didn't know before ramping up. https://youtube.com/@ladybugdb", "context": "", "use_case": "embedded graph database", "switched_from": "", "story": "Grafeo \u2013 A fast, lean, embeddable graph database built in Rust"}, {"id": 759492000, "item_id": 47468250, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47468250", "by": "adsharma", "date": "2026-03-21", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Also focusing on just one query language: strongly typed cypher.", "excerpt": "There are 25 graph databases all going me too in the AI/LLM driven cycle. Writing it in Rust gets visibility because of the popularity of the language on HN. Here's why we are not doing it for LadybugDB. Would love to explore a more gradual/incremental path. Also focusing on just one query language: strongly typed cypher. https://github.com/LadybugDB/ladybug/discussions/141", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Grafeo \u2013 A fast, lean, embeddable graph database built in Rust"}, {"id": 740277648, "item_id": 46267353, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46267353", "by": "adsharma", "date": "2025-12-14", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Opensource Embedded Columnar Graph Database", "excerpt": "Opensource Embedded Columnar Graph Database: https://github.com/LadybugDB/ladybug Store your graphs in Parquet files on object storage or DuckDB files and query them using strongly typed Cypher. Advanced factorized join algorithms (details in a VLDB 2023 paper when it was called Kuzu). Looking to serve externalized knowledge with small language models using this infra. Watch Andrej Karpathy's Cognitive Core podcasts ", "context": "", "use_case": "Embedded graph database", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47467567", "title": "Grafeo \u2013 A fast, lean, embeddable graph database built in Rust", "mentions": 5}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49437049", "title": "Show HN: LatticeDB \u2013 Like SQLite but for graph databases", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49963394", "title": "Show HN: Minigraf \u2013 An embedded, bi-temporal graph database in Rust", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49124658", "title": "Algorithms on billion-scale graph using 10GB RAM: I love DataFusion", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49448321", "title": "AWS Acquires DuckLabs", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49436882", "title": "Knowledge Compressor", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-06": {"warn": 1}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 2}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 1}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 799496707, "item_id": 49968544, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49968544", "by": "adityamukho", "date": "2026-10-05", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "", "excerpt": "Here's a comparison matrix, although it doesn't include ladybug yet: https://github.com/project-minigraf/minigraf/wiki/Comparison", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Minigraf \u2013 An embedded, bi-temporal graph database in Rust"}, {"id": 799486754, "item_id": 49967922, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49967922", "by": "canadiantim", "date": "2026-10-05", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it's still open-sourcing' as LadybugDB", "excerpt": "How does it compare with the since-discontinued embedded graph database cozodb? https://github.com/cozodb/cozo It also used datalog, written in rust Great to see tho, I'm always eagerly hoping for a successful embedded graph database. Most recently my hope was for kuzudb, but they got acquihired; though it's still open-sourcing' as LadybugDB. Highly recommend taking inspiration from Kuzudb/Ladybugdb and cozodb. Godsp", "context": "", "use_case": "embedded graph database", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Minigraf \u2013 An embedded, bi-temporal graph database in Rust"}, {"id": 791098464, "item_id": 49443654, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49443654", "by": "adsharma", "date": "2026-08-26", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "A columnar storage engine means you get indexes and the relational goodness for free.", "excerpt": "Wikidata doesn't imply RDF/SPARQL. Cypher works fine too. A columnar storage engine means you get indexes and the relational goodness for free. https://huggingface.co/datasets/ladybugdb/wikidata-20260401", "context": "", "use_case": "Graph database", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: LatticeDB \u2013 Like SQLite but for graph databases"}, {"id": 791072368, "item_id": 49442023, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49442023", "by": "adsharma", "date": "2026-08-25", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "For knowledge.lbdb.zst, first decompress with zstd and then run a cypher such as:", "excerpt": "https://huggingface.co/datasets/ladybugdb/github-knowledge-compressor/tree/main These methods could not beat the 480 token result because of the small dataset. But for a sufficiently large corpus with graph reordering and columnar parquet compression, they could be quite competitive. The parquet files are self explanatory. For knowledge.lbdb.zst, first decompress with zstd and then run a cypher such as: lbug> MATCH (", "context": "", "use_case": "Graph database for knowledge triples", "switched_from": "", "story": "Knowledge Compressor"}, {"id": 791045920, "item_id": 49440370, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49440370", "by": "ble", "date": "2026-08-25", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "appears to be an open source successor to Kuzu", "excerpt": "ladybugdb ( https://github.com/LadybugDB/ladybug ) appears to be an open source successor to Kuzu fwiw", "context": "", "use_case": "graph database", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: LatticeDB \u2013 Like SQLite but for graph databases"}, {"id": 791010224, "item_id": 49438139, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49438139", "by": "anentropic", "date": "2026-08-25", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "See also: https://ladybugdb.com/ \"DuckDB for graphs\"", "excerpt": "See also: https://ladybugdb.com/ \"DuckDB for graphs\"", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: LatticeDB \u2013 Like SQLite but for graph databases"}, {"id": 789228481, "item_id": 49326780, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49326780", "by": "sarlalian", "date": "2026-08-16", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "There\u2019s a fork https://github.com/LadybugDB/ladybug that you can use.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Analyzed 163K Lines of Kuzu's Codebase. Here's Why Apple Wanted It"}, {"id": 786039810, "item_id": 49127488, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49127488", "by": "adsharma", "date": "2026-07-31", "version": null, "stance": "compare", "quote": "The icebug/ladybug way is coarse grained", "excerpt": "https://github.com/LadybugDB/ladybug-icebug-notebooks/blob/main/ladybug_icebug_comm_detection.ipynb Trade-off: datafusion allows you to do fine grained storage integration (spill to disk as a part of the algorithm). The icebug/ladybug way is coarse grained. But it allows you to run cypher instead of writing datafusion operators.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Algorithms on billion-scale graph using 10GB RAM: I love DataFusion"}, {"id": 784663040, "item_id": 49041440, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49041440", "by": "srhtftw", "date": "2026-07-24", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If you like kuzudb check out https://github.com/LadybugDB/ladybug", "excerpt": "If you like kuzudb check out https://github.com/LadybugDB/ladybug", "context": "", "use_case": "graph database", "switched_from": "", "story": "DuckPGQ \u2013 A DuckDB community extension for graph workloads"}, {"id": 782635808, "item_id": 48914738, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48914738", "by": "adsharma", "date": "2026-07-14", "version": null, "stance": "compare", "quote": "ladybug-duckdb-and-postgresql", "excerpt": "Recent benchmarking: https://theconsensus.dev/p/2026/05/29/ladybug-duckdb-and-postgresql.html Response: https://blog.ladybugdb.com/post/better-graph-database-ball/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "YouTrackDB is a general-use object-oriented graph database"}, {"id": 774816784, "item_id": 48426049, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48426049", "by": "lvca", "date": "2026-06-06", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Ladybug is still very limited in terms of use cases and functionalities.", "excerpt": "Ladybug is still very limited in terms of use cases and functionalities. Unless you just want some OLAP graph query to be faster, and that's it... You could use a fully functional DBMS with Graph OLAP functionalities, like ArcadeDB (Apache2 license): https://arcadedb.com/blog/graph-olap-engine-the-fastest-graph-analytics-with-zero-compromises/. Most importantly, ArcadeDB committed to never change its license, to avoi", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ladybug: DuckDB of Graph Databases"}, {"id": 771723808, "item_id": 48232738, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48232738", "by": "jauntywundrkind", "date": "2026-05-21", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "LadybugDB is carrying on the Kuzu torch.", "excerpt": "FYI LadybugDB is carrying on the Kuzu torch. https://github.com/LadybugDB/ladybug Cool project though! Very nice!!", "context": "", "use_case": "Graph database", "switched_from": "", "story": "A open-source graph database that lives in your S3 bucket"}, {"id": 759820801, "item_id": 47488800, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47488800", "by": "gdotv", "date": "2026-03-23", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "LadybugDB (https://github.com/LadybugDB/ladybug) at this point seems to be the only sustainable fork.", "excerpt": "LadybugDB (https://github.com/LadybugDB/ladybug) at this point seems to be the only sustainable fork. When deciding what to do about the Kuzu archival on https://gdotv.com, we've gone with maintaining support for the last available version of Kuzu (it's still heavily used from what I'm seeing) whilst introducing support for LadybugDB. I've looked into a few other forks and at this point in time none seem to be active", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Grafeo \u2013 A fast, lean, embeddable graph database built in Rust"}, {"id": 759607601, "item_id": 47475475, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47475475", "by": "gdotv", "date": "2026-03-22", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Might be worth checking out LadybugDB (the main fork), migration is pretty easy.", "excerpt": "Ever try https://gdotv.com with it? Really interesting to see folks still using Kuzu despite the archival status. We decided to maintain support for that reason, it's been left in a fairly stable rate which is fantastic. Might be worth checking out LadybugDB (the main fork), migration is pretty easy.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "Kuzu", "story": "Grafeo \u2013 A fast, lean, embeddable graph database built in Rust"}]}