OpenDuck Distributed DuckDB

Skill by ara.so — Daily 2026 Skills collection

OpenDuck is an open-source implementation of distributed DuckDB featuring differential storage (append-only immutable layers via Postgres + object store), hybrid dual execution (single queries split across local and remote workers), and transparent remote database attach via ATTACH 'openduck:mydb'. It is architecturally inspired by MotherDuck but fully open protocol (gRPC + Arrow IPC).

Architecture Overview

DuckDB client (openduck extension)
  └─ ATTACH 'openduck:mydb?endpoint=...' AS cloud
       └─ gRPC + Arrow IPC
            └─ Gateway (Rust)
                 ├─ auth / routing / plan splitting
                 ├─ Worker 1 (embedded DuckDB)
                 └─ Worker N (embedded DuckDB)
                      ├─ Postgres (metadata)