Embucket

Run Snowflake SQL dialect on your data lake in 30 seconds. Zero dependencies.

Quick start

Start Embucket and run your first query in 30 seconds:

docker run --name embucket --rm -p 3000:3000 embucket/embucket

Run the Snowflake CLI against the local endpoint:

pip install snowflake-cli
snow sql -c local -a local -u embucket -p embucket -q "select 1;"

Done. You just ran Snowflake SQL dialect against the local Embucket instance with zero configuration.

Create external volumes via config

Important: External volumes must be created via YAML configuration at startup.

Define volumes and databases by pointing embucketd at a YAML config file.

Using Docker:

docker run --name embucket --rm -p 3000:3000 \
  -v $PWD/config:/app/config \
  embucket/embucket \
  ./embucketd --metastore-config config/metastore.yaml

Using cargo:

cargo run -p embucketd -- \
  --no-bootstrap \
  --metastore-config config/metastore.yaml

Sample configuration (config/metastore.yaml):

volumes:
  # S3 Tables volume - connects to AWS S3 Table Bucket
  - ident: demo
    type: s3-tables
    database: demo
    credentials:
      credential_type: access_key
      aws-access-key-id: YOUR_ACCESS_KEY
      aws-secret-access-key: YOUR_SECRET_KEY
    arn: arn:aws:s3tables:us-east-2:123456789012:bucket/my-table-bucket
databases:
  - ident: my_db
    volume: demo
  # S3 volume - connects to standard S3 bucket
  # - ident: volume
  #   type: s3
  #   bucket: my-data-bucket
  #   credentials:
  #     credential_type: access_key
  #     aws-access-key-id: YOUR_ACCESS_KEY
  #     aws-secret-access-key: YOUR_SECRET_KEY

Update the credentials and ARN/bucket details with your own values for real deployments.

What just happened?

Embucket provides a single binary that gives you a wire-compatible Snowflake replacement:

• Snowflake SQL dialect and API: Use your existing queries, dbt projects, and BI tools
• Apache Iceberg storage: Your data stays in open formats on object storage
• Zero dependencies: No databases, no clusters, no configuration files
• Query-per-node: Each instance handles complete queries independently

Perfect for teams who want Snowflake's simplicity with bring-your-own-cloud control. Built on proven open source:

• Apache DataFusion for SQL execution
• Apache Iceberg for ACID table metadata

Why Embucket?

Escape the dilemma: choose between cloud provider lakehouses (Redshift, BigQuery) or operational complexity (do-it-yourself lakehouse).

• Radical simplicity - Single binary deployment
• Snowflake SQL dialect compatibility - Works with your existing tools
• Open data - Apache Iceberg format, no lock-in
• Horizontal scaling - Add nodes for more throughput
• Zero operations - No external dependencies to manage

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/Embucket/embucket.git
cd embucket && cargo build
./target/debug/embucketd

Contributing

Contributions welcome. To get involved:

1. Fork the repository on GitHub
2. Create a new branch for your feature or bug fix
3. Submit a pull request with a detailed description

For more details, see CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

This project uses the Apache 2.0 License. See LICENSE for details.