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HeliosDB-Lite Quick Start Guide

Get started with time-travel queries, database branching, materialized views, and system views in a few minutes.

Start The REPL

Terminal window
heliosdb-lite repl

Five-Minute Demo

CREATE TABLE users (id INT, name TEXT, status TEXT);
INSERT INTO users VALUES (1, 'Alice', 'active');
SELECT * FROM users AS OF NOW;
SELECT * FROM users AS OF TIMESTAMP '2025-11-28 09:00:00';
SELECT * FROM users AS OF TRANSACTION 1;
CREATE DATABASE BRANCH demo FROM main AS OF NOW;
SELECT branch_name, status FROM pg_database_branches();
DROP DATABASE BRANCH IF EXISTS demo;
\q

Materialized View Demo

CREATE TABLE orders (id INT, region TEXT, amount INT);
INSERT INTO orders VALUES (1, 'west', 100), (2, 'west', 150), (3, 'east', 80);
CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW order_totals AS
SELECT region, SUM(amount) AS total
FROM orders
GROUP BY region;
SELECT * FROM order_totals;
REFRESH MATERIALIZED VIEW order_totals;
SELECT * FROM pg_mv_staleness();

System Views

SELECT * FROM pg_database_branches();
SELECT * FROM pg_mv_staleness();
SELECT * FROM pg_vector_index_stats();

Resources