Skip to content
HeliosDB HeliosDB Lite

HeliosDB-Lite v3.0.0 - Release Notes

Major Release: v3.0.0

HeliosDB-Lite v3.0.0 is now generally available for production use. This release ends the beta and adds documentation, security hardening and deployment guides.

What’s New in v3.0.0

Code Quality

  • Error handling in critical paths
  • Rate limiting with graceful error recovery
  • Complete type system with no runtime panics in normal operation

Documentation

  • Security Hardening Guide - comprehensive security best practices
  • Production Deployment Guide - Docker, Kubernetes, and bare-metal setups
  • Known Issues Document - transparent about current limitations
  • API Documentation - complete REST API reference

Performance

  • Compression algorithms - ALP and FSST for 40-60% data reduction
  • Vector search - HNSW indexing with SIMD optimizations
  • Concurrent queries - Multi-threaded execution with MVCC
  • Query optimization - Distributed query planning

Features

  • PostgreSQL compatibility - Native SQL interface
  • Vector embeddings - LLM-native vector operations
  • Materialized views - Automated view refresh
  • Branching/forking - Create database branches
  • Time travel - Query historical data snapshots
  • Transactions - ACID compliance with snapshot isolation

Version Updates

All components updated to v3.0.0:

ComponentVersion
Core Library3.0.0
Python SDK3.0.0
TypeScript SDK3.0.0
Go SDK3.0.0
Rust SDK3.0.0
REST API3.0.0
OpenAPI Spec3.0.0

Security Improvements

Production Error Handling

  • Fixed critical lock poisoning in rate limiting middleware
  • Graceful error recovery prevents cascading failures
  • Secure HTTP header handling prevents injection vulnerabilities
  • Audit logging for security events

Production Hardening

  • Rate limiting enabled by default
  • HTTPS/TLS support in REST API
  • Configurable access control
  • Comprehensive audit trail

See: SECURITY_HARDENING.md

Deployment Ready

Docker Support

Note (current distribution): no HeliosDB Lite image is published on Docker Hub or another public registry. Build an image from the licensed source distribution; see Installation.

Terminal window
docker run -v data:/data heliosdb-lite:3.0.0   # image built locally from the source distribution

Kubernetes Support

Terminal window
kubectl apply -f deployment/kubernetes/statefulset.yaml

Production Deployment Guides

  • Docker Compose examples
  • Kubernetes StatefulSet configuration
  • Blue-green and canary deployments
  • Backup and disaster recovery

See: PRODUCTION_DEPLOYMENT.md

Upgrade Guide

From v2.6.0 to v3.0.0

Breaking Changes:

  • None for embedded API (backward compatible)
  • Some REST API endpoints temporarily disabled (schema, agents, documents)
  • These will be re-enabled in v3.0.1 with updated type system

Migration Steps:

Terminal window
# 1. Stop the server, then back up the data directory
cp -r /var/lib/heliosdb /var/lib/heliosdb-backup-v2.6.0


# 2. Build the v3.0.0 binary from the licensed source distribution
cd heliosdb-lite
cargo build --release


# 3. Start the new binary on the existing data directory
#    (reuse the REST token-signing secret your deployment already has)
export HELIOSDB_JWT_SECRET="${HELIOSDB_JWT_SECRET:-$(openssl rand -hex 32)}"
./target/release/heliosdb-lite start --data-dir /var/lib/heliosdb

Applications that embed HeliosDB Lite in-process rebuild against the v3.0.0 source distribution; the embedded API is backward compatible.

No database migration needed - data format is compatible.

Known Limitations

Temporarily Disabled Endpoints

  • POST /agents/* - Agent management endpoints
  • POST /documents/* - Document management endpoints
  • POST /schema/* - Schema inference endpoints

Reason: Type system alignment needed Timeline: v3.0.1 Workaround: Use direct database API

Production Considerations

  • Single-writer limitation (by design)
  • No built-in authentication (implement at app layer)
  • No native data masking (implement at app layer)

Performance Benchmarks

Measured on representative fixtures; reproduce on your own hardware.

Query Performance

  • Typical query latency: < 10ms (p50)
  • Worst-case latency: < 100ms (p99)
  • Max throughput: 10,000+ QPS

Vector Search Performance

  • HNSW index build: ~100K vectors/second
  • Vector search: ~1,000 vectors/millisecond
  • SIMD optimization: 4-8x faster than baseline

Storage Efficiency

  • Compression ratio: 40-60% (ALP/FSST)
  • WAL overhead: ~5% of data size
  • Index overhead: ~15% of data size

Documentation

Core Guides

Getting Started

Installation

HeliosDB-Lite is available to licensed customers as a source distribution (contact sales@heliosdb.com); it is not published on crates.io, PyPI, npm or Docker Hub. Build the heliosdb-lite binary from the unpacked distribution:

Terminal window
cd heliosdb-lite
cargo build --release
export PATH="$PWD/target/release:$PATH"

Python and TypeScript applications connect to a running server with their standard PostgreSQL driver (psycopg, pg). See Installation.

Quick Start

Start a server on a data directory (PostgreSQL wire protocol on port 5432, REST API on 8080):

Terminal window
# The server signs REST API tokens with this secret and refuses to start without it
export HELIOSDB_JWT_SECRET="$(openssl rand -hex 32)"
heliosdb-lite start --data-dir ./data

Connect with any PostgreSQL client:

Terminal window
psql -h 127.0.0.1 -p 5432 -U postgres
-- Create table
CREATE TABLE users (
    id INT PRIMARY KEY,
    name TEXT,
    email TEXT
);


-- Insert data
INSERT INTO users VALUES (1, 'Alice', 'alice@example.com');


-- Query data
SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = 1;

For a single-user session without a server, open the same directory with heliosdb-lite repl --data-dir ./data.

Support

Reporting Issues

Community

Documentation

Changelog

v3.0.0

Major:

  • General Availability release
  • Error handling in critical paths
  • Comprehensive security documentation
  • Production deployment guides

Improvements:

  • Fixed rate limiting lock poisoning
  • Graceful HTTP header error handling
  • Added security hardening guide
  • Added production deployment guide

Bug Fixes:

  • Fixed critical production error handling paths
  • Fixed rate limiting cascading failures

Known Issues:

  • Agents, documents, schema endpoints disabled

Thank You

Thank you to everyone who contributed to HeliosDB-Lite v3.0.0:

  • Contributors and developers
  • Beta testers and early adopters
  • Security researchers
  • Community members providing feedback

License

HeliosDB-Lite is source-available under the Server Side Public License (SSPL-1.0) and is available to licensed customers. See LICENSE in the source distribution.

Version: 3.0.0