alcove 0.2.1

An opinionated small-scale ETL framework for managing data files and directories in a content-addressable way.

alcove

A personal ETL and data lake.

Status: in alpha, changing often

Overview

Alcove is an opinionated small-scale ETL framework for managing data files and directories in a content-addressable way.

Core principles

• A reusable framework. Alcove provides a structured way of managing data files, scripts and their interdependencies that can be used across multiple projects.
• First class metadata. Every data file has an accompanying metadata sidecar that can be used to store provenance, licensing and other information.
• Content addressed. An alcove DAG is a Merkle tree of checksums that includes data, metadata and scripts, used to lazily rebuild only what is out of date.
• Data versioning. Every step in the DAG has a URI that includes a version, which can be an ISO date or latest, to encourage a reproducible workflow that still allows for change.
• SQL support. Alcove is a Python framework, but allows you to write steps in SQL which will be executed by DuckDB.
• Parquet interchange. All derived tables are generated as Parquet, which makes reuse easier.

Quick Start

# Install alcove
pip install alcove  # or: uv add alcove

# Initialize a new alcove
mkdir my-data-project && cd my-data-project
alcove init

# Add a data file to your alcove
alcove snapshot ~/Downloads/countries.csv countries/latest

# Create a derived table
alcove new-table derived/population.sql countries/latest

# Build all tables
alcove run

# Explore your data with DuckDB
alcove db

Usage

Install the package

You can install the alcove package from PyPI using pip, uv, or any other Python package manager:

# Using pip
pip install alcove

# Using uv (recommended)
uv add alcove

# For development
uv add --dev alcove

You can also install directly from GitHub for the latest development version:

pip install git+https://github.com/larsyencken/alcove

Using Alcove in your project

Starting a new project

To start a new project with alcove:

# Create and navigate to your project directory
mkdir my-data-project
cd my-data-project

# Set up your Python environment (optional, but recommended)
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

# Install alcove
pip install alcove

# Or with uv
uv add alcove

# Initialize the alcove
alcove init

Adding to an existing project

To add alcove to an existing project:

# Navigate to your project directory
cd your-project

# Install alcove
uv add alcove   # Or pip install alcove

# Initialize alcove in a subdirectory (optional)
mkdir data
cd data
alcove init

Initialise an alcove

From the folder where you want to store your data and metadata, run:

alcove init

This will create a alcove.yaml file, which will serve as the catalogue of all the data in your alcove.

Configure object storage

You will need to configure your S3-compatible storage credentials in a .env file, in the same directory as your alcove.yaml file. Define:

S3_ACCESS_KEY=your_application_key_id
S3_SECRET_KEY=your_application_key
S3_BUCKET_NAME=your_bucket_name
S3_ENDPOINT_URL=your_endpoint_url

Now your alcove is ready to use.

Adding a file or folder

From within your alcove folder, use the snapshot command to add a file or folder to your alcove:

alcove snapshot path/to/your/file_or_folder dataset_name

For example:

alcove snapshot ~/Downloads/countries.csv countries/latest

This will upload the file to your S3-compatible storage, and create a metadata file at data/<dataset_name>.meta.yaml directory for you to complete.

The metadata format has some minimum fields, but is meant for you to extend as needed for your own purposes. Best practice would be to retain the provenance and licence information of any data you add to your alcove, especially if it originates from a third party.

Creating a new table

To create a new table, use the new-table command:

alcove new-table <table-path> [dep1 [dep2 [...]]]

This creates a placeholder executable script that generates an example data file based on the file extension (.parquet or .sql).

Creating a Parquet table

alcove new-table path/to/your/table

This creates a placeholder Python script that generates an example Parquet file:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import sys
import polars as pl

data = {
    "a": [1, 1, 3],
    "b": [2, 3, 5],
    "c": [3, 4, 6]
}

df = pl.DataFrame(data)

output_file = sys.argv[-1]
df.write_parquet(output_file)

Creating a SQL table

alcove new-table path/to/your/table.sql

This creates a placeholder SQL script:

-- SQL script to create a table
CREATE TABLE example_table AS
SELECT
    1 AS a,
    2 AS b,
    3 AS c

Opening in your editor

The command also supports the --edit option to open the metadata file in your editor:

alcove new-table path/to/your/table --edit

Executing SQL step definitions

If a .sql step definition is detected, it will be executed using DuckDB with an in-memory database. The SQL file can use {variable} to interpolate template variables. The following template variables are available:

• {output_file}: The path to the output file.
• {dependency}: The path of each dependency, simplified to a semantic name.

Command Reference

Alcove provides the following commands:

• alcove init - Initialize a new alcove workspace
• alcove snapshot <path> <dataset> - Add a file or directory to your alcove
• alcove run - Build all tables and fetch outdated data
• alcove list - List all datasets in alphabetical order
• alcove audit - Validate the alcove metadata
• alcove new-table <path> [deps...] - Create a new derived table
• alcove db [query] - Open a DuckDB shell or execute a query
• alcove export-duckdb <file> - Export tables to a DuckDB file

Building your alcove

Run the run command to fetch any data that's out of date and build any derived tables:

alcove run

Development

Testing with MinIO

For testing with S3-compatible storage, this project uses automatically managed containers:

# Run tests with Docker-based MinIO
make test

All tests require Docker with MinIO container to be available.

Docker Context Support

The testing framework automatically detects your current Docker context and uses it for container operations. This ensures tests work properly with:

• Docker Desktop
• Colima
• OrbStack
• Remote Docker contexts

MinIO Configuration

With Docker, these credentials are automatically used:

• Access Key: minioadmin
• Secret Key: minioadmin
• Bucket: test-bucket
• Endpoint: http://localhost:9000

Containers are automatically managed and kept running between test runs for performance. MinIO's health is verified before tests run to ensure proper S3 compatibility.

Bugs

Please report any issues at: https://github.com/larsyencken/alcove/issues

Changelog

• 0.2.1 (2025-04-28)

  • Fixed gitignore handling by using data/.gitignore instead of .data-files
  • Always include tables/ in data/.gitignore
  • alcove audit --fix now migrates patterns from .gitignore and .data-files to data/.gitignore

• 0.2.0 (2025-04-28)

  • Added .data-files file for managing alcove data ignores (#61)
  • alcove init now creates empty .data-files and ensures it's in .gitignore
  • alcove audit --fix can move patterns from .gitignore to .data-files
  • Prevents .gitignore from changing frequently with data file updates

• 0.1.2 (2025-04-25)

  • Fixed B2 compatibility with recent boto3 versions by disabling checksum validation (#60)
  • Simplified testing approach by always requiring Docker with MinIO
  • Added PyPI package configuration and installation instructions
  • Improved documentation with quick start guide and command reference

• 0.1.1 (2025-04-25)

  • Renamed project from "shelf" to "alcove"
  • Added automated Docker container management for testing with MinIO
  • Enhanced Docker context support for different environments (Docker Desktop, Colima, OrbStack)
  • Improved S3-compatible storage testing reliability
  • Fixed test fixtures to use consistent credentials

• 0.1.0 (Initial release)

  • Initialise a repo with shelf.yaml
  • shelf snapshot and shelf run with file and directory support
  • Only fetch things that are out of date
  • shelf list to see what datasets are available
  • shelf audit to ensure your alcove is coherent and correct
  • shelf db to enter an interactive DuckDB shell with all your data