embedded-postgres

PostgreSQL server binaries as a pip-installable wheel, plus a small Python layer that runs initdb, starts and stops the server, and hands you a connection URI. No system PostgreSQL, no root, no Docker.

import embedded_postgres

with embedded_postgres.get_server("/path/to/pgdata") as pg:
    uri = pg.get_uri()          # postgresql://postgres:@localhost:PORT/postgres
    pg.psql("create extension vector")

Status

Early. This project started on 2026-09-07 as a fork of pgserver, which had stopped at PostgreSQL 16.2 in mid-2024. The goals that justify a separate project:

• current PostgreSQL (18.6 today), with minor releases picked up as they ship;
• Linux aarch64 and armv7l wheels next to x86_64, macOS and Windows;
• one wheel per platform (py3-none-<platform>) instead of one per Python version;
• contrib modules such as pg_stat_statements shipped alongside pgvector.

Current state (2026-09-07): PostgreSQL 18.6 + pgvector 0.8.6 build and pass the test suite on six targets — manylinux_2_28 x86_64 and aarch64, manylinux_2_31 armv7l (32-bit Raspberry Pi OS bullseye or newer; runs the dependency-free smoke test instead of the full suite), macosx_11_0 arm64 and x86_64, win_amd64 — 11–17 MB per wheel. Releases go to GitHub Releases and PyPI: pip install embedded-postgres.

Windows and Administrator accounts

PostgreSQL's tools refuse to run with Administrator rights: initdb, pg_ctl and postgres re-launch themselves with a restricted token in which the Administrators group is deny-only. Any directory that is reachable only through that group is then invisible to them — including the binaries themselves. Since CPython 3.12.4, tempfile.mkdtemp() on Windows creates exactly such directories (SYSTEM, Administrators and the owner; for an administrator the owner is Administrators). Symptom:

invalid binary "...\embedded_postgres\pginstallin\initdb.exe": Permission denied
initdb: error: program "postgres" is needed by initdb but was not found in the same directory as "initdb"

If you run as Administrator, keep the package and the data directory out of mkdtemp()-created trees, or grant your user an explicit ACE (icacls <dir> /grant "%USERNAME%:(OI)(CI)F" /T). Regular user accounts and directories created with os.mkdir() / python -m venv are unaffected.

Versioning

The package version mirrors the bundled PostgreSQL release: MAJOR.MINOR are PostgreSQL's, the third number counts this package's own revisions for that PostgreSQL version. 18.6.0 is the first packaging of PostgreSQL 18.6.

How it is built

pgbuild/Makefile downloads the official PostgreSQL source tarball and pgvector, builds world-bin (server, client tools and contrib, no docs) with configure && make, and installs the result into src/embedded_postgres/pginstall/. cibuildwheel runs that build once per platform in CI and packages the tree into a wheel. Nothing is compiled on the user's machine.

Configure flags: --without-readline --without-icu. No OpenSSL — the server is meant to listen on localhost or a Unix socket.

License

Apache License 2.0 for this project's own code. The bundled PostgreSQL and pgvector binaries are distributed under the PostgreSQL License. See NOTICE and THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.