stratadb — Strata for Python

The Python SDK for Strata: an embedded multi-model database for AI agents. SQLite-shaped, not a server — it links the engine in process and opens a file-backed (or in-memory) database directly.

Five primitives — key-value, JSON documents, vectors, an event log, and a graph — share one branch-aware, time-travelling storage substrate. The SDK speaks the exact same command surface, value shapes, and error codes as the strata CLI and MCP server, so learning one channel is learning all of them.

For coding agents — start here

Install with uv add stratadb (or pip install stratadb), then call stratadb.agents_guide() first. It returns the complete offline Python usage guide (every namespace, db.ai, provider keys, branches / time-travel, errors — all runnable Python), so you can learn the whole surface without probing it:

import stratadb
db = stratadb.open(cache=True)      # ephemeral; or open("./app-data") for durable
print(stratadb.agents_guide())      # the entire surface, offline — read this first

• python -m stratadb.demo — a runnable, zero-setup tour that prints every primitive's real return shape (doubles as a smoke test).
• stratadb.init("path/to/repo") — scaffold the strata-python agent skill and an AGENTS.md stanza into a repo so the next agent starts warm.
• npx skills add stratalab/strata-agent-skills — install the full Strata skill set (usage, branching, time travel) for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and friends. The same repo (strata-agent-skills) carries the one-command workspace setup (CLI + MCP registration + skills); its npm publish is pending, so use the skills command today.

Names & surfaces

Strata appears under a few names; here is what each string is and where it's used:

Install

uv add stratadb        # or: pip install stratadb

No Rust toolchain required — wheels are prebuilt (abi3, one per platform, Python 3.9+).

Quickstart

import stratadb

db = stratadb.open("./app-data")      # durable (creates if absent)
# db = stratadb.open(cache=True)      # ephemeral, in-memory

# Key-value — values are str | bytes (reads return bytes; misses return None)
db.kv.put("greeting", "hello")
db.kv.get("greeting")                    # b"hello"

# Structured data belongs in the JSON primitive (or json.dumps it into kv)
db.json.set("user:1", {"name": "Ada", "roles": ["admin"]})   # path defaults to "$"
db.json.get("user:1", "$.name")          # "Ada"

# Listing methods return a Page: iterate (auto-paginates) or collect with .all()
db.json.keys(prefix="user:").all()       # ["user:1"]

# Vectors (similarity search with metadata filters)
from stratadb import filters
db.vectors.create_collection("notes", dimension=3)
db.vectors.upsert("notes", "n1", [0.1, 0.2, 0.3], metadata={"kind": "note"})

# Or let the engine embed for you: declare the model, then pass text.
db.vectors.create_collection("docs", dimension=384, embedding_model="miniLM")
db.vectors.upsert("docs", "d1", text="a small domestic cat")
db.vectors.query("docs", text="kitten", k=5)
hits = db.vectors.query("notes", [0.1, 0.2, 0.3], k=5,
                        filter=filters.eq("kind", "note"))

# Events (append-only, hash-chained)
db.events.append("signup", {"user": "ada"})

# Graph
db.graphs.create("social")
db.graphs.add_node("social", "ada")
db.graphs.add_node("social", "grace")
db.graphs.add_edge("social", "ada", "follows", "grace")

db.close()   # or: with stratadb.open("./app-data") as db: ...

stratadb.open() never opens the current directory implicitly: pass a path, set STRATA_DB (stratadb.from_env()), or use cache=True.

Upgrading from pre-V1 (0.x)

V1 namespaced the flat 0.x methods. If an example uses Strata.open or db.kv_put, it predates V1 — the current equivalents:

Inference — db.ai

Chat, embeddings, and reranking over cloud providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google) or local GGUF models — an OpenAI-shaped surface. Strata is embedded and ships no keys: set OPENAI_API_KEY / ANTHROPIC_API_KEY / GOOGLE_API_KEY, or strata config set openai.api_key sk-....

r = db.ai.chat("Explain embeddings in one sentence.",
               model="openai:gpt-4o-mini", max_tokens=60)
print(r.content)

# Structured output (JSON Schema)
r = db.ai.chat("Capital of France and its population?",
               model="anthropic:claude-haiku-4-5-20251001",
               json_schema={"type": "object",
                            "properties": {"capital": {"type": "string"},
                                           "population": {"type": "integer"}},
                            "required": ["capital", "population"]})

# Tool / function calling
r = db.ai.chat("What's the weather in Paris?", model="google:gemini-2.5-flash",
               tools=[{"type": "function",
                       "function": {"name": "get_weather",
                                    "parameters": {"type": "object",
                                                   "properties": {"city": {"type": "string"}},
                                                   "required": ["city"]}}}],
               tool_choice="required")
r.tool_calls          # [{'id': ..., 'function': {'name': 'get_weather', 'arguments': '{"city":"Paris"}'}}]

# Embeddings
e = db.ai.embed(["hello", "world"], model="openai:text-embedding-3-small")
e.vectors             # [[...], [...]]

# A model handle sets load params once
qwen = db.ai.model("local:qwen3", n_ctx=8192)
qwen.chat("Summarize: ...")

db.ai.capability("openai:gpt-4o-mini")   # supported features; no network call

Branches, spaces, and time travel

db.branches.fork("default", "experiment")   # copy-on-write branch
exp = db.at(branch="experiment")          # a scoped view over the same handle
exp.kv.put("k", "only-on-experiment")

db.branches.diff("default", "experiment")      # what differs, per space and primitive (A → B)
db.branches.preview("experiment", "default")   # the conflicts a merge would hit; mutates nothing
db.branches.merge("experiment", "default")     # promote as one atomic commit — strict by default;
                                               # strategy="source_wins" lets the source win conflicts

receipt = db.kv.put("k", "v1")
db.kv.put("k", "v2")
db.kv.get("k", as_of=receipt.commit.timestamp)   # b"v1" — the logical commit timeline
db.kv.get("k", as_of_time=receipt.commit.committed_at)   # b"v1" — real UTC time
stratadb.to_datetime(receipt.commit.committed_at)        # when that commit happened

Two clocks, and they are not interchangeable: timestamp is a position on the logical commit timeline (a counter, never a date) that as_of addresses; committed_at is the UTC instant the commit was applied, which as_of_time addresses and stratadb.to_datetime formats. as_of_time takes a datetime, a date, an ISO 8601 string, or raw epoch microseconds; it refuses rather than clamps outside the branch's dated history (so datetime.now() raises — omit both clocks to read the latest). Passing both raises invalid_argument.executor.as_of_conflict.

merge carries the key-value, JSON, and vector changes a fork made since its fork point; event streams and graphs are compared but never merged. A strict merge that hits a conflict raises errors.ConflictError (conflict.engine.promotion) and writes nothing — preview first.

StrataHub — browse and clone datasets

page = db.hub.list_datasets(tasks="classification", sort="downloads", limit=5)  # default hub: hub.stratahub.io
[d.name for d in page.items]                    # ['titanic', 'iris']; page.total counts every match
card = db.hub.get_dataset("titanic")            # the full card: .readme, .license, .primitives, .clone_command
db.hub.list_refs("titanic").refs                # cloneable branches, each with its manifest hash

titanic = stratadb.clone("titanic", "./titanic",           # a new durable database, cloned from the hub
                         progress=lambda e: print(e.stage.value, e.index, e.object_count))
titanic.json.get("passenger:1")["name"]         # "Braund, Mr. Owen Harris"
titanic.close()

db.hub only reads the hub — it never touches the handle's own data, so any handle (even stratadb.open(cache=True)) can browse. Pass hub_url= or set STRATA_HUB_URL to target another hub; db.hub.info() reports its limits, and db.hub.list_yanked() its takedown list.

Errors

Every failure raises a typed stratadb.errors.StrataError subclass carrying a stable code, message, hint, and ref. Match on code, never on message:

from stratadb import errors

try:
    db.at(branch="ghost").kv.get("k")
except errors.NotFoundError as e:
    assert e.code == "not_found.engine.branch"
    print(e.ref)   # https://stratadb.org/e/not_found.engine.branch

Misses are not errors — reads return None.

For AI agents

• stratadb.agents_guide() — the complete offline Python usage guide bundled in the wheel (the SDK-native counterpart to strata agents guide).
• python -m stratadb.demo / stratadb.demo() — a runnable, zero-setup tour of every primitive with real printed output.
• stratadb.init(repo_path=".") — scaffold .claude/skills/strata-python/SKILL.md and an AGENTS.md stanza into a repo (idempotent).
• stratadb.agents_skill() — the strata-python skill markdown, vendored verbatim from strata-agent-skills (tools/vendor_skill.py pins the rev in STRATA_AGENT_SKILLS_REV).
• stratadb.command_index() — the full command catalog bundled in the wheel.
• stratadb.mcp_config(path) — the MCP client-config snippet (strata <path> mcp serve; needs the strata binary, a separate strata-core install).
• db.execute(command: dict) -> dict — the raw command escape hatch (the same wire the CLI and MCP speak); the typed namespaces build on it.

Architecture

Three layers: handwritten ergonomic namespaces over a generated core (one typed method + model per command, generated from the engine's IDL) over a tiny PyO3 binding that links the engine in process. Generated fresh from the IDL (only db.ai's inference family is hand-written), drift-guarded in CI.

Development

python -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install maturin pytest
maturin develop            # builds the native binding into the venv
python tools/generate.py   # regenerates the typed core from idl/v1/
pytest

Local builds use a path dependency to a sibling ../strata-core checkout; releases pin the git rev in idl/v1/STRATA_CORE_REV (tools/release_prep.py).

License

MIT