Using XTDB from Clojure

Clojure users can execute SQL queries using standard JDBC tooling, via XTDB’s PostgreSQL wire-compatible server. Additionally, there is an XTDB Clojure API for both SQL and XTQL queries.

JDBC

SQL queries can be executed using the XTDB JDBC driver:

{:deps {org.clojure/clojure {:mvn/version "1.12.0"} ; minimum reqmt

        ;; https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.xtdb/xtdb-api
        com.xtdb/xtdb-api {:mvn/version "XTDB_VERSION"}

        ;; https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com/github/seancorfield/next.jdbc
        ;; other JDBC libraries are available
        com.github.seancorfield/next.jdbc {:mvn/version "1.3.955"}}}

Then, once you’ve started the XTDB node, follow the usual Clojure JDBC process for connecting to a PostgreSQL database:

(require '[next.jdbc :as jdbc]
         '[next.jdbc.result-set :as jdbc-rs]
         '[xtdb.next.jdbc :as xt-jdbc])

;; this is relatively low-level code - the usual connection pooling
;; and SQL abstraction libraries can be used too.

(with-open [conn (jdbc/get-connection "jdbc:xtdb://localhost/xtdb")]
  (jdbc/execute! conn ["INSERT INTO users RECORDS {_id: 'jms', first_name: 'James'}"])
  (jdbc/execute! conn ["INSERT INTO users RECORDS ?" {:xt/id "joe", :first-name "Joe"}])

  (prn (jdbc/execute! conn ["SELECT * FROM users"]))
  ;; => [{:_id "joe", :first_name "Joe"}
  ;;     {:_id "jms", :first_name "James"}]

  ;; optional: use the XT col-reader to transform nested values too
  (prn (jdbc/execute! conn ["SELECT * FROM users"]
                      {:builder-fn xt-jdbc/builder-fn}))

  ;; => [{:xt/id "joe", :first-name "Joe"}
  ;;     {:xt/id "jms", :first-name "James"}]
  )

Clojure API

API documentation

The XTDB Clojure API supports both SQL and XTQL queries. You can run XTDB nodes either in-process, or connect to a remote XTDB server via the Postgres wire-compatible server.

{:deps {org.clojure/clojure {:mvn/version "1.12.0"} ; minimum reqmt

        ;; minimum JDK: 24

        ;; xtdb-api for the main public API, for both remote and in-process nodes
        com.xtdb/xtdb-api {:mvn/version "XTDB_VERSION"}

        ;; xtdb-core for running an in-process (test) node
        com.xtdb/xtdb-core {:mvn/version "XTDB_VERSION"}}

 ;; JVM options required for in-process node
 :aliases {:xtdb {:jvm-opts ["--add-opens=java.base/java.nio=ALL-UNNAMED"
                             "-Dio.netty.tryReflectionSetAccessible=true"]}}}

For Maven (pom.xml) or Gradle (build.gradle.kts), see the Java getting-started guide.

From here, check out the xtdb.api API docs to submit data and run queries.

In process

If you’re running a JVM, you can also use XTDB directly, in-process. In-process XTDB is particularly useful for testing and interactive development - you can start an in-memory node quickly and with little hassle, which makes it a great tool for unit tests and REPL experimentation.

1. First, ensure you are running JDK 24+ and then add the xtdb-core library to your dependency manager.

2. You’ll also need to add the following JVM arguments to run Apache Arrow (included in the :xtdb deps.edn alias above):

   • --add-opens=java.base/java.nio=ALL-UNNAMED

   • -Dio.netty.tryReflectionSetAccessible=true

3. Once you have a REPL (started with clj -A:xtdb this time), you can create an in-memory XTDB node with:

(require '[xtdb.node :as xtn]
         '[xtdb.api :as xt])

(with-open [node (xtn/start-node)]
  (xt/status node)

  ;; ...
  )

This node uses exactly the same API as the remote client - so, again, from here, check out the xtdb.api API docs to submit data and run queries.