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A lean, framework-agnostic Elixir client for ArcadeDB over the HTTP Cypher command API.

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# Arcadic
[![Hex.pm](https://img.shields.io/hexpm/v/arcadic.svg)](https://hex.pm/packages/arcadic)
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A lean, framework-agnostic Elixir client for [ArcadeDB](https://arcadedb.com)
over the **HTTP Cypher command API**, with an optional Bolt transport for the
query hot path.
Arcadic is the "`postgrex` of ArcadeDB" — it ships Cypher/SQL to ArcadeDB and
manages connections, sessions, and transactions, and nothing more. It is
deliberately **tenant-blind and framework-agnostic**: no Ash, no multitenancy,
no data classification. Those belong one layer up, in
[`ash_arcadic`](https://github.com/baselabs/ash_arcadic) (the "`ash_postgres` of
ArcadeDB").
## Highlights
- **Cypher-first, multi-language** — the default language is `"cypher"`; opt into
`sql`, `gremlin`, `graphql`, `mongo`, or `sqlscript` per call.
- **Parameters only** — every dynamic value reaches ArcadeDB as a bound parameter
(`$name`), never string interpolation, so the injection surface stays closed.
- **Typed errors with boundary redaction**`Arcadic.Error` carries a typed
`reason`, HTTP status, and error class; raw parameter values and response rows
never enter an error message, log line, or `inspect/1` output.
- **Session transactions**`transaction/3` opens an ArcadeDB session and commits
on normal return, rolls back and reraises on exception (postgrex semantics).
- **Pluggable transport** — HTTP (Req/Finch) by default, with an optional Bolt v4
transport for the query hot path and lazy result streaming.
- **Vector search** — dense `LSM_VECTOR` index DDL plus nearest-neighbour and
hybrid-fusion query builders (`Arcadic.Vector`), params-only and value-free.
- **Batteries included** — server admin, a migration runner, vector search,
allowlist-validated identifiers, and value-free telemetry spans.
## Quickstart
```elixir
conn = Arcadic.connect("http://localhost:2480", "mydb", auth: {"root", pass})
{:ok, rows} = Arcadic.query(conn, "MATCH (n:User) RETURN n LIMIT $lim", %{"lim" => 10})
{:ok, [user]} =
Arcadic.command(conn, "CREATE (u:User {name:$n}) RETURN u", %{"n" => "Jo"})
{:ok, result} =
Arcadic.transaction(conn, fn tx ->
Arcadic.command!(tx, "MERGE (u:User {id:$id})", %{"id" => "u1"})
end)
```
Every dynamic value reaches ArcadeDB **only as a bound parameter** (`$name`).
`query/4` hits the idempotent read endpoint; `command/4` hits the write endpoint.
Both return `{:ok, rows}` or `{:error, %Arcadic.Error{} | %Arcadic.TransportError{}}`;
`query!/4` and `command!/4` return the rows or raise. `command_async/4` submits a
fire-and-forget write, returning `:ok` once ArcadeDB accepts it for processing
(HTTP 202). The default language is `"cypher"`; pass `language: "sql"` (or
`gremlin`/`graphql`/`mongo`/`sqlscript`) to switch.
`Arcadic.transaction/3` opens an ArcadeDB session, runs the fun with a
session-scoped conn, and commits on normal return. An exception rolls back and
reraises; `Arcadic.rollback/2` aborts intentionally and yields `{:error, reason}`.
## Production pool
The HTTP transport runs on Req/Finch. In production, give Arcadic a dedicated
Finch pool in your supervision tree rather than the default shared one:
```elixir
# lib/my_app/application.ex
children = [
{Finch, name: MyApp.ArcadicFinch},
# ...
]
# then point connections at it
conn =
Arcadic.connect("http://localhost:2480", "mydb",
auth: {"root", pass},
transport_options: [finch: MyApp.ArcadicFinch]
)
```
## Server admin
`Arcadic.Server` covers server-level operations: `create_database/2` (+ `!`),
`drop_database/2` (+ `!`), `database_exists?/2`, `list_databases/1`, and
`ready?/1`. Every database identifier is allowlist-validated before it reaches
the wire.
## Migrations
`Arcadic.Migrator` runs `Arcadic.Migration`s in order and tracks applied
versions in the `_arcadic_migrations` type. Declare a migration
(`version/0`, `up/1`, `down/1`), register the ordered list with
`use Arcadic.MigrationRegistry` + `migrations [...]`, then run
`Arcadic.Migrator.migrate/2` / `status/2` / `rollback/3` / `reset/2`.
```elixir
defmodule MyApp.Migrations.V1 do
@behaviour Arcadic.Migration
@impl true
def version, do: 1
@impl true
def up(conn), do: Arcadic.command!(conn, "CREATE VERTEX TYPE User", %{}, language: "sql") && :ok
@impl true
def down(conn), do: Arcadic.command!(conn, "DROP TYPE User IF EXISTS", %{}, language: "sql") && :ok
end
defmodule MyApp.Migrations do
use Arcadic.MigrationRegistry
migrations [MyApp.Migrations.V1]
end
{:ok, _count} = Arcadic.Migrator.migrate(conn, MyApp.Migrations)
```
## Vector search
`Arcadic.Vector` builds ArcadeDB dense-vector index DDL and nearest-neighbour /
hybrid-fusion queries. Create an `LSM_VECTOR` index (idempotent — `IF NOT EXISTS`),
then search. The query vector, `k`, and options bind as parameters; the index
reference is identifier-validated before it reaches the statement.
```elixir
:ok =
Arcadic.Vector.create_dense_index(conn, "Doc", "embedding", 1536, similarity: :cosine)
{:ok, rows} =
Arcadic.Vector.neighbors(conn, "Doc", "embedding", query_vector, 10, max_distance: 0.3)
# hybrid fusion over multiple dense subqueries
{:ok, fused} =
Arcadic.Vector.fuse(
conn,
[{"Doc", "embedding", dense_a, 20}, {"Doc", "embedding", dense_b, 20}],
fusion: :rrf
)
```
`neighbors/6` rows carry a `distance` whose scale depends on the index `similarity`
(COSINE `0..1` ascending, so smaller is nearer; DOT_PRODUCT is negative, so a small
positive `max_distance` filters nothing — choose thresholds per similarity). `fuse/3`
rows are ranked by `score` (higher is better). Sparse retrieval and the Ash-native
data-layer surface are non-goals.
## Bolt transport (optional)
The query hot path can run over Bolt via the optional
[`boltx`](https://hex.pm/packages/boltx) dependency. Add `{:boltx, "~> 0.0.6"}`,
start a Bolt connection with `Arcadic.Transport.Bolt.start_link/1` (it pins Bolt
v4 — `versions: [4.4, 4.3, 4.2, 4.1]` — and the non-TLS `bolt` scheme, which
ArcadeDB uses, and takes `username`/`password`), then pass the connection
reference. Server admin runs over HTTP; use an HTTP conn for it even when queries
go over Bolt.
```elixir
{:ok, bolt} =
Arcadic.Transport.Bolt.start_link(
hostname: "localhost", port: 7687, username: "root", password: pass
)
conn =
Arcadic.connect("http://localhost:2480", "mydb",
auth: {"root", pass},
transport: Arcadic.Transport.Bolt,
transport_options: [bolt: bolt]
)
```
For paging large result sets, `Arcadic.query_stream/4` returns a lazy `Stream.t()`
of rows over Bolt, chunked via `PULL`.
## Layering
```
Ash core (multitenancy DSL, policies, the tenant concept)
│ passes tenant / builds queries
ash_arcadic (Ash.DataLayer — set_tenant/3, sensitive-attr verifiers, traversal)
│ calls
Arcadic ← this lib (HTTP Cypher transport, sessions/transactions — tenant-blind)
│ POST /api/v1/command/<db> {"language":"cypher", ...}
ArcadeDB (native OpenCypher engine)
```
## Installation
Add `arcadic` from [Hex](https://hex.pm/packages/arcadic):
```elixir
def deps do
[
{:arcadic, "~> 0.2"},
# optional, for the Bolt transport:
{:boltx, "~> 0.0.6"}
]
end
```
Arcadic is co-developed with its Ash data layer
[`ash_arcadic`](https://github.com/baselabs/ash_arcadic); to hack on both together, point at
a local checkout instead — `{:arcadic, path: "../arcadic"}`.
## Development
```bash
mix deps.get
mix test
mix quality # format --check-formatted + credo --strict + dialyzer
```
To explore the full surface interactively against a local ArcadeDB, open the
[getting-started notebook](notebooks/getting_started.livemd) (the **Run in
Livebook** badge at the top launches it directly).
Contributor and agent working rules — including the params-only, redaction, and
tenant-blind invariants — live in
[`AGENTS.md`](https://github.com/baselabs/arcadic/blob/main/AGENTS.md).
## Benchmarks
A load/traversal benchmark harness for ArcadeDB lives under
[`bench/`](https://github.com/baselabs/arcadic/tree/main/bench) (not shipped in the package),
driven by Benchee against a throwaway database:
```bash
ARCADIC_BENCH_URL=<url> ARCADIC_BENCH_PASSWORD=<pw> mix run bench/run.exs
```
It profiles ingest throughput, k-hop traversal latency by depth, point lookups, and
throughput-under-concurrency. Methodology, knobs, and a full 100k-node result set are in
[bench/README.md](https://github.com/baselabs/arcadic/blob/main/bench/README.md) and
[bench/RESULTS.md](https://github.com/baselabs/arcadic/blob/main/bench/RESULTS.md). Headline
figures — 100k `Person` / 1M `KNOWS`, single 2 GB-capped node, ArcadeDB 26.8.1, localhost, single
client (a *profile*, not a neo4j comparison):
| metric | figure |
|---|---|
| k-hop traversal p50 | 0.7 ms (1-hop) → 49 ms (4-hop, ~10k nodes reached) |
| point lookup p50 | ~0.6 ms (`@rid` and indexed `uid` within ~6% once settled) |
| client-write ingest | ~4.2k edges/s (RID-addressed; ~2.3× the naive uid-subquery path) |
### Bulk loading
The ingest figure above is per-statement *client writes*. To load a large dataset, use
ArcadeDB's **index-deferred** bulk facilities — far faster than any `INSERT`/`CREATE EDGE` loop:
- `IMPORT DATABASE '<url>'`, issued straight through the driver —
`Arcadic.command(conn, "IMPORT DATABASE 'https://…/data.csv'", %{}, language: "sql")` — imports
CSV / JSON / GraphML / Neo4j / OrientDB exports server-side (the URL must be reachable by the
server).
- the standalone ArcadeDB Importer for file pipelines with column mapping.
- for batched incremental writes, wrap them in `Arcadic.transaction/3` (one commit for many
statements) instead of auto-committing each.
## Credits
- [**ArcadeDB**](https://arcadedb.com) — the multi-model database Arcadic speaks to.
- [**arcadex**](https://hex.pm/packages/arcadex) — prior-art ArcadeDB client that
served as a reference for the HTTP command-API request/response shapes.
- [**boltx**](https://hex.pm/packages/boltx) — the Bolt protocol driver behind the
optional Bolt transport.
- [**Req**](https://hex.pm/packages/req) / [**Finch**](https://hex.pm/packages/finch)
— the HTTP client and pool behind the default transport.
- [**DBConnection**](https://hex.pm/packages/db_connection) — connection pooling for
the Bolt transport.
The `postgrex`/`ash_postgres` split that inspired Arcadic and `ash_arcadic` is the
work of the Elixir Ecto and Ash communities.
## License
MIT — see [LICENSE](LICENSE).