dqlite-dbapi

A PEP 249 (DB-API 2.0) driver for dqlite, Canonical's distributed SQLite. If you have used Python's standard sqlite3 module, this will feel familiar — same connect() / cursor() / execute() / fetchone() shape — but it talks to a replicated dqlite cluster over the network instead of a local file.

It comes in two flavors from one package: a synchronous API (dqlitedbapi) and an async API (dqlitedbapi.aio).

Is this the package you want?

Yes, if you want a drop-in-style database driver for dqlite — directly, or under a tool that expects a DB-API 2.0 driver. For SQLAlchemy specifically, use sqlalchemy-dqlite (it builds on this package).

Installation

pip install dqlite-dbapi

Requires Python 3.13+.

Usage

Sync

import dqlitedbapi

conn = dqlitedbapi.connect("localhost:9001")
cur = conn.cursor()
cur.execute("SELECT 1")
print(cur.fetchone())
conn.close()

Async

import asyncio
from dqlitedbapi.aio import aconnect

async def main():
    conn = await aconnect("localhost:9001")
    cur = conn.cursor()
    await cur.execute("SELECT 1")
    print(await cur.fetchone())
    await conn.close()

asyncio.run(main())

Key facts

• apilevel = "2.0", paramstyle = "qmark" (? placeholders), threadsafety = 2.
• Autocommit by default. Unlike stdlib sqlite3, the driver does not auto-BEGIN before a statement — wrap writes in an explicit transaction when you need atomic multi-statement semantics. See Transactions.
• Isolation is always SERIALIZABLE — every write goes through Raft consensus, every read is serializable.

The dqlite Python stack

This is one of four layered packages. Each builds on the one below:

Package	Role
sqlalchemy-dqlite	SQLAlchemy 2.0 dialect
dqlite-dbapi — this package	PEP 249 (DB-API 2.0) driver — sync & async
dqlite-client	Async wire client — pooling, leader discovery
dqlite-wire	Wire-protocol codec

Using SQLAlchemy or an ORM? Prefer sqlalchemy-dqlite.

Documentation

• Transactions — the autocommit-by-default model and how to group statements.
• Differences from sqlite3 — what to expect when porting from the stdlib module (and a server-version NULL gotcha).
• Differences from aiosqlite — for the async surface.

Development

See DEVELOPMENT.md for setup and contribution guidelines.

License

MIT