crate / crate/crate-python

Add async/asyncio support

Open
#820 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
Dominant language
Python
Stars
85
Forks
34
Avg merge
3d 16h
Merged PRs (30d)
3

Description

## Summary
`crate-python` is entirely synchronous. Every call to `Connection`, `Cursor.execute()`, `fetchall()`, and the `BLOB API` blocks the calling thread. This makes the driver unusable in modern async Python stacks like FastAPI route handlers, Django async views, Starlette/Litestar, asyncio-based ETL pipelines, and LangChain/LlamaIndex tool integrations that all expect await-able database calls.

This issue tracks the design and implementation of a first-class async interface for `crate-python`.

## Motivation
New support would increase use in:
- AI/ML backends: FastAPI services that call both a vector store and CrateDB in the same request handler
- Real-time dashboards: async WebSocket handlers that need concurrent DB queries
- High-throughput ingest: asyncio pipelines where thread-per-connection doesn't scale

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by mapping the existing Connection, Cursor.execute(), fetchall(), and BLOB API entry points to understand the synchronous surface. Review how these calls are used in the current driver and define what the first-class async interface must cover. Done means async Python callers can use awaitable equivalents without blocking the calling thread.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
database
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.