Turso is rewriting SQLite in Rust (Interview)

The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source

Glauber Costa, co-founder and CEO of Turso, joins us to discuss libSQL, Limbo, and how they’re rewriting SQLite in Rust. We discuss their efforts with libSQL, the challenge of SQLite being in the public domain but not being open for contribution, their choice to rewrite everything with Limbo, how this all plays into the future of the Turso platform, how they test Limbo with Deterministic Simulation Testing (DST), and their plan to replace SQLite.

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Featuring:

• Glauber Costa – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, X
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X
• Jerod Santo – GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

• Introducing Limbo: A Complete Rewrite of SQLite in Rust
• Limbo on GitHub
• Antithesis
• SQLite Copyright
• Upcoming Changes to the Turso Platform and Roadmap
• My Story by pthorpe92.dev

Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

فصل ها

1. This week on The Changelog (00:00:00)

2. Sponsor: Retool (00:01:19)

https://retool.com/changelog

3. Start the show! (00:04:05)

4. SQLite is open source, right? (00:05:09)

5. Turso can REPLACE SQLIte (00:18:09)

6. Rewrite test suites are just as hard (00:23:03)

7. DST from scratch or Rust Crates? (00:28:42)

8. Sponsor: Temporal (00:30:56)

https://temporal.io

9. Deterministic Simulation Testing (DSTs) are magic (00:32:58)

10. SQLite compatibility (00:35:20)

11. Fully asyncronous IO (00:37:22)

12. Being well recieved was a surprise (00:41:42)

13. Why SO compelling? (00:46:50)

14. Sponsor: Notion (00:51:19)

http://notion.com/changelog

15. There's so much to do (00:53:38)

16. Production-grade by Jan 2026 (00:57:20)

17. How does this effect Turso (the business) (00:58:34)

18. One Turso to rule them all (01:01:19)

19. Toeing the open source line (01:03:35)

20. How will you know you've replaced SQLite? (01:06:05)

21. What can you do today? (01:07:13)

22. Betting long on hosting DBs at scale (01:08:36)

23. Let's talk in a year (01:11:34)

24. Closing thoughts and stuff (01:11:59)

25. ++ Teaser (01:14:30)