Overview
RushDB 3
RushDB is the database for AI. Push JSON and get connected records you can filter, traverse, aggregate, and search by keywords, by meaning, or both, without designing a schema first.
RushDB 3 runs on its own engine: a single Rust binary, rushdb, with its own storage, query planner, and vector and text indexes. You can use it two ways:
| RushDB Cloud | Self-hosted engine | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | The managed service at app.rushdb.com: the engine plus the dashboard, managed embeddings and AI features | The Apache-2.0 engine on your own infrastructure |
| Connect with | An API key: SDKs, REST API, MCP (local or hosted) | The engine URL and token: SDKs and MCP in direct mode, or the engine's own HTTP, PostgreSQL wire, Bolt and gRPC interfaces |
The engine is the part of RushDB you can self-host. The dashboard, managed embeddings and the AI features — natural-language search, relationship-pattern suggestions — are part of RushDB Cloud.
Start here
| I want to… | Go to |
|---|---|
| Try RushDB in five minutes | Get Started → Quick Tutorial |
| Choose between Cloud and self-hosting | RushDB Cloud or a self-hosted engine |
| Connect an app, an MCP client or an agent | Connect |
| Learn records, relationships and SearchQuery | Learn |
| Add keyword, semantic or hybrid search | Search |
| Install and operate the engine | Engine manual |
| Upgrade from RushDB 2.x | Migrate from 2.x |
What's new in RushDB 3
- A database of its own. RushDB 2.x was an application layer over Neo4j. RushDB 3 is a standalone engine with its own storage, write-ahead log, MVCC transactions, backups and replication.
- Self-host the engine. One binary or container, installed with a script, Homebrew, Docker or Cargo. The SDKs and MCP server connect to it directly.
- Keyword and hybrid search. BM25 text indexes, and hybrid search that fuses vector and keyword rankings (RRF or DBSF) inside one filter.
- Named embedding indexes and faster vector search: exact for small indexes, ANN for large ones, with a report of which ran.
- More ways in. On a self-hosted engine: SQL over the PostgreSQL wire protocol, openCypher over Bolt, ISO GQL, Gremlin, SQL/PGQ, Mongo-style statements, and gRPC.
- Transactions staged in the engine, with records named by id, and clear refusals for writes that can't be staged.
See the migration guide for what changed in the SDKs.