/turso-db

Turso Advanced Features

Journal Modes

Query or switch journal mode at runtime:

PRAGMA journal_mode;                          -- query current mode
PRAGMA journal_mode = wal;                    -- WAL mode (default)
PRAGMA journal_mode = experimental_mvcc;      -- MVCC mode

• Switching modes triggers a checkpoint
• Legacy SQLite databases auto-convert to WAL on open
• Legacy modes (delete, truncate, persist, memory, off) not supported

Encryption (Experimental)

Requires --experimental-encryption flag.

Setup

Generate a 32-byte hex key:

openssl rand -hex 32

Create Encrypted Database

tursodb --experimental-encryption database.db

Then in the shell:

PRAGMA cipher = 'aegis256';   -- or 'aes256gcm'
PRAGMA hexkey = '<your-64-char-hex-key>';

Or via URI:

tursodb --experimental-encryption \
  "file:database.db?cipher=aegis256&hexkey=<your-64-char-hex-key>"

Reopening Encrypted Database

Must use URI format with cipher and hexkey parameters:

tursodb --experimental-encryption \
  "file:database.db?cipher=aegis256&hexkey=<your-64-char-hex-key>"

Supported Ciphers

AES-GCM (128/256-bit), AEGIS-256, AEGIS-256-X2, AEGIS-256-X4, AEGIS-128L, AEGIS-128-X2, AEGIS-128-X4.

Change Data Capture (CDC) — Early Preview

Track all inserts, updates, and deletes per connection in real-time.

Enable CDC

PRAGMA unstable_capture_data_changes_conn('<mode>[,custom_cdc_table]');

Modes

Changes are logged to turso_cdc table (or a custom table name).

CDC Table Schema

Example

PRAGMA unstable_capture_data_changes_conn('full');
CREATE TABLE users (id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, name TEXT);
INSERT INTO users VALUES (1, 'John'), (2, 'Jane');
UPDATE users SET name='John Doe' WHERE id=1;
DELETE FROM users WHERE id=2;
SELECT * FROM turso_cdc;

Notes

• CDC records visible before transaction commits
• Failed operations not recorded
• Schema changes tracked with table_name = 'sqlite_schema'
• full mode: each N-byte update writes 3x to disk (before + after + WAL)
• WITHOUT ROWID tables not supported

Index Methods (Experimental)

Requires --experimental-index-method flag. Custom data access methods integrated with query planner.

Create/Drop

CREATE INDEX t_idx ON t USING index_method_name (column1, column2);
CREATE INDEX t_idx ON t USING index_method_name (c) WITH (a = 1, b = 'text');
DROP INDEX t_idx;

DML (INSERT/DELETE/UPDATE) on the base table automatically updates the index. The query planner automatically uses the index when a query matches one of the index method's patterns.

SQLite C API

Turso supports a subset of the SQLite C API:

• sqlite3_open / sqlite3_open_v2 — open connection
• sqlite3_prepare_v2 — prepare SQL statement
• sqlite3_step — execute/advance prepared statement
• sqlite3_column_* — extract column values (type, count, decltype, name, int64, double, blob, bytes, text)
• libsql_wal_frame_count — get WAL frame count (Turso extension)