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Getting Started

Getting Started

Install 

go get fdb.dev/pkg/fdbgo/fdb

The default build is the pure-Go client. No cgo, no C library, just a static binary. You only need a reachable FDB cluster and its cluster file.

Connect and run a transaction 

import "fdb.dev/pkg/fdbgo/fdb"

fdb.MustAPIVersion(730)
db, err := fdb.OpenDatabase("/etc/foundationdb/fdb.cluster")
if err != nil {
	log.Fatal(err)
}

db.Transact(func(tx fdb.WritableTransaction) (any, error) {
	tx.Set(fdb.Key("greeting"), []byte("hello"))
	return tx.Get(fdb.Key("greeting")).MustGet(), nil
})

The fdb package mirrors Apple’s Go binding, so existing FoundationDB code ports with minimal changes.

The frl CLI

frl is the operator CLI: it can run a local FoundationDB, open a SQL shell, and inspect record stores. Install it as a single static binary:

curl -fsSL https://fdb.dev/install.sh | sh

The installer verifies the release checksum, installs to ~/.local/bin (no sudo), and upgrades in place on re-run; --uninstall removes it. Prefer the Go toolchain? go install fdb.dev/cmd/frl@latest builds the identical version from source.

No cluster yet? This is the fastest path to one (Docker is the only prerequisite):

frl fdb up      # start single-node FoundationDB in Docker
frl sql         # interactive SQL shell against it
frl fdb down    # remove it
Record Layer and SQL apps can build with CGO_ENABLED=1 go build -tags libfdbc to run on Apple’s libfdb_c client instead of the pure-Go one. Both read and write byte-identical records against the same cluster, so you can switch the tag and keep sharing data.

Next

For structured records and SQL on top of the client, see the Record Layer and SQL guides in the repository. Before depending on it in production, read Maturity & Status.

Maturity & Status