DuckDB Extension Development

Custom DuckDB extensions built for performance, portability, and production use.

🧩 DuckDB Extension Development

DuckDB extensions let you add new capabilities to DuckDB without modifying its core β€” from custom functions to new table sources, file formats, storage layers, or external integrations.

At Query.Farm, we specialize in writing high-performance, production-ready DuckDB extensions for real-world data systems.

πŸ”§ What is a DuckDB Extension?

Extensions are modular plugins that expand what DuckDB can do. Common extension types include:

  • Custom SQL functions β€” scalar, aggregate, table-producing
  • New data sources β€” REST APIs, file formats, remote systems
  • New table functions β€” like read_json(), read_parquet(), or your own
  • Integration layers β€” bridge DuckDB with Arrow, Flight, Kafka, S3, or internal services
  • External libraries β€” wrap or expose domain-specific C/C++ libraries to SQL

DuckDB loads extensions dynamically at runtime, so your logic stays decoupled from the DuckDB binary β€” ideal for portability, deployment, and local-first environments.

πŸš€ Real Extensions We’ve Built

We don’t just consult β€” we build.

✈️ Airport

Airport is a DuckDB extension that adds native support for DuckDB to interface with Apache Arrow Flight β€” enabling high-performance reads and writes between DuckDB and remote Flight servers.

This extension turns DuckDB into a Apache Arrow Flight client, letting users stream columnar back and forth data across networks without conversions or middle layers.

Use cases include:

  • Treating remote datasets as local SQL tables
  • Building distributed analytics with zero ETL
  • Accelerating ingestion pipelines using Arrow-native tools

🧠 Why Build a DuckDB Extension?

DuckDB’s embedded nature makes it ideal for data products, analytics pipelines, and developer tools. Extensions let you:

  • Keep data in place β€” query without moving to a warehouse
  • Build SQL-first interfaces to domain-specific systems
  • Expose custom logic to analysts, not just developers
  • Avoid expensive or brittle ETL

We’ve helped clients query REST APIs, federate SQL over Arrow, and even embed model inference inside SQL.

🧱 How Query.Farm Can Help

We offer:

  • βœ… Custom extension development β€” tailored to your use case
  • πŸ” Architecture and performance consulting β€” for embedding DuckDB
  • πŸ§ͺ Prototyping and rapid development β€” get results fast
  • 🧱 C/C++ and Arrow expertise β€” for efficient memory and I/O handling
  • πŸ“¦ Packaging and deployment support β€” for both open source and proprietary extensions

Whether you’re building a startup around DuckDB or modernizing an internal data platform, we’ll help you go from idea to shipped.

βœ‰οΈ Let’s Build Something

Interested in building your own extension or embedding DuckDB in your stack?

πŸ“¬ hello@query.farm β€” we’d love to learn more.