VulcanoDB is a minimalistic vector database designed for cases where a full-scale, distributed system is overkill. It is open source and released under the Apache 2.0 license.
VulcanoDB is built for projects that need semantic search capabilities without the overhead of connecting to external systems. If you don't require advanced features like multi-user support or cluster deployments, keeping your data within the same process as your application is the most convenient approach—and often provides the best performance.
- Zero External Dependencies: VulcanoDB is written entirely in Java and has no transitive dependencies.
- Easy Integration: It can be installed as a standard project dependency in any Java-based system.
- High Performance: Minimal latency by avoiding network hops and leveraging in-process memory.
You can learn more about the project's origins and goals in this article.
This other article describes the inner workings of VulcanoDB’s HNSW index implementation.
Explore example applications and performance benchmarks in the vulcanodb-test module.
Check out the User Documentation to learn how to integrate VulcanoDB into your project.
For a deep dive into the internal architecture, including indexing strategies and storage layout, refer to the Low-Level Design (LLD) document.
Additional project architecture details and workflows can be found on the AI-generated wiki at deepwiki.com/NachoBrito/vulcano.