web-sqlite-js is a friendly, out-of-the-box SQLite database for the web that makes persistent client-side storage simple for every developer.

Designed to be truly effortless, it allows you to get a high-performance relational database running in the browser in seconds. Just install, set your HTTP headers, and start querying—no complex infrastructure required.

Table of contents

• Quick start
• Setup HTTP headers
• Usage
• Debug mode
• Transactions

Features

• Persistent Storage: Uses OPFS for high-performance, persistent file storage.
• Non-Blocking: Runs in a Web Worker, keeping your UI responsive.
• Concurrency Safe: Built-in mutex ensures safe, sequential execution of commands.
• Type-Safe: Written in TypeScript with full type definitions.
• Transactions: Supports atomic transactions with automatic rollback on error.

Quick start

Pick the path that fits your setup:

Option A: npm / bundler

# npm
npm install web-sqlite-js

import openDB from "web-sqlite-js";
// ...

Option B: CDN / script tag (no build step)

For quick demos or plain HTML pages you can load the prebuilt module directly:

<script type="module">
    import openDB from "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/dist/index.js";
    // ...
</script>

See samples/cdn.html for a copy/paste page you can serve .

Heads up: SharedArrayBuffer requires COOP/COEP headers; see the section below.

Setup http headers

Pick your stack below to set the headers:

This library depends on SharedArrayBuffer for high performance, which requires your server to send the following HTTP headers:

Cross-Origin-Opener-Policy: same-origin
Cross-Origin-Embedder-Policy: require-corp

Update your vite.config.ts:

import { defineConfig } from "vite";

export default defineConfig({
    server: {
        headers: {
            "Cross-Origin-Opener-Policy": "same-origin",
            "Cross-Origin-Embedder-Policy": "require-corp",
        },
    },
    preview: {
        headers: {
            "Cross-Origin-Opener-Policy": "same-origin",
            "Cross-Origin-Embedder-Policy": "require-corp",
        },
    },
});

Update your next.config.js:

/** @type {import('next').NextConfig} */
const nextConfig = {
    async headers() {
        return [
            {
                source: "/(.*)",
                headers: [
                    {
                        key: "Cross-Origin-Opener-Policy",
                        value: "same-origin",
                    },
                    {
                        key: "Cross-Origin-Embedder-Policy",
                        value: "require-corp",
                    },
                ],
            },
        ];
    },
};

module.exports = nextConfig;

Update your webpack.config.js:

module.exports = {
    // ...
    devServer: {
        headers: {
            "Cross-Origin-Opener-Policy": "same-origin",
            "Cross-Origin-Embedder-Policy": "require-corp",
        },
    },
};

Add the headers to your server block:

server {
    # ...
    add_header Cross-Origin-Opener-Policy "same-origin";
    add_header Cross-Origin-Embedder-Policy "require-corp";
    # ...
}

Use a middleware:

const express = require("express");
const app = express();

app.use((req, res, next) => {
    res.setHeader("Cross-Origin-Opener-Policy", "same-origin");
    res.setHeader("Cross-Origin-Embedder-Policy", "require-corp");
    next();
});

// ...

Most modern React/Vue setups use Vite. Please refer to the Vite section above.

If you are using an older webpack-based setup (like CRA react-scripts), you technically need to configure the underlying webpack-dev-server, but CRA doesn't expose this easily without ejecting or using tools like craco or react-app-rewired to modify the dev server configuration as shown in the Webpack section.

Usage

Basic Usage

// 1. Open the database (creates 'my-database.sqlite3' in OPFS)
const db = await openDB("local.sqlite3");

// 2. Initialize schema
await db.exec(`
  CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS users (
    id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
    name TEXT,
    email TEXT
  );
`);

// 3. Insert data (Parameterized)
await db.exec("INSERT INTO users (name, email) VALUES (?, ?)", [
    "Alice",
    "[email protected]",
]);
await db.exec("INSERT INTO users (name, email) VALUES ($name, $email)", {
    $name: "Bob",
    $email: "[email protected]",
});

// 4. Query data

const users = await db.query("SELECT * FROM users");
console.log(users);
// Output: [{ id: 1, name: 'Alice', ... }, { id: 2, name: 'Bob', ... }]

// 5. Close when done
await db.close();

Debug mode

Add { debug: true } when opening the database to stream worker-side SQL logs (including bind values and timings) to your browser's console.debug. This is useful for profiling and verifying queries during development.

const db = await openDB("local.sqlite3", { debug: true });

await db.exec("CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS notes (body TEXT)");
await db.query("SELECT * FROM notes WHERE id = ?", [1]);

The console output highlights SQL keywords and shows how long each statement took (click to preview):

Transactions

Transactions are atomic. If any command inside the callback fails, the entire transaction is rolled back.

await db.transaction(async (tx) => {
    await tx.exec("INSERT INTO users (name) VALUES (?)", ["Charlie"]);

    // You can perform multiple operations safely
    await tx.exec("INSERT INTO logs (action) VALUES (?)", ["User Created"]);

    // If you throw an error here, both INSERTs will be rolled back!
    // throw new Error('Something went wrong');
});

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