Springtail v1.0.0-alpha

This is the first public release of Springtail — a system that scales read performance for existing PostgreSQL databases without requiring a migration or changes to your application. Springtail replicates from your primary Postgres instance and routes read queries to on-demand replica nodes that you can spin up in seconds and tear down when traffic subsides.

Alpha release. This is an early preview, and we're sharing it to gather feedback from the community. Interfaces, configuration, and on-disk formats may still evolve before the stable v1.0.0 release, so we recommend trying it out in evaluation and development environments rather than against production data.

Highlights

• Drop-in read scaling — connect existing PostgreSQL applications to the Springtail proxy with no schema or query changes.
• Separated storage and compute — bring replicas online in seconds without snapshotting or re-syncing the dataset.
• Optimized ingest pipeline — keeps replication lag low and routes reads to the most up-to-date snapshot.
• Built-in proxy — handles load balancing and connection pooling out of the box.
• Custom storage format — tuned for fast primary-key access patterns common in OLTP read workloads.

What's included

• Springtail daemons: proxy, log manager, write cache, system table manager, XID manager, and FDW nodes
• Python controller for cluster orchestration
• Local single-node dev environment (docker compose)
• Multi-node local cluster simulator (local-cluster)
• C++ unit tests (CTest) and Python end-to-end integration test runner

Requirements

• Docker and Docker Compose
• Python 3
• AWS CLI (for retrieving public s3 testing data)
• A PostgreSQL 16 primary with logical replication enabled

This release has been validated on linux/amd64. Other platforms and architectures may work but are not yet tested.

Getting started

See the README.md for two paths:

• Local dev environment — single-node setup for building and running tests against a local PostgreSQL 16 instance.
• Local cluster — multi-node simulation of a full Springtail deployment using Docker Compose.

Known limitations

• Read-only replicas only — writes continue to go to your primary.
• Tested primarily against PostgreSQL 16.
• Limited PostgreSQL extension support — only a small set of extensions is supported on replicas today; broader compatibility is on the roadmap.
• Documentation is still filling in, and some configuration surfaces may change between alpha builds.

Feedback and contributions

We'd love to hear from early adopters. Please:

• File bugs and feature requests via issues.
• Report security issues privately per SECURITY.md (security@springtail.io) — not via public issues.
• Read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a pull request.

License

Released under the LICENSE.md.