This monthly roundup covers ClickHouse's biggest release blog post yet (26.7), featuring join optimizations, faster text index phrase search, and a new EXPLAIN ANALYZE clause. Andy Pavlo, formerly of Carnegie Mellon, joins ClickHouse to establish ClickHouse Labs, an applied research lab that will also work on the managed Postgres offering. Other highlights include a TTL/partition-key troubleshooting post, an interactive playground for querying 110 database systems built on Firecracker microVMs, a piece arguing for using both Postgres and ClickHouse together, updates to ClickHouse Managed Postgres (notifications, faster backups, new extensions like pg_re2), and a writeup on building and evaluating an MCP server for SRE agents. A list of quick reads and upcoming global events rounds out the newsletter.
Table of contents
Featured community member: Manuel Raimann #Open House Roadshow #26.7 release #Andy Pavlo joins ClickHouse to establish ClickHouse Labs #Your TTL is working. That might be the problem. #Alexey created a playground for 110 database systems #Postgres vs ClickHouse is the wrong question. I use both. #What's new in ClickHouse Managed Postgres: Customer notifications, better observability, faster backups, extensions, and more #How we build and evaluate our MCP server for SRE agents #Quick reads #Questions this post answers
What new features are in the ClickHouse 26.7 release?
ClickHouse 26.7 introduces more efficient hash joins by reducing probe-side input and shrinking build-side hash tables, automatic arrangement of joins in multi-table queries, text indexes that store token positions for faster phrase search, and a new EXPLAIN ANALYZE clause that annotates the execution plan with real runtime measurements. On a Hacker News dataset, a phrase search query ran 40 times faster with the new text index feature. daily.dev helps engineers track ClickHouse release notes when planning a query performance upgrade.
Who is Andy Pavlo and what is ClickHouse Labs?
Andy Pavlo, previously a Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor since 2013, has joined ClickHouse to establish ClickHouse Labs, an applied research lab. The lab will conduct research and turn promising ideas into production technology, working alongside the ClickHouse PostgreSQL team to help make its managed Postgres service a market leader in performance and reliability. Engineers evaluating managed Postgres options can follow this kind of research news on daily.dev.
Should I use Postgres or ClickHouse for my application?
Rather than choosing one, use Postgres for mutable data such as monitors, incidents, teams, and configuration, and ClickHouse for continuously growing streams of immutable data like check results, since it enables efficient storage and fast analytical queries. Optimization techniques for the ClickHouse side include compression codecs, tenant-aware sort keys, per-row retention periods, and pre-aggregating materialized views for dashboards. daily.dev surfaces database architecture comparisons for teams deciding between Postgres and ClickHouse.