--- title: Giving DuckDB a Server With Quack | daily.dev description: Quack is a beta server extension for DuckDB that lets multiple DuckDB instances communicate over a network, enabling remote querying, concurrent... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/giving-duckdb-a-server-with-quack-p5doobzc2 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Giving DuckDB a Server With Quack | daily.dev og:description: Quack is a beta server extension for DuckDB that lets multiple DuckDB instances communicate over a network, enabling remote querying, concurrent... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/giving-duckdb-a-server-with-quack-p5doobzc2 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/P5doObzC2.png og:image:alt: Giving DuckDB a Server With Quack og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Giving DuckDB a Server With Quack **[Medium](https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js)** · 7 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Quack is a beta server extension for DuckDB that lets multiple DuckDB instances communicate over a network, enabling remote querying, concurrent readers/writers, and cross-machine data pipelines that the in-process version of DuckDB cannot support. The post walks through installing the extension, starting a server locally or over a VPN like Tailscale, attaching to it as a client via SQL or Python, and querying or writing data. It also flags a known limitation: the attached-catalog interface does not yet forward DELETE/UPDATE operations, which breaks dlt merge writes and dbt incremental delete+insert strategies, with an open GitHub issue tracking the fix. Quack is expected to stabilize in September 2026. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How do I set up a remote DuckDB server using the Quack extension? Install and load the extension inside a DuckDB CLI session with INSTALL quack; LOAD quack; then start a server with CALL quack_serve('quack:localhost') for local-only access, or CALL quack_serve('quack:0.0.0.0:9494', allow_other_hostname => true) to accept external connections, optionally passing a token for authentication. Clients then attach with ATTACH 'quack::' AS home_db and query it like a regular schema. _Teams weighing a remote DuckDB setup can track quack's evolving capabilities and workarounds on daily.dev._ ### Does DuckDB's Quack server support dbt incremental models with delete+insert strategy? No, the Quack attached-catalog interface does not currently forward DELETE or UPDATE operations to the server, so DuckDB rejects such statements client-side with 'Can only delete from base table'. This breaks dlt's default merge write disposition and any dbt incremental model using incremental_strategy = delete+insert, though dlt's append-only mode works fine since it only needs INSERT. An open GitHub issue (duckdb/duckdb-quack#176) tracks the fix. _Anyone building dlt or dbt pipelines against DuckDB should watch this gap before relying on merge-based incremental loads, a topic worth tracking on daily.dev._ ### How many writes per second can DuckDB handle with the Quack server extension? DuckDB with Quack can handle a few thousand writes per second on a server with 8 CPUs and 32 GB of RAM, according to the DuckDB team. This makes it viable for non-transactional or lightly transactional workloads that previously might have pushed a developer toward Postgres, especially for home-lab or small-scale data pipeline setups. _Developers comparing DuckDB's Quack server against Postgres for write throughput can follow related benchmarks on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [DuckDB Quack: Client/Server Protocol over HTTP for Multi-User Analytics](https://daily.dev/posts/duckdb-quack-client-server-protocol-over-http-for-multi-user-analytics-kclxrezzv) · InfoQ · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Self-hosting DuckDB: the road to production](https://daily.dev/posts/self-hosting-duckdb-the-road-to-production-crsdobrlt) · MotherDuck · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [GitHub - CITGuru/openduck: Distributed DuckDB - dual execution and differential storage](https://daily.dev/posts/github---citguru-openduck-distributed-duckdb---dual-execution-and-differential-storage-jit4dzipf) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#backend](https://daily.dev/tags/backend), [#duckdb](https://daily.dev/tags/duckdb), [#olap](https://daily.dev/tags/olap) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/giving-duckdb-a-server-with-quack-p5doobzc2) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Giving DuckDB a Server With Quack","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/giving-duckdb-a-server-with-quack-p5doobzc2","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/giving-duckdb-a-server-with-quack-p5doobzc2"},"datePublished":"2026-08-24T01:44:46.110Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T08:07:09.656Z","description":"Quack is a beta server extension for DuckDB that lets multiple DuckDB instances communicate over a network, enabling remote querying, concurrent...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/e239537b522837348fb7219cf2271633?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/e239537b522837348fb7219cf2271633?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Medium","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Medium","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/medium","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/giving-duckdb-a-server-with-quack-p5doobzc2","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"backend,duckdb,olap","timeRequired":"PT7M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Medium","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Giving DuckDB a Server With Quack"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/giving-duckdb-a-server-with-quack-p5doobzc2#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How do I set up a remote DuckDB server using the Quack extension?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Install and load the extension inside a DuckDB CLI session with INSTALL quack; LOAD quack; then start a server with CALL quack_serve('quack:localhost') for local-only access, or CALL quack_serve('quack:0.0.0.0:9494', allow_other_hostname => true) to accept external connections, optionally passing a token for authentication. 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