14 KiB
14 KiB
Phase 1: Specification
S - Specification Phase
Duration: Weeks 1-2 Goal: Define complete requirements, constraints, and success criteria
1. Product Vision
1.1 Mission Statement
RvLite is a standalone, WASM-first vector database that brings the full power of ruvector-postgres to any environment - browser, Node.js, edge workers, mobile apps - without requiring PostgreSQL installation.
1.2 Target Users
- Frontend Developers - Building AI-powered web apps with in-browser vector search
- Edge Computing - Serverless/edge environments (Cloudflare Workers, Deno Deploy)
- Mobile Developers - React Native, Capacitor apps with local vector storage
- Data Scientists - Rapid prototyping without infrastructure setup
- Embedded Systems - IoT, embedded devices with limited resources
1.3 Use Cases
UC-1: In-Browser Semantic Search
// User browses documentation site
// All searches happen locally, no backend needed
const db = await RvLite.create();
await db.loadDocuments(docs);
const results = await db.searchSimilar(queryEmbedding);
UC-2: Edge AI Search
// Cloudflare Worker handles product search
// Vector DB runs at the edge, globally distributed
export default {
async fetch(request) {
const db = await RvLite.create();
return searchProducts(db, query);
}
}
UC-3: Knowledge Graph Exploration
// Interactive graph visualization in browser
// SPARQL + Cypher queries run client-side
const db = await RvLite.create();
await db.cypher('MATCH (a)-[r]->(b) RETURN a, r, b');
await db.sparql('SELECT ?s ?p ?o WHERE { ?s ?p ?o }');
UC-4: Self-Learning Agent
// AI agent learns from user interactions
// ReasoningBank stores patterns locally
const db = await RvLite.create();
await db.learning.recordTrajectory(state, action, reward);
const nextAction = await db.learning.predictBest(state);
2. Functional Requirements
2.1 Core Database Features
FR-1: Vector Operations
- FR-1.1 Support vector types:
vector(n),halfvec(n),binaryvec(n),sparsevec(n) - FR-1.2 Distance metrics: L2, cosine, inner product, L1, Hamming
- FR-1.3 Vector operations: add, subtract, scale, normalize
- FR-1.4 SIMD-optimized computations using WASM SIMD
FR-2: Indexing
- FR-2.1 HNSW index for approximate nearest neighbor search
- FR-2.2 Configurable parameters: M (connections), ef_construction, ef_search
- FR-2.3 Dynamic index updates (insert/delete)
- FR-2.4 B-Tree index for scalar columns
- FR-2.5 Triple store indexes (SPO, POS, OSP) for RDF data
FR-3: Query Languages
FR-3.1 SQL Support
-- Table creation
CREATE TABLE documents (
id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
content TEXT,
embedding VECTOR(384)
);
-- Index creation
CREATE INDEX ON documents USING hnsw (embedding vector_cosine_ops);
-- Vector search
SELECT *, embedding <=> $1 AS distance
FROM documents
ORDER BY distance
LIMIT 10;
-- Hybrid search
SELECT *
FROM documents
WHERE content ILIKE '%query%'
ORDER BY embedding <=> $1
LIMIT 10;
FR-3.2 SPARQL 1.1 Support
# SELECT queries
SELECT ?subject ?label
WHERE {
?subject rdfs:label ?label .
FILTER(lang(?label) = "en")
}
# CONSTRUCT queries
CONSTRUCT { ?s foaf:knows ?o }
WHERE { ?s :similar_to ?o }
# INSERT/DELETE updates
INSERT DATA {
<http://example.org/person1> foaf:name "Alice" .
}
# Property paths
SELECT ?person ?friend
WHERE {
?person foaf:knows+ ?friend .
}
FR-3.3 Cypher Support
// Pattern matching
MATCH (a:Person)-[:KNOWS]->(b:Person)
WHERE a.age > 30
RETURN a.name, b.name
// Graph creation
CREATE (a:Person {name: 'Alice', embedding: $emb})
CREATE (b:Person {name: 'Bob'})
CREATE (a)-[:KNOWS]->(b)
// Vector-enhanced queries
MATCH (p:Person)
WHERE vector.cosine(p.embedding, $query) > 0.8
RETURN p.name, p.embedding
ORDER BY vector.cosine(p.embedding, $query) DESC
FR-4: Graph Operations
- FR-4.1 Graph traversal (BFS, DFS)
- FR-4.2 Shortest path algorithms (Dijkstra, A*)
- FR-4.3 Community detection
- FR-4.4 PageRank and centrality metrics
- FR-4.5 Vector-enhanced graph search
FR-5: Graph Neural Networks (GNN)
- FR-5.1 GCN (Graph Convolutional Networks)
- FR-5.2 GraphSage
- FR-5.3 GAT (Graph Attention Networks)
- FR-5.4 GIN (Graph Isomorphism Networks)
- FR-5.5 Node/edge embeddings
- FR-5.6 Graph classification
FR-6: Self-Learning (ReasoningBank)
- FR-6.1 Trajectory recording (state, action, reward)
- FR-6.2 Pattern recognition
- FR-6.3 Memory distillation
- FR-6.4 Strategy optimization
- FR-6.5 Verdict judgment
- FR-6.6 Adaptive learning rates
FR-7: Hyperbolic Embeddings
- FR-7.1 Poincaré disk model
- FR-7.2 Lorentz/hyperboloid model
- FR-7.3 Hyperbolic distance metrics
- FR-7.4 Exponential/logarithmic maps
- FR-7.5 Hyperbolic neural networks
FR-8: Storage & Persistence
FR-8.1 In-Memory Storage
- Primary storage: DashMap (concurrent hash maps)
- Fast access: O(1) lookup for primary keys
- Thread-safe concurrent access
FR-8.2 Persistence Backends
// Browser: IndexedDB
await db.save(); // Saves to IndexedDB
const db = await RvLite.load(); // Loads from IndexedDB
// Browser: OPFS (Origin Private File System)
await db.saveToOPFS();
await db.loadFromOPFS();
// Node.js/Deno/Bun: File system
await db.saveToFile('database.rvlite');
await RvLite.loadFromFile('database.rvlite');
FR-8.3 Serialization Formats
- Binary: rkyv (zero-copy deserialization)
- JSON: For debugging and exports
- Apache Arrow: For data exchange
FR-9: Transactions (ACID)
- FR-9.1 Atomic operations (all-or-nothing)
- FR-9.2 Consistency (integrity constraints)
- FR-9.3 Isolation (snapshot isolation)
- FR-9.4 Durability (write-ahead logging)
FR-10: Quantization
- FR-10.1 Binary quantization (1-bit)
- FR-10.2 Scalar quantization (8-bit)
- FR-10.3 Product quantization (configurable)
- FR-10.4 Automatic quantization selection
3. Non-Functional Requirements
3.1 Performance
| Metric | Target | Measurement |
|---|---|---|
| WASM bundle size | < 6MB gzipped | du -h rvlite_bg.wasm |
| Initial load time | < 1s | Performance API |
| Query latency (1k vectors) | < 20ms | Benchmark suite |
| Insert throughput | > 10k/s | Benchmark suite |
| Memory usage (100k vectors) | < 200MB | Chrome DevTools |
| HNSW search recall@10 | > 95% | ANN benchmarks |
3.2 Scalability
| Dimension | Limit | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Max table size | 10M rows | Memory constraints |
| Max vector dimensions | 4096 | WASM memory limits |
| Max tables | 1000 | Reasonable use case |
| Max indexes per table | 10 | Performance trade-off |
| Max concurrent queries | 100 | WASM thread pool |
3.3 Compatibility
Browser Support
- Chrome/Edge 91+ (WASM SIMD)
- Firefox 89+ (WASM SIMD)
- Safari 16.4+ (WASM SIMD)
Runtime Support
- Node.js 18+
- Deno 1.30+
- Bun 1.0+
- Cloudflare Workers
- Vercel Edge Functions
- Netlify Edge Functions
Platform Support
- x86-64 (Intel/AMD)
- ARM64 (Apple Silicon, AWS Graviton)
- WebAssembly (universal)
3.4 Security
- SEC-1 No arbitrary code execution
- SEC-2 Memory-safe (Rust guarantees)
- SEC-3 No SQL injection (prepared statements)
- SEC-4 Sandboxed WASM execution
- SEC-5 CORS-compliant (browser)
- SEC-6 No sensitive data in errors
3.5 Usability
- US-1 Zero-config installation:
npm install @rvlite/wasm - US-2 TypeScript-first API with full type definitions
- US-3 Comprehensive documentation with examples
- US-4 Error messages with helpful suggestions
- US-5 Debug logging (optional, configurable)
3.6 Maintainability
- MAIN-1 Test coverage > 90%
- MAIN-2 CI/CD pipeline (GitHub Actions)
- MAIN-3 Semantic versioning (semver)
- MAIN-4 Automated releases
- MAIN-5 Deprecation warnings (6-month notice)
4. Constraints
4.1 Technical Constraints
WASM Limitations
- Single-threaded by default (multi-threading experimental)
- Limited to 4GB memory (32-bit address space)
- No direct file system access (browser)
- No native threads (use Web Workers)
Rust/WASM Constraints
- No
std::fsinwasm32-unknown-unknown - No native threading (use
wasm-bindgen-futures) - Must use
no_stdor WASM-compatible crates - Size overhead from Rust std library
4.2 Performance Constraints
- WASM is ~2-3x slower than native code
- SIMD limited to 128-bit (vs 512-bit AVX-512)
- Garbage collection overhead (JS interop)
- Copy overhead for large data transfers
4.3 Resource Constraints
Development Team
- 1 developer (8 weeks)
- Community contributions (optional)
Timeline
- 8 weeks total
- 2 weeks per major phase
- Beta release by Week 8
Budget
- Open source (no monetary budget)
- CI/CD: GitHub Actions (free tier)
- Hosting: npm registry (free)
5. Success Criteria
5.1 Functional Completeness
- All vector operations working
- SQL queries execute correctly
- SPARQL queries pass W3C test suite
- Cypher queries compatible with Neo4j syntax
- GNN layers produce correct outputs
- ReasoningBank learns from trajectories
- Hyperbolic operations validated
5.2 Performance Benchmarks
- Bundle size < 6MB gzipped
- Load time < 1s (browser)
- Query latency < 20ms (1k vectors)
- HNSW recall@10 > 95%
- Memory usage < 200MB (100k vectors)
5.3 Quality Metrics
- Test coverage > 90%
- Zero clippy warnings
- All examples working
- Documentation complete
- API stable (no breaking changes)
5.4 Adoption Metrics (Post-Release)
- 100+ npm downloads/week
- 10+ GitHub stars
- 3+ community contributions
- Featured in blog posts/articles
6. Out of Scope (v1.0)
Not Included in Initial Release
- Multi-user access - Single-user database only
- Distributed queries - No sharding or replication
- Advanced SQL - No JOINs, subqueries, CTEs (future)
- Full-text search - Basic LIKE only (no Elasticsearch-level)
- Geospatial - No PostGIS-like features
- Time series - No specialized time-series optimizations
- Streaming queries - No live query updates
- Custom UDFs - No user-defined functions in v1.0
Future Considerations (v2.0+)
- Multi-threading support (WASM threads)
- Advanced SQL features (JOINs, CTEs)
- Streaming/reactive queries
- Plugin system for extensions
- Custom vector distance metrics
- GPU acceleration (WebGPU)
7. Dependencies & Licenses
Rust Crates (MIT/Apache-2.0)
[dependencies]
wasm-bindgen = "0.2"
serde = { version = "1.0", features = ["derive"] }
serde-wasm-bindgen = "0.6"
js-sys = "0.3"
web-sys = { version = "0.3", features = ["Window", "IdbDatabase"] }
dashmap = "6.0"
parking_lot = "0.12"
simsimd = "5.9"
half = "2.4"
rkyv = "0.8"
once_cell = "1.19"
thiserror = "1.0"
[dev-dependencies]
wasm-bindgen-test = "0.3"
criterion = "0.5"
License
MIT License (permissive, compatible with ruvector-postgres)
8. Risk Analysis
High Risk
| Risk | Impact | Probability | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|---|
| WASM size > 10MB | High | Medium | Aggressive tree-shaking, feature gating |
| Performance < 50% of native | High | Medium | WASM SIMD, optimized algorithms |
| Browser compatibility issues | High | Low | Polyfills, fallbacks |
Medium Risk
| Risk | Impact | Probability | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|---|
| IndexedDB quota limits | Medium | Medium | OPFS fallback, compression |
| Memory leaks in WASM | Medium | Low | Careful lifetime management |
| Breaking API changes | Medium | Medium | Semver, deprecation warnings |
Low Risk
| Risk | Impact | Probability | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dependency vulnerabilities | Low | Low | Dependabot, security audits |
| Documentation outdated | Low | Medium | CI checks, automated validation |
9. Validation & Acceptance
9.1 Validation Methods
Unit Tests
#[cfg(test)]
mod tests {
#[test]
fn test_vector_cosine_distance() {
let a = vec![1.0, 0.0, 0.0];
let b = vec![0.0, 1.0, 0.0];
let dist = cosine_distance(&a, &b);
assert!((dist - 1.0).abs() < 0.001);
}
}
Integration Tests
import { RvLite } from '@rvlite/wasm';
describe('Vector Search', () => {
it('should find similar vectors', async () => {
const db = await RvLite.create();
await db.sql('CREATE TABLE docs (id INT, vec VECTOR(3))');
await db.sql('INSERT INTO docs VALUES (1, $1)', [[1, 0, 0]]);
const results = await db.sql('SELECT * FROM docs ORDER BY vec <=> $1', [[1, 0, 0]]);
expect(results[0].id).toBe(1);
});
});
Benchmark Tests
use criterion::{black_box, criterion_group, criterion_main, Criterion};
fn bench_hnsw_search(c: &mut Criterion) {
let index = build_hnsw_index(1000);
let query = random_vector(384);
c.bench_function("hnsw_search_1k", |b| {
b.iter(|| index.search(black_box(&query), 10))
});
}
9.2 Acceptance Criteria
Must Have
- All functional requirements implemented
- Performance benchmarks met
- Test coverage > 90%
- Documentation complete
- Examples working in browser, Node.js, Deno
Should Have
- TypeScript types accurate
- Error messages helpful
- Debug logging available
- Migration guide from ruvector-postgres
Could Have
- Interactive playground
- Video tutorials
- Community forum
10. Glossary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| WASM | WebAssembly - binary instruction format for stack-based virtual machine |
| HNSW | Hierarchical Navigable Small World - graph-based ANN algorithm |
| ANN | Approximate Nearest Neighbor - fast similarity search |
| SIMD | Single Instruction Multiple Data - parallel computation |
| GNN | Graph Neural Network - neural networks for graph data |
| SPARQL | SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language - RDF query language |
| Cypher | Neo4j's graph query language |
| ReasoningBank | Self-learning framework for AI agents |
| RDF | Resource Description Framework - semantic web standard |
| Triple Store | Database for storing RDF triples (subject-predicate-object) |
| OPFS | Origin Private File System - browser file storage API |
| IndexedDB | Browser-based NoSQL database |
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