One bucket per entity, on the engine that fits it: a queue for each user, a stack for each post, a priority queue for each job list.

The five-minute path

Four steps, as the binary printed them.

1. 1

   STEP 1: build and start — no arguments, no configuration file

   $ go build -o hoardDB-server ./cmd/server
   $ go build -o hoardDB-cli    ./cmd/cli
   $ ./hoardDB-server
   {"time":"2026-09-22T12:27:42.417967069Z","level":"INFO","msg":"hoardDB server starting","node_id":"<this machine>","listen":"0.0.0.0:4433","version":"version=devel commit= build_date="}
   {"time":"2026-09-22T12:27:42.418093176Z","level":"INFO","msg":"cluster token generated (first start)","token":"<cluster token — yours will differ>","saved_to":"data/cluster.token"}
   
   === CLUSTER TOKEN (save this!) ===
   <cluster token — yours will differ>
   ================================
   
   {"time":"2026-09-22T12:27:42.419322795Z","level":"INFO","msg":"auth signing key ready","kid":"1621e541","source":"loaded from data/auth.token.key"}
   
   === ROOT CREDENTIALS (shown only on first start) ===
   export HOARDB_ROOT_USER=admin
   export HOARDB_ROOT_PASSWORD='<root password — yours will differ>'
   Saved to data/root.password at 0600. Set HOARDB_ROOT_PASSWORD to choose your own, or
   delete the file to generate a new one.
   =====================================================
   {"time":"2026-09-22T12:27:42.463911575Z","level":"INFO","msg":"root user seeded","username":"admin","roles":["root"]}
   {"time":"2026-09-22T12:27:42.46410818Z","level":"INFO","msg":"root user bootstrapped into users.json","username":"admin","path":"data/users.json"}
   {"time":"2026-09-22T12:27:42.464275813Z","level":"INFO","msg":"TCP driver listener listening","address":"[::]:7433","fingerprint":"SHA256:cf89eec1b9634587613c27753bef68668e56271a7ce58ad29d47e196856fc06e","node_id":"<this machine>","alpn":"hoarddb/1"}
   {"time":"2026-09-22T12:27:42.464298029Z","level":"INFO","msg":"internode TCP listener listening","address":"0.0.0.0:4434","alpn":"hoarddb/1"}
   {"time":"2026-09-22T12:27:42.464299891Z","level":"INFO","msg":"metrics server disabled"}
   
   $ stat -c '%a %n' data/root.password
   600 data/root.password

2. 2

   STEP 2: connect — the CLI reads ./data/root.password written by step 1

   $ ./hoardDB-cli -address 127.0.0.1:7433 -insecure

3. 3

   STEPS 3 AND 4: create a database and a bucket, then write and read

   (one session; the transcript follows)
   
   WARNING: TLS certificate verification is disabled (--insecure); the connection to 127.0.0.1:7433 cannot be trusted and may be intercepted. Use this only against a local development server.
   2026/09/22 12:27:42 WARN TLS certificate verification disabled by an explicit insecure trust policy host=127.0.0.1:7433 reason="--insecure flag"
   Authenticated as admin
   Connected to 127.0.0.1:7433
   hoardDB CLI devel
   Type 'help' for help, 'exit' to quit.
   
   OK  created database app
   Next: use app
   Then: create bucket <name> {type: hash | btree | fifo | lifo | heap | blob}   (hash is the default)
   Switched to database 'app'
   OK  created bucket app.users (type hash)
   Indexes: [Email]
   OK  id=01a0c916-1634-7b83-aa85-cf545d22ac3c
   Found 1 results:
   {"Email": "ada@example.com", "Name": "ada", "_id_": "01a0c916-1634-7b83-aa85-cf545d22ac3c"}
   1
   Goodbye.

Six engines. Pick one per bucket.

Store types, in the documentation →

TLS and authentication on, from the first start

One binary

Everything that is built →

Free to self-host

Where to check

Read the claims ledger What is planned