Dolt

Definition

Dolt is a SQL database that applies Git-like version control to structured data, letting users branch, diff, merge, and clone entire datasets the way developers version code.

Overview

Dolt is often described as "Git for data": every change to table data and schema can be committed, and the full history can be branched and merged, giving datasets the same collaborative workflow developers already use for source code — a very different design goal from a conventional relational database like PostgreSQL. Dolt is largely wire-compatible with MySQL, so existing MySQL clients, drivers, and tools can connect to it without modification. Under the hood, it uses a versioned, content-addressed storage engine to track changes at the row level, and its `dolt` command-line tool mirrors familiar Git commands such as commit, branch, merge, and diff — but applied to rows and tables instead of files and lines. This makes Dolt well suited to teams that need collaborative, auditable datasets — shared reference data, machine learning training sets, or data edited independently by different teams before being merged back together. DoltHub provides a hosted platform for sharing and collaborating on Dolt databases, similar in spirit to how GitHub hosts code repositories, and its focus on rethinking core database internals for a specific purpose puts it in the same adventurous category as embedded engines like DuckDB or SQLite, even though the goals differ.

Key Features

• Git-like commands for data: commit, branch, merge, diff, and clone
• MySQL-compatible wire protocol for use with existing SQL clients and tools
• Full historical version tracking at the row level
• Ability to branch a dataset, make changes, and merge them back safely
• Structured diffs showing exactly which rows and values changed between versions
• DoltHub — a hosted platform for sharing and collaborating on Dolt databases

Use Cases

Frequently Asked Questions

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