Support PostgreSQL (PGv15) to allow PG and YugabyteDB as Database

[crocinsocks]

CockroachDB began as open source under Apache 2.0 but shifted in 2019 to a restrictive “source-available” license and by 2024 moved entirely to a proprietary-style Enterprise license. The free tier is now limited to companies under $10M revenue with larger deployments requiring paid licenses and mandatory telemetry. As a result, CockroachDB is no longer truly open source and many in the community view its licensing as restrictive compared to alternatives like YugabyteDB which remains fully open source under Apache 2.0.

YugabyteDB offers true PostgreSQL compatibility unlike CockroachDB (PGv15 currently) along with the benefits of high availability and horizontal scalability and the performance to match.

Within the open-source community, there has been a steady and growing migration from CockroachDB to YugabyteDB. CockroachDB’s marketing is far more visible than YugabyteDB so I wanted to highlight YugabyteDB and ensure members of this project are aware of it's existence and the issues surrounding CockroachDB.

Thanks

[huly-github-staging[bot]]

Connected to Huly®: UBERF-13633

[crocinsocks]

Issue Summary: I can confirm Huly currently only supports CockroachDB's proprietary protocol and does not work with standard PostgreSQL databases.

Request: I would like to request/enhance support for standard PostgreSQL databases. Based on my code review, this appears to be achievable by:

1. Updating database migrations to use PostgreSQL-compatible syntax
2. Modifying the transaction handler to work with standard PostgreSQL instead of CockroachDB-specific client behaviors
3. Implementing database type detection in connection strings

Proposed Implementation: Add support for database type prefixes in connection strings:

• cockroach|... - CockroachDB (should remain default for backward compatibility)
• pg|... - PostgreSQL

Technical Assessment: After reviewing the current migrations and codebase, I don't anticipate any significant technical barriers to implementing this feature. The changes would likely be straightforward updates to:

• Migration scripts
• Transaction handling logic
• Connection string parsing

Justification: Adding PostgreSQL support would broaden Huly's compatibility and allow users to leverage standard PostgreSQL deployments while maintaining existing CockroachDB functionality.

Classification: This could be treated as either:

• Bug: If PostgreSQL compatibility was intended
• Feature Request: If CockroachDB-only support was intentional

Would appreciate feedback on the feasibility and priority of this enhancement.

[bernatvadell]

I'm interested in the proposal made by @crocinsocks. If necessary, I could help with the implementation/adaptation.

Reviewing the project, I also saw that a custom adapter could be developed, although I'm not sure how to inject it.

We just deployed Huly and used the official CockroachDB helm, and we keep getting the error that it doesn't have a license configured, and in the "free" version, telemetry is being sent.

[DerKnerd]

How is the status on this? I am really interested in Huly, mainly because of integrated test management, but CockroachDB is a very high no go for me.

[JohnFrrr]

I'm also interested, just throwing in my two cents: based on the recently added architecture documentations, we can identify which services contact the database and consequently need to be adapted. This will differ on the self-hosted vs Huly Cloud/Enterprise since some features are not available on the self-hosted deployment:

Self-hosted deployment:

• Account --> CockroachDB
• Workspace --> CockroachDB
• Transactor --> CockroachDB
• HulyKVS --> CockroachDB
• Fulltext --> CockroachDB

Huly Cloud/Enterprise only:

• Datalake --> CockroachDB
• Hulylake --> CockroachDB