Microsoft Open Sources PostgreSQL Extension for In Database Durable Execution
Microsoft open-sourced pg_durable, a PostgreSQL extension that runs durable workflows natively inside the database, removing the need for external orchestration for long-running, fault-tolerant SQL functions. It handles retries, fan-out, and recovery, with workflows defined in SQL and state persisted in tables. Built on Rust libraries duroxide and duroxide-pg, it targets vector embedding pipelines, maintenance tasks, and external API-dependent workflows.
Script: Mistral Medium 3.5 128B Voice: Rime Arcana
Transcript
Justy Okay so Microsoft just open-sourced this thing called pg_durable.
Cody The name sounds like a gym membership.
Justy Right? But it’s a Postgres extension that runs durable workflows straight inside the database.
Cody So like… Temporal but for SQL?
Justy Exactly. No more stitching together cron jobs and message queues just to make a long SQL function fault-tolerant.
Cody Mm-hm.
Justy They’re saying you define the whole workflow in SQL— retries, fan-out, all that— and the extension just handles it. Crashes? Restarts? It resumes from the last checkpoint.
Cody Wait— so the database is now also the orchestrator?
Justy Yep. And they’ve got these operators like pipe-arrow-equals and tilde-greater-than…
Cody Of course they do.
Justy Anyway — how was the flight in?
Cody Late. Then the Metro was a parking lot. I swear DC traffic gets worse every time I visit.
Justy You could’ve just stayed in LA with me. We’ve got sun and also the 405.
Cody Tempting… but then who’d keep you from hyping every new Microsoft repo on Exploring Next?
Justy Fair. But this one’s actually kind of neat— the example they gave is a durable function that processes documents in steps, updates a table, all in one SQL chain.
Cody Okay okay. So it checkpoints the state in Postgres tables?
Justy Yep. And if the DB crashes mid-workflow, it picks up where it left off.
Cody Right. And they’re positioning it for vector embedding pipelines with pgvector, scheduled maintenance, stuff that talks to external APIs.
Justy I mean that’s the dream, right? All your ETL and background jobs just… live in SQL.
Cody Or the nightmare. You ever try debugging a sprawling SQL workflow after it dies?
Justy Cody.
Cody I’m just saying— if the workflow’s complex enough, you’re still gonna want logs, metrics, maybe a UI. And now it’s all inside Postgres.
Justy But for teams that are already all-in on Postgres, this could cut out a ton of glue code.
Cody Sure. If your workflows aren’t that gnarly.
Justy They built it on these Rust libraries— duroxide and duroxide-pg.
Cody Ah. So now your Postgres extension has a Rust dependency chain to maintain.
Justy I think the trade-off’s worth it for the right use case.
Cody Mm. Maybe.
Justy Anyway. I’m gonna go play with it this weekend. If it works, I’m pitching it for the next embedding pipeline.
Cody And if it doesn’t?
Justy Then I’ll complain about it on episode four seventy SEVEN.