#106106th of 146 in Backends, databases and hosting
nornicdb
Neo4j-compatible graph database with vector search and historical reads
- Stars
- 930
- License
- MIT
- Last commit
- Nov 2026
- Last release
- Oct 2026
- Language
- Go
634 on 22 Apr 2026930 on 11 Nov 2026
From GitHub's daily star counts.
Checked on GitHub.
Overview
NornicDB is a graph database written in Go that accepts Cypher queries over Bolt and HTTP, so existing Neo4j drivers can connect. It combines graph traversal with vector and full-text retrieval, and keeps retained history through MVCC for historical reads. It runs as a server with CPU, CUDA, Metal or Vulkan builds, or embeds in a Go application.
Who it is for: Engineers wanting a Neo4j-compatible graph store with vectors for AI retrieval
Strengths
- Speaks Bolt and Cypher, so Neo4j drivers and a migration guide apply
- Graph traversal, vector and full-text retrieval in a single database
- MVCC with retained history allows reads of past state
- Runs as a server or embeds as a Go library
Weaknesses
- Neo4j compatibility has its own guide; check Cypher coverage before migrating
- README gives no inline benchmark numbers, only links to separate guides
- Docker on macOS cannot use Metal; GPU needs a native install
- Separate image per platform (arm64 Metal, amd64 CPU, CUDA, Vulkan) to choose from
What it needs
- GPU optional
- Docker + Compose
- Models: BGE embeddings (bundled in -bge images)
- port 7474
What changed
- v1.4.3 ↗ (opens in a new tab)Breaking
“Keep a pre-upgrade backup for rollback. Older binaries cannot read the new snapshot format or fully restore the new WAL metadata. See recovery-format compatibility.”
- v1.4.2 ↗ (opens in a new tab)Breaking
“Durability: Writes are durable by default. The write-behind buffer is opt-in and acknowledges commits after the WAL write but before the data is flushed to Badger. Process termination is tolerated; p…”
- v1.4.1 ↗ (opens in a new tab)Breaking
“No breaking changes. Existing Cypher 5 statements and NornicDB extensions continue to work unchanged.”
From the release notes. No flag means the note does not say so, not that the upgrade is safe.
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