Quack connector

Quack is a remote protocol for DuckDB — it turns DuckDB from an embedded engine into a client-server one. A DuckDB instance runs as a server (CALL quack_serve('quack:host', …)) and clients reach it over the network by attaching a quack: target. It's still the same duckdb driver and the same SQL — only where the data lives changes. So this connector is a thin subclass of the DuckDB connector: same engine, same resilience, pointed at a remote server instead of a local file.

# sources.yaml
remote:
  type: quack
  host: data.example.com         # the quack server host (target becomes quack:<host>)
  port: 9494                     # optional — omit for the server's default port
  token: ${QUACK_TOKEN}          # optional — ${ENV_VAR} expansion supported
  database: remote               # optional — ATTACH alias (default "remote")

Key	Purpose
`host`	The Quack server host. Becomes the `quack:<host>` attach target. (Or set a full `target: quack:…` to pass it through verbatim.)
`port`	Optional server port, appended as `quack:<host>:<port>`. Omit for the default.
`token`	Optional Quack auth token, registered as a `CREATE SECRET (TYPE quack …)`. `${ENV_VAR}` is expanded.
`database`	The `ATTACH … AS <alias>` name you qualify remote tables with (default `remote`).
`install_extension`	Whether to `INSTALL quack` before loading it (default `true`). Set `false` if the extension is already present in your DuckDB.
`extension_repository`	Where to install from (default `community`; a `https://…` URL is also accepted).
`duckdb_config`	Optional extra settings passed to `duckdb.connect` (e.g. `allow_unsigned_extensions`).

On connect the connector loads the Quack extension, registers the token secret (if any), and ATTACH-es the remote. Then you query it like any DuckDB source, qualifying remote tables with the attach alias:

SELECT region, sum(amount) AS revenue
FROM remote.sales
GROUP BY region
ORDER BY revenue DESC

Resilience: inherited from the DuckDB connector — if a query invalidates the local connection, query() rebuilds it (re-loading the extension and re-attaching the remote) and retries once.

Note

A ${param} always substitutes a quoted string literal (injection-safe — see Queries), exactly as with the local DuckDB connector.

Warning

Experimental / preview. Quack itself is in beta. This connector covers the documented attach + token-secret flow and is not yet verified against a live Quack server. The extension is a community extension, so a managed DuckDB build may need duckdb_config: { allow_unsigned_extensions: true } to load it.

Extra: none — in the core install. The Quack extension is downloaded at runtime by DuckDB (INSTALL quack FROM community), so there is no extra pip dependency.