Frequently asked questions
What incredlabs builds, how it's licensed, and how ORMDB and Liath differ.
- What is incredlabs?
- incredlabs is an open-source software company building Rust-native, high-performance data infrastructure for AI — including ORMDB, a database that speaks ORM natively, and Liath, the SQLite for AI agents.
- What products does incredlabs make?
- The public products are ORMDB (a relational database that fetches object graphs natively) and Liath (programmable memory for AI agents, queried with sandboxed Lua). Additional data-platform components are in development.
- Are incredlabs products free and open source?
- Yes. incredlabs products are open source under the MIT License and developed in the open at github.com/incredlabs. There is no license fee.
- What language are incredlabs products written in?
- The cores are written in Rust for performance, memory safety, and portability. Client libraries and bindings are available in TypeScript, Python, and other languages depending on the product.
- How is ORMDB different from Liath?
- ORMDB is a relational database that speaks ORM natively — ideal for application backends that need graph fetches, relations, and safe migrations. Liath is programmable memory for AI agents — an embedded store where agents write Lua to query their own memory. Use ORMDB for your app data and Liath for agent memory.
- What is Liath, and how is it different from a vector database?
- Liath is the SQLite for AI agents: an embedded memory store where the agent writes sandboxed Lua to query its own memory, instead of calling a fixed vector-search API. A vector database exposes a single similarity call and a service to operate; Liath gives the agent a real programming language to filter, re-rank, and cross-reference results, and runs embedded with zero infrastructure. Reach for a vector DB when you need a shared, horizontally scaled index; reach for Liath when you want per-agent, programmable memory with a hard security boundary and no server.
- How is ORMDB different from Postgres plus a traditional ORM?
- A traditional stack pairs a relational database with an application-layer ORM (Prisma, Drizzle, TypeORM, SQLAlchemy) that translates object graphs into SQL — the source of N+1 queries and object-relational impedance mismatch. ORMDB moves that graph awareness into the database, so relations, safe online migrations, and vector, geo, and full-text search are native rather than bolted on with extensions and extra services. ORMDB also ships drop-in adapters for those same ORMs.
- How do I get started with incredlabs products?
- Install ORMDB with `cargo install ormdb-server` or Liath with `pip install liath` (or the `liath-rs` crate for Rust). Then follow the guides at docs.incredlabs.com. Both products are open source on GitHub at github.com/incredlabs, so you can read the code and run everything locally.
- Was incredlabs previously called something else?
- Yes. incredlabs was formerly known as Skelf Research. The products, mission, and open-source approach are unchanged.
- Where can I find the documentation?
- Documentation for all products lives at docs.incredlabs.com. Each product also links to its docs from its website and GitHub repository.
- How do I contact incredlabs?
- Email contact@incredlabs.com or open an issue on GitHub at github.com/incredlabs.
Still have questions? Dig into ORMDB and Liath, read about incredlabs, or get in touch.