eterDB - Postgres fork with transaction-level undo
Show HN: EterDB, a Postgres fork that makes it easy to recover from incidents
eterDB is an Apache 2.0 Postgres fork that lets you undo any committed write—UPDATE, DELETE, or a bad migration—without restoring the whole database. It surgically reverses only the rows a transaction touched, tracks read dependencies to catch writes that relied on the bad one, and supports schema recovery and time travel. History is append-only, so even months-old transactions stay reversible. Built for agents and developers, it offers one-command recovery with JSON output and stable exit codes. Run docker compose up and undo a live transaction on your own database.
I broke production. eterDB reversed exactly the rows I touched, nothing else. This isn't a feature. It's a moat.
- traceroute66
> after recovering from a Clade-generated bug, I was thinking to myself “wouldn’t it be nice if prod DB writes were easy to roll back”.
Hmmmmmm......
1. "Claude-generated bug". No it was PBCAK (Problem Between Chair And Keyboard) a.k.a "foolish person ran Claude against the production database without testing it elsewhere". There, fixed it for you.
2. This "product" is solving a problem that is already solved. You can for example use a SaaS provider such as Aiven[1] who will provide you with PITR (Point-In-Time Recovery) point and click solutions. Alternatively there is more than one piece of Postgres backup software that lets you do the same on a DIY basis.
3. "Out of the box" you have pg_dump. You could have just done a simple pg_dump before letting Claude loose on your database.
- micw
The idea looks interesting. But when I think of "make incident recovery easy", the very last thing I want is a fork that differs from the standard that everyone else is running. I would have a better feeling if that would be an extension, not a fork.
- NewJazz
Uh, pitr is a thing in many many postgresql management layers.