Hamilton Ulmer
@hamilton.bsky.social
👁️📈👁️ design & eng @ MotherDuck. UI, statistics, databases. Ex Rill Data, Mozilla
Pinned
Hamilton Ulmer
@hamilton.bsky.social
· Apr 24
So thrilled to announce we've released Instant SQL in both the MotherDuck and DuckDB UIs!
It's a new interaction pattern for writing SQL queries that provides realtime result previews and deep query inspection & debugging. Bye bye run button 👋
Truly, literally only possible with DuckDB
It's a new interaction pattern for writing SQL queries that provides realtime result previews and deep query inspection & debugging. Bye bye run button 👋
Truly, literally only possible with DuckDB
Continuing the semantic code-folding design exploration. Instead of showing the typical "..." button, it shows an LLM summary of what's folded. Like "calculate 30-day revenue" for a collapsed CTE.
Not sure if this would be useful yet!
Not sure if this would be useful yet!
October 26, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Continuing the semantic code-folding design exploration. Instead of showing the typical "..." button, it shows an LLM summary of what's folded. Like "calculate 30-day revenue" for a collapsed CTE.
Not sure if this would be useful yet!
Not sure if this would be useful yet!
I like the “retvrn to terminals” discourse around UIs, but imo it misses why old terminal programs were (or were not) good. So it’s a boring aesthetic argument and not a functional one based on how humans consume information.
October 7, 2025 at 4:53 PM
I like the “retvrn to terminals” discourse around UIs, but imo it misses why old terminal programs were (or were not) good. So it’s a boring aesthetic argument and not a functional one based on how humans consume information.
only took me two years before I needed to do my own safety triangle implementation
this works great for our upcoming "quick look" editor features
aside from function docs, what other quick look features would you like in the DuckDB UI?
this works great for our upcoming "quick look" editor features
aside from function docs, what other quick look features would you like in the DuckDB UI?
October 2, 2025 at 4:05 PM
only took me two years before I needed to do my own safety triangle implementation
this works great for our upcoming "quick look" editor features
aside from function docs, what other quick look features would you like in the DuckDB UI?
this works great for our upcoming "quick look" editor features
aside from function docs, what other quick look features would you like in the DuckDB UI?
My Data Council talk on Instant SQL is up on YouTube!
Instant SQL is MotherDuck's new realtime ad hoc querying and data debugging mode.
I go into details, but the talk itself is really about designing tools that both require mastery AND enable joyful flow.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSeB...
Instant SQL is MotherDuck's new realtime ad hoc querying and data debugging mode.
I go into details, but the talk itself is really about designing tools that both require mastery AND enable joyful flow.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSeB...
Instant Preview Mode Real Time Feedback to Make SQL Data Exploration Fly
YouTube video by Data Council
www.youtube.com
May 30, 2025 at 2:01 PM
My Data Council talk on Instant SQL is up on YouTube!
Instant SQL is MotherDuck's new realtime ad hoc querying and data debugging mode.
I go into details, but the talk itself is really about designing tools that both require mastery AND enable joyful flow.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSeB...
Instant SQL is MotherDuck's new realtime ad hoc querying and data debugging mode.
I go into details, but the talk itself is really about designing tools that both require mastery AND enable joyful flow.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSeB...
May 20, 2025 at 1:40 PM
I'm going to be talking online about the "why" and "how" of Instant SQL, our new ad hoc querying experience that enables keystroke-fast previews of results & deeper introspection into your query's data flow.
Weds. May 21st, 9:30am PDT
link in reply!
Weds. May 21st, 9:30am PDT
link in reply!
May 17, 2025 at 3:50 PM
I'm going to be talking online about the "why" and "how" of Instant SQL, our new ad hoc querying experience that enables keystroke-fast previews of results & deeper introspection into your query's data flow.
Weds. May 21st, 9:30am PDT
link in reply!
Weds. May 21st, 9:30am PDT
link in reply!
So thrilled to announce we've released Instant SQL in both the MotherDuck and DuckDB UIs!
It's a new interaction pattern for writing SQL queries that provides realtime result previews and deep query inspection & debugging. Bye bye run button 👋
Truly, literally only possible with DuckDB
It's a new interaction pattern for writing SQL queries that provides realtime result previews and deep query inspection & debugging. Bye bye run button 👋
Truly, literally only possible with DuckDB
April 24, 2025 at 8:57 PM
So thrilled to announce we've released Instant SQL in both the MotherDuck and DuckDB UIs!
It's a new interaction pattern for writing SQL queries that provides realtime result previews and deep query inspection & debugging. Bye bye run button 👋
Truly, literally only possible with DuckDB
It's a new interaction pattern for writing SQL queries that provides realtime result previews and deep query inspection & debugging. Bye bye run button 👋
Truly, literally only possible with DuckDB
Instant Preview Mode has been achieved internally
March 28, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Instant Preview Mode has been achieved internally
Migrating over my DuckDB AST path generation code to our UI. The way I've done gut-checks on the grammar is to use this CodeMirror semantic highlighting extension I wrote
We can implement a very long tail of unique features with the path generator, including instant preview mode
We can implement a very long tail of unique features with the path generator, including instant preview mode
March 20, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Migrating over my DuckDB AST path generation code to our UI. The way I've done gut-checks on the grammar is to use this CodeMirror semantic highlighting extension I wrote
We can implement a very long tail of unique features with the path generator, including instant preview mode
We can implement a very long tail of unique features with the path generator, including instant preview mode
So thrilled the DuckDB UI is out to the world!
Read the post, but wanted to also share a couple small design details we thought about in thread
Read the post, but wanted to also share a couple small design details we thought about in thread
DuckDB got a local UI. Thanks to our friends at MotherDuck, you can now interact with your DuckDB database through an interactive notebook, running on localhost. Read the announcement blog post at duckdb.org/2025/03/12/d...
March 12, 2025 at 4:31 PM
So thrilled the DuckDB UI is out to the world!
Read the post, but wanted to also share a couple small design details we thought about in thread
Read the post, but wanted to also share a couple small design details we thought about in thread
a gratifying animation (and much lower instance size changing times in the MotherDuck UI)
March 10, 2025 at 4:31 PM
a gratifying animation (and much lower instance size changing times in the MotherDuck UI)
Reposted by Hamilton Ulmer
Are you ready?
03.12.2025
03.12.2025
March 10, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Are you ready?
03.12.2025
03.12.2025
The prod push begins ... starting with my TS-based re-parse of the DuckDB grammar to get the end positions of AST nodes & all clauses of select & set operation nodes.
This tedious work enables a long tail of hot UI magic. Can't wait to deprecate it once we have the PEG parser!
This tedious work enables a long tail of hot UI magic. Can't wait to deprecate it once we have the PEG parser!
March 8, 2025 at 4:46 PM
The prod push begins ... starting with my TS-based re-parse of the DuckDB grammar to get the end positions of AST nodes & all clauses of select & set operation nodes.
This tedious work enables a long tail of hot UI magic. Can't wait to deprecate it once we have the PEG parser!
This tedious work enables a long tail of hot UI magic. Can't wait to deprecate it once we have the PEG parser!
new in the MotherDuck UI: a very nice file -> table flow
combines duckdb-wasm with MotherDuck to enable easy file validation and previews before taking the CTAS plunge
combines duckdb-wasm with MotherDuck to enable easy file validation and previews before taking the CTAS plunge
March 6, 2025 at 9:25 PM
new in the MotherDuck UI: a very nice file -> table flow
combines duckdb-wasm with MotherDuck to enable easy file validation and previews before taking the CTAS plunge
combines duckdb-wasm with MotherDuck to enable easy file validation and previews before taking the CTAS plunge
Big release day for MotherDuck! We're rolling out a new Business Plan and a bunch of great new features. Cherrypicking a few small design details that I enjoyed working on below (see the blog post for way more data warehouse context!)
motherduck.com/blog/introdu...
motherduck.com/blog/introdu...
MotherDuck for Business Analytics: GDPR, SOC 2 Type II, Tiered Support, and New Plan Offerings - MotherDuck Blog
Introducing new features designed to better support businesses looking for their first data warehouse, including SOC 2 Type II and GDPR compliance, tiered support, read scaling, and a new Business Pla...
motherduck.com
February 11, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Big release day for MotherDuck! We're rolling out a new Business Plan and a bunch of great new features. Cherrypicking a few small design details that I enjoyed working on below (see the blog post for way more data warehouse context!)
motherduck.com/blog/introdu...
motherduck.com/blog/introdu...
Reposted by Hamilton Ulmer
We're testing a new DuckDB install experience for Linux and MacOS:
curl install.duckdb.org | bash
Happy to hear feedback!
curl install.duckdb.org | bash
Happy to hear feedback!
install.duckdb.org
February 7, 2025 at 1:33 PM
We're testing a new DuckDB install experience for Linux and MacOS:
curl install.duckdb.org | bash
Happy to hear feedback!
curl install.duckdb.org | bash
Happy to hear feedback!
duckdb-wasm now has OPFS support! This means that you can now persist a DuckDB database in the browser for a given origin. This will make caching & local operations much nicer!
github.com/duckdb/duckd...
github.com/duckdb/duckd...
Add OPFS (Origin Private File System) Support by e1arikawa · Pull Request #1856 · duckdb/duckdb-wasm
Description:
This PR implements OPFS (Origin Private File System) support in the latest version of duckdb-wasm based on PR #1490.
This allows database files to be read and written to the OPFS.
API:...
github.com
January 15, 2025 at 4:53 PM
duckdb-wasm now has OPFS support! This means that you can now persist a DuckDB database in the browser for a given origin. This will make caching & local operations much nicer!
github.com/duckdb/duckd...
github.com/duckdb/duckd...
First pass at a new DuckDB extension that generates svg time series IN the db (below screenshot copied into figma)
and how, using M4 should be trivial! And then setting elem.innerHTML = result even easier
One step from effortlessly throwing a thousand low-cost small multiples into any UI
and how, using M4 should be trivial! And then setting elem.innerHTML = result even easier
One step from effortlessly throwing a thousand low-cost small multiples into any UI
January 14, 2025 at 8:11 PM
First pass at a new DuckDB extension that generates svg time series IN the db (below screenshot copied into figma)
and how, using M4 should be trivial! And then setting elem.innerHTML = result even easier
One step from effortlessly throwing a thousand low-cost small multiples into any UI
and how, using M4 should be trivial! And then setting elem.innerHTML = result even easier
One step from effortlessly throwing a thousand low-cost small multiples into any UI
I had the privilege of chatting with @jthandy.bsky.social on the Analytics Engineering podcast about – you guessed it – DuckDB, exploratory data analysis, and the messy middle of doing data work. Lots of historical context!
listen: www.getdbt.com/blog/interse...
listen: www.getdbt.com/blog/interse...
January 13, 2025 at 5:20 PM
I had the privilege of chatting with @jthandy.bsky.social on the Analytics Engineering podcast about – you guessed it – DuckDB, exploratory data analysis, and the messy middle of doing data work. Lots of historical context!
listen: www.getdbt.com/blog/interse...
listen: www.getdbt.com/blog/interse...
Working in a DAW, one will loop over a small isolated set of tracks and work out EQ, reverb. etc. The fast feedback loop makes it easy to dial into the right sound, and then you can unmute the rest of your tracks for context.
Why doesn't this exact pattern exist for UI tooling?
Why doesn't this exact pattern exist for UI tooling?
January 7, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Working in a DAW, one will loop over a small isolated set of tracks and work out EQ, reverb. etc. The fast feedback loop makes it easy to dial into the right sound, and then you can unmute the rest of your tracks for context.
Why doesn't this exact pattern exist for UI tooling?
Why doesn't this exact pattern exist for UI tooling?
Reposted by Hamilton Ulmer
🚀 New DuckDB instant SQL preview feature: decompose result sets in real time!
Break apart any select list expression to triage unexpected NULL values and results
Scales seamlessly to arbitrarily complex expressions
Break apart any select list expression to triage unexpected NULL values and results
Scales seamlessly to arbitrarily complex expressions
January 2, 2025 at 3:27 PM
🚀 New DuckDB instant SQL preview feature: decompose result sets in real time!
Break apart any select list expression to triage unexpected NULL values and results
Scales seamlessly to arbitrarily complex expressions
Break apart any select list expression to triage unexpected NULL values and results
Scales seamlessly to arbitrarily complex expressions
🚀 New DuckDB instant SQL preview feature: decompose result sets in real time!
Break apart any select list expression to triage unexpected NULL values and results
Scales seamlessly to arbitrarily complex expressions
Break apart any select list expression to triage unexpected NULL values and results
Scales seamlessly to arbitrarily complex expressions
January 2, 2025 at 3:27 PM
🚀 New DuckDB instant SQL preview feature: decompose result sets in real time!
Break apart any select list expression to triage unexpected NULL values and results
Scales seamlessly to arbitrarily complex expressions
Break apart any select list expression to triage unexpected NULL values and results
Scales seamlessly to arbitrarily complex expressions
DuckDB's Node client got a huge makeover! I've gotten to watch my colleague Jeff work on it and it's been a masterclass in how to nail the ergonomics. Give it a spin ~
duckdb.org/2024/12/18/d...
duckdb.org/2024/12/18/d...
DuckDB Node Neo Client
The new DuckDB Node client, “Neo”, provides a powerful and friendly way to use your favorite database
duckdb.org
December 18, 2024 at 10:00 PM
DuckDB's Node client got a huge makeover! I've gotten to watch my colleague Jeff work on it and it's been a masterclass in how to nail the ergonomics. Give it a spin ~
duckdb.org/2024/12/18/d...
duckdb.org/2024/12/18/d...
My toddler is extremely into orchestral music. People are always surprised to hear this, but my wife is a professional musician and I used to be. Music is a critical part of our family fabric. It feels very rewarding to have him grow up in the culture; something neither of us quite had.
December 13, 2024 at 2:26 PM
My toddler is extremely into orchestral music. People are always surprised to hear this, but my wife is a professional musician and I used to be. Music is a critical part of our family fabric. It feels very rewarding to have him grow up in the culture; something neither of us quite had.
I finally did it. I bought the $160 book on the history of mathematical tables.
December 11, 2024 at 3:13 AM
I finally did it. I bought the $160 book on the history of mathematical tables.