Hamilton Ulmer
@hamilton.bsky.social
👁️📈👁️ design & eng @ MotherDuck. UI, statistics, databases. Ex Rill Data, Mozilla
I jokingly call it "vibescaling"
October 7, 2025 at 4:56 PM
I jokingly call it "vibescaling"
Hear more about how we built Instant SQL by signing up here:
Stay in Flow with MotherDuck's Instant SQL - May 21 · Luma
Imagine writing SQL queries that give you instant visual feedback, transforming your entire data exploration experience.
See how MotherDuck's Instant SQL…
lu.ma
May 17, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Hear more about how we built Instant SQL by signing up here:
Possibly! We do have a plan to open source our UI, but not a firm timeline. Once that's done, Instant SQL will be freely available (w/ source) for anyone to integrate into their editor.
April 26, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Possibly! We do have a plan to open source our UI, but not a firm timeline. Once that's done, Instant SQL will be freely available (w/ source) for anyone to integrate into their editor.
If you want to work on data-intensive UIs combining the best of databases and dataviz, my team is hiring. Send me a message in chat and let's connect. I'll have a JD up once I recover!
April 24, 2025 at 8:57 PM
If you want to work on data-intensive UIs combining the best of databases and dataviz, my team is hiring. Send me a message in chat and let's connect. I'll have a JD up once I recover!
I just gave a talk at Data Council about Instant SQL and will be sharing that once it's available. It's a really fun talk. Here's the vibe
April 24, 2025 at 8:57 PM
I just gave a talk at Data Council about Instant SQL and will be sharing that once it's available. It's a really fun talk. Here's the vibe
Instant SQL works by using samples / subsets of data. Of course, at any point, you can run the actual query against your whole data set. Think of it as a complement to running your query, not an alternative.
April 24, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Instant SQL works by using samples / subsets of data. Of course, at any point, you can run the actual query against your whole data set. Think of it as a complement to running your query, not an alternative.
Instant SQL is great for humans, but it also works GREAT with AI tools. Any suggestion made by an LLM is instantly previewed as you go, giving you a lot more confidence when working with SQL and AI.
April 24, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Instant SQL is great for humans, but it also works GREAT with AI tools. Any suggestion made by an LLM is instantly previewed as you go, giving you a lot more confidence when working with SQL and AI.
Because we have access to the whole pipeline of the query, Instant SQL can dissect results, making it easy to debug complicated formulas and regular expressions
It's like we've turned your query into a big excel function that returns a list of expression trees on every keystroke
It's like we've turned your query into a big excel function that returns a list of expression trees on every keystroke
April 24, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Because we have access to the whole pipeline of the query, Instant SQL can dissect results, making it easy to debug complicated formulas and regular expressions
It's like we've turned your query into a big excel function that returns a list of expression trees on every keystroke
It's like we've turned your query into a big excel function that returns a list of expression trees on every keystroke
on every keystroke, Instant SQL parses the query, analyzes it, and caches just enough to render a preview of the SELECT statement where your cursor is. This enables inspection of CTEs and subqueries. Make a change, then go downstream, and see that change instantly reflected.
April 24, 2025 at 8:57 PM
on every keystroke, Instant SQL parses the query, analyzes it, and caches just enough to render a preview of the SELECT statement where your cursor is. This enables inspection of CTEs and subqueries. Make a change, then go downstream, and see that change instantly reflected.
Instant SQL follows Bret Victor's 2 rules from "Inventing on Principle": when you make a change in your software, there can't be a delay and there can't be anything hidden
Using DuckDB's internals, we've built a realtime query-as-you-type system. But it does a lot more, too:
Using DuckDB's internals, we've built a realtime query-as-you-type system. But it does a lot more, too:
April 24, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Instant SQL follows Bret Victor's 2 rules from "Inventing on Principle": when you make a change in your software, there can't be a delay and there can't be anything hidden
Using DuckDB's internals, we've built a realtime query-as-you-type system. But it does a lot more, too:
Using DuckDB's internals, we've built a realtime query-as-you-type system. But it does a lot more, too:
hah thanks! This is a one-way door for me; I can't go back to constantly mashing the run query button for every small change
March 28, 2025 at 10:24 PM
hah thanks! This is a one-way door for me; I can't go back to constantly mashing the run query button for every small change
great feedback, thanks!
March 12, 2025 at 11:28 PM
great feedback, thanks!
now at the top of HN!
March 12, 2025 at 4:31 PM
now at the top of HN!
this UI is V1, & a big project to hoist the MotherDuck UI into a new context. I can't wait to add more features!
If you've talked to me about how you use the CLI in the last month, please know you've made an impact on our roadmap!
Also, Column Explorer w/ max threads = 🌠
If you've talked to me about how you use the CLI in the last month, please know you've made an impact on our roadmap!
Also, Column Explorer w/ max threads = 🌠
March 12, 2025 at 4:31 PM
this UI is V1, & a big project to hoist the MotherDuck UI into a new context. I can't wait to add more features!
If you've talked to me about how you use the CLI in the last month, please know you've made an impact on our roadmap!
Also, Column Explorer w/ max threads = 🌠
If you've talked to me about how you use the CLI in the last month, please know you've made an impact on our roadmap!
Also, Column Explorer w/ max threads = 🌠