syntaxis/docs/databases/surrealdb/readme-surrealdb.md

# SurrealDB Integration Documentation

Complete analysis and implementation guide for migrating syntaxis from SQLite to SurrealDB.

## Quick Answer

**Q: What happens if we want to use SurrealDB instead of SQLite?**

**A:** 
- ✅ **Possible** - Excellent code separation (single persistence module)
- 📊 **Effort** - Medium (40-50 hours, 1 developer-month)
- 🎯 **Approach** - Trait-based abstraction (supports both systems)
- ✨ **Benefits** - Graph queries, real-time updates, built-in versioning

---

## Documentation Files

### 1. 📋 **SURREALDB_QUICK_REFERENCE.md** (START HERE)
**Best for:** Quick overview, executive summary
- TL;DR answer
- Architecture diagram
- Key benefits
- 5-week implementation roadmap
- Risk assessment
- **Read time:** 5 minutes

### 2. 📚 **SURREALDB_MIGRATION.md** (DETAILED GUIDE)
**Best for:** Comprehensive planning and implementation
- Current architecture analysis
- Migration strategy (4 phases)
- Database schema mapping
- Configuration examples
- Risk mitigation
- Detailed code references
- **Read time:** 30 minutes

### 3. 💻 **SURREALDB_EXAMPLE.rs** (WORKING CODE)
**Best for:** Understanding implementation details
- Complete Database trait definition
- SQLite implementation (adapter pattern)
- SurrealDB implementation (adapter pattern)
- Runtime selection pattern
- Usage examples
- **Read time:** 20 minutes (code review)

### 4. ⚖️ **SURREALDB_COMPARISON.md** (FEATURE ANALYSIS)
**Best for:** Understanding pros/cons of each database
- Feature comparison table
- Real-world query examples (6 scenarios)
- Performance comparison
- Cost analysis
- When to use each system
- Migration path options
- **Read time:** 25 minutes

---

## Quick Summary

### Current System (SQLite)

```
✅ Strengths:
  - Single file, zero configuration
  - Embedded in application
  - No server overhead
  - Perfect for CLI tools

❌ Limitations:
  - No real-time updates (polling only)
  - Poor graph query support (complex JOINs)
  - Manual audit trails
  - Not suitable for distributed systems
```

### Proposed System (SurrealDB)

```
✅ Strengths:
  - Graph-native (perfect for phases/tasks/dependencies)
  - Real-time WebSocket subscriptions
  - Built-in versioning and audit trails
  - Multi-model (document + graph + SQL)
  - Cloud-ready and distributed
  - JSON-native documents

⚠️ Trade-offs:
  - Requires server process
  - Minimal configuration needed
  - New query language to learn (SurrealQL)
  - Slightly higher operational overhead
```

---

## Why SurrealDB Fits syntaxis

### 1. Graph Relationships (Natural Fit)

**Syntaxis:**
```
Project → Phase 1 → Phase 2 → Phase 3 → Complete
  │         │         │         │
  ├─→ Checklist Items
  ├─→ Tasks/Dependencies
  └─→ Security Assessments
```

SurrealDB handles this naturally with graph edges (RELATE).

### 2. Real-time Dashboard Updates

- **SQLite:** Poll every 5 seconds (inefficient)
- **SurrealDB:** WebSocket push (instant, real-time)

### 3. Flexible Tool Configurations

- **SQLite:** JSON strings to parse
- **SurrealDB:** Native document storage with type checking

### 4. Audit Trail Tracking

- **SQLite:** Manual activity_logs table
- **SurrealDB:** Built-in versioning and time-travel queries

---

## Implementation Approach (Zero Breaking Changes)

### Strategy: Trait-Based Abstraction

```
Database Trait (abstract interface)
    ↓
    ├─→ SqliteDatabase (current implementation)
    └─→ SurrealDatabase (new implementation)

Result:
- Both backends implement same interface
- Application code unchanged
- Configuration-driven backend selection
- Can coexist during migration
```

### Why This Works

1. **No breaking changes** - Existing code uses trait, not specific implementation
2. **Gradual migration** - Deploy with SQLite, optionally switch to SurrealDB
3. **Testable** - Create mock implementations for tests
4. **Future-proof** - Easy to add PostgreSQL, MongoDB, etc. later

---

## 5-Week Implementation Plan

| Week | Phase | Tasks | Effort |
|------|-------|-------|--------|
| 1 | Design | Define Database trait, write tests | Low |
| 1-2 | Refactor | Move SQLite to adapter pattern | Medium |
| 2-3 | Implementation | Build SurrealDB adapter | High |
| 4 | Integration | Update CLI, TUI, API, Dashboard | Medium |
| 5 | Testing | E2E tests, performance benchmarks | Medium |

**Total:** 40-50 hours, 1 developer-week per phase

---

## Current Code Status

### Persistence Layer (syntaxis-core/src/persistence.rs)

- **Size:** 1492 lines
- **Coupling:** ✅ Good - single module, no leakage
- **Abstraction:** ⚠️ Tightly coupled to SQLite
- **Tests:** ✅ Comprehensive (173 tests in syntaxis-core)

### Cargo Dependencies

```toml
# Current
sqlx = { version = "0.8", features = ["sqlite", ...] }

# Add SurrealDB
surrealdb = { version = "2.0", features = ["ws"] }
```

### Configuration (TOML-based)

```toml
[database]
engine = "sqlite"  # Current
sqlite_path = "workspace.db"

# Or in future:
# engine = "surrealdb"
# [database.surrealdb]
# url = "ws://localhost:8000"
```

---

## Decision Matrix

### Choose SQLite if:
- ✅ Single-user deployment (CLI tool)
- ✅ Minimal operational overhead needed
- ✅ Budget and resources constrained
- ✅ Simple relational data is sufficient
- ✅ No real-time updates required

### Choose SurrealDB if:
- ✅ Multi-user/team collaboration needed
- ✅ Real-time dashboard updates required
- ✅ Complex graph relationships important
- ✅ Cloud deployment planned
- ✅ Distributed architecture needed
- ✅ Audit trail and versioning critical

### Recommendation for syntaxis

**✅ Implement Both (Trait Pattern)**

- Keep SQLite as simple default
- Add SurrealDB as advanced option
- Configuration-driven selection
- Users choose what fits their needs
- Zero breaking changes

---

## Next Steps

1. **Review Documentation**
   - Start with `SURREALDB_QUICK_REFERENCE.md` (5 min)
   - Deep dive into `SURREALDB_MIGRATION.md` (30 min)
   - Study `SURREALDB_EXAMPLE.rs` code (20 min)
   - Compare with `SURREALDB_COMPARISON.md` (25 min)

2. **Evaluate for Your Use Case**
   - Single user or team?
   - Need real-time updates?
   - Operational overhead acceptable?
   - Budget for implementation?

3. **Plan Implementation**
   - Decide if pursuing SurrealDB support
   - Estimate timeline for your team
   - Create feature branch
   - Start Phase 1 (trait definition)

4. **Reference Code Examples**
   - See `SURREALDB_EXAMPLE.rs` for working code
   - Trait definitions
   - SQLite adapter implementation
   - SurrealDB adapter implementation
   - Runtime selection pattern

---

## Key Files Delivered

| File | Purpose | Size | Read Time |
|------|---------|------|-----------|
| SURREALDB_QUICK_REFERENCE.md | Executive summary | 7 KB | 5 min |
| SURREALDB_MIGRATION.md | Technical guide | 14 KB | 30 min |
| SURREALDB_EXAMPLE.rs | Working code | 15 KB | 20 min |
| SURREALDB_COMPARISON.md | Feature analysis | 12 KB | 25 min |

**Total:** 48 KB, ~80 minutes to fully understand

---

## Questions to Consider

### For Development Team

1. **Scope:** Just syntaxis-cli, or all binaries (TUI, API, Dashboard)?
2. **Timeline:** Next quarter (soon), or future?
3. **Resources:** How many developers can dedicate time?
4. **Users:** Single developers or teams with multiple users?

### For Architecture

1. **Complexity:** Worth adding server dependency?
2. **Deployment:** Docker/Kubernetes, or just binaries?
3. **Scaling:** Is distributed database ever needed?
4. **Data:** Do we need graph queries or real-time updates?

### For Operations

1. **Support:** Can we support two backends?
2. **Migration:** Data migration strategy needed?
3. **Testing:** Test coverage for both backends?
4. **Fallback:** Easy to rollback if SurrealDB doesn't work out?

---

## Contacts & Resources

### Documentation
- SurrealDB Official: https://surrealdb.com/docs
- SurrealDB Rust Client: https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb.rs
- SQLx Rust Async SQL: https://github.com/launchbadge/sqlx

### Key References
- Graph Database Patterns: https://surrealdb.com/docs/surrealql/statements/relate
- Time-Travel Queries: https://surrealdb.com/docs/surrealql/statements/select#versioning
- Live Subscriptions: https://surrealdb.com/docs/surrealql/statements/live

### Example Code
See `SURREALDB_EXAMPLE.rs` for:
- Database trait definition
- SQLite adapter implementation
- SurrealDB adapter implementation
- Runtime selection pattern

---

## Summary

**Can we use SurrealDB instead of SQLite?**

✅ **YES**
- Clean code separation exists
- Trait-based design enables both backends
- Medium effort (40-50 hours)
- Zero breaking changes
- Significant benefits for multi-user/real-time use cases

**Recommended Approach:**
1. Keep SQLite as default (current behavior)
2. Add SurrealDB support incrementally
3. Configuration-driven selection
4. Let users choose what fits their needs

**Timeline:** 5 weeks with dedicated team

---

**Document created:** November 15, 2025
**Status:** Complete analysis and implementation guide ready for review