ADBC (Arrow)

Connect & Ingest data from / to multiple databases via Arrow Database Connectivity (ADBC)

Arrow Database Connectivity (ADBC) provides a standardized interface for accessing various databases using the Apache Arrow columnar format. ADBC enables efficient, high-performance data movement with zero-copy semantics and native Arrow support (v1.5.2+)

Supported Database Types

Sling supports the following databases via ADBC drivers:

• PostgreSQL - Full support via ADBC PostgreSQL driver

• MySQL - Support via ADBC MySQL driver (v9.4+)

• SQL Server - Full support via ADBC SQL Server driver

• Snowflake - Full support via ADBC Snowflake driver

• SQLite - Support via ADBC SQLite driver

• DuckDB - Full support via ADBC DuckDB driver

• BigQuery - Full support via ADBC BigQuery driver

• Trino - Support via ADBC Trino driver (v4.0+)

Setup

Using ADBC requires two components:

1. ADBC Driver Manager — a shared library (libadbc_driver_manager.so / .dylib / .dll) that loads and manages drivers

2. Database Driver — the native ADBC driver for your specific database (e.g., DuckDB, PostgreSQL)

Step 1: Install the ADBC Driver Manager

The driver manager is a shared library that Sling loads at runtime. You must install it before using any ADBC connection.

macOS

Using Conda (recommended):

conda install -c conda-forge libadbc-driver-manager

Or with Homebrew + Conda:

brew install --cask mambaforge
mamba install -c conda-forge libadbc-driver-manager

The library is installed to your conda environment's lib/ directory (e.g., ~/mambaforge/lib/libadbc_driver_manager.dylib). Sling auto-detects common conda paths.

Linux (apt — amd64 only)

Linux (conda — amd64 & arm64)

Windows

Sling auto-detects the driver manager from common installation paths. If it cannot find the library, you can set the ADBC_DRIVER_MANAGER_LIB environment variable to the full path:

export ADBC_DRIVER_MANAGER_LIB=/path/to/libadbc_driver_manager.so    # Linux
export ADBC_DRIVER_MANAGER_LIB=/path/to/libadbc_driver_manager.dylib  # macOS

Step 2: Install the Database Driver

Install the native ADBC driver for your target database using the dbc CLI tool:

# Install dbc
# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install columnar-tech/tap/dbc

# Linux/macOS (shell script)
curl -LsSf https://dbc.columnar.tech/install.sh | sh

# Windows (PowerShell)
powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://dbc.columnar.tech/install.ps1 | iex"

Then install drivers for your target databases:

dbc install duckdb
dbc install postgresql
dbc install mysql
dbc install snowflake
dbc install trino
# ... etc

Drivers are installed to:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/ADBC/Drivers/

• Linux: ~/.config/adbc/drivers/

• Windows: %APPDATA%\adbc\drivers\

Sling auto-discovers installed drivers from these locations.

Quick Start Example (DuckDB)

Here is a complete example from scratch on macOS:

# 1. Install driver manager
conda install -c conda-forge libadbc-driver-manager

# 2. Install DuckDB driver
dbc install duckdb

# 3. Set up connection
sling conns set DUCKDB type=duckdb instance=/tmp/test.db use_adbc=true

# 4. Test it
sling conns test DUCKDB

And on Linux (amd64):

# 1. Install driver manager (via apt)
wget -q https://apache.jfrog.io/artifactory/arrow/ubuntu/apache-arrow-apt-source-latest-jammy.deb -O /tmp/arrow.deb
sudo apt install -y /tmp/arrow.deb && rm /tmp/arrow.deb
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y libadbc-driver-manager110

# 2. Install DuckDB driver
curl -LsSf https://dbc.columnar.tech/install.sh | sh
dbc install duckdb

# 3. Set up connection and test
sling conns set DUCKDB type=duckdb instance=/tmp/test.db use_adbc=true
sling conns test DUCKDB

Manual Driver Installation

If you prefer not to use dbc, you can install ADBC driver libraries manually:

macOS

# Install via Conda
conda install conda-forge::libadbc-driver-postgresql

# Or download .dylib from ADBC releases and place in a known location
cp libadbc_driver_postgresql.dylib ~/Library/Application\ Support/ADBC/Drivers/

Linux

Windows

Driver Discovery

Sling searches for ADBC driver libraries automatically in the following order:

1. Explicit driver property in the connection configuration

2. ADBC_DRIVER_PATH environment variable — additional directories to search (colon-separated on Unix, semicolon-separated on Windows)

3. Standard installation paths:

Platform	Paths
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/ADBC/Drivers, ~/.dbc/drivers, /usr/local/lib, /opt/homebrew/lib
Linux	~/.local/share/ADBC/Drivers, ~/.config/adbc/drivers, ~/.dbc/drivers, /usr/lib, /usr/local/lib
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\ADBC\Drivers, ~/.dbc/drivers, %ProgramFiles%\ADBC\lib

Sling looks for driver files matching *{driver_name}* (e.g., libduckdb.so, libadbc_driver_postgresql.dylib).

If the driver is in a non-standard location, you can either set ADBC_DRIVER_PATH or specify the full path directly in your connection:

# Add custom search paths
export ADBC_DRIVER_PATH="/opt/custom/lib:/another/path"

# Or specify the driver path directly in the connection
connections:
  POSTGRES:
    type: postgres
    host: localhost
    use_adbc: true
    driver: /opt/custom/lib/libadbc_driver_postgresql.dylib

Enabling ADBC on Connections

To use ADBC with your existing database connections, simply add use_adbc: true to your connection configuration. This allows you to keep your original connection properties and format while enabling ADBC's high-performance data transfer.

Connection Properties

The following ADBC-specific properties can be added to any supported database connection:

• use_adbc (optional) -> Enable ADBC driver for this connection (true or false). Default is false.

• adbc_uri (optional) -> Override the automatically constructed ADBC URI. Sling automatically builds the ADBC URI from your connection properties, but you can specify a custom URI if needed.

• driver (optional) -> Explicit path to the ADBC driver library file (e.g., /usr/local/lib/libadbc_driver_postgresql.dylib). If not set, Sling auto-discovers the driver.

Troubleshooting

"failed to load ADBC driver manager library"

This means the driver manager shared library is not installed or cannot be found.

Fix: Install the driver manager (see Step 1 above), or set the ADBC_DRIVER_MANAGER_LIB environment variable to the full path of the library.

# Find the library
find / -name "libadbc_driver_manager*" 2>/dev/null

# Set the path
export ADBC_DRIVER_MANAGER_LIB=/path/to/libadbc_driver_manager.so

"Must provide 'driver' parameter"

This means Sling cannot find the database-specific ADBC driver (e.g., the DuckDB or PostgreSQL driver).

Fix: Install the driver with dbc install <driver_name>, or set ADBC_DRIVER_PATH to the directory containing the driver, or set the driver property in your connection config.

# Install the driver
dbc install duckdb

# Or point Sling to the driver location
export ADBC_DRIVER_PATH=/path/to/drivers

Windows: driver not found after dbc install

On Windows, dbc installs drivers to %APPDATA%\adbc\drivers\ (Roaming), but Sling may search %LOCALAPPDATA% (Local). Set ADBC_DRIVER_PATH to the correct directory:

$env:ADBC_DRIVER_PATH = "$env:APPDATA\adbc\drivers"

Or specify the driver path directly in your connection:

connections:
  DUCKDB:
    type: duckdb
    instance: C:/path/to/file.db
    use_adbc: true
    driver: C:/Users/me/AppData/Roaming/adbc/drivers/duckdb_windows_amd64_v1.4.4/duckdb.dll

Database-Specific Examples

PostgreSQL with ADBC

connections:
  POSTGRES:
    type: postgres
    host: localhost
    user: myuser
    password: mypass
    database: mydatabase
    port: 5432
    use_adbc: true
    # adbc_uri: "postgresql://myuser:mypass@localhost:5432/mydatabase"  # optional override

ADBC URI format: postgresql://user:password@host:port/database

Official Documentation: Apache ADBC PostgreSQL Driver

MySQL with ADBC

connections:
  MYSQL:
    type: mysql
    host: localhost
    user: root
    password: mypass
    database: mydb
    port: 3306
    use_adbc: true
    # adbc_uri: "root@tcp(localhost:3306)/mydb"  # optional override

ADBC URI format: user@tcp(host:port)/database

Official Documentation: Apache ADBC MySQL Driver

SQL Server with ADBC

connections:
  MSSQL:
    type: sqlserver
    host: localhost
    user: sa
    password: mypass
    database: master
    port: 1433
    use_adbc: true
    # adbc_uri: "mssql://sa:mypass@localhost:1433/master"  # optional override

ADBC URI format: mssql://user:password@host:port/database

Official Documentation: Apache ADBC SQL Server Driver

Snowflake with ADBC

connections:
  SNOWFLAKE:
    type: snowflake
    account: myaccount.us-east-1
    user: myuser
    password: mypass
    database: mydb
    schema: myschema
    use_adbc: true
    # adbc_uri: "snowflake://myuser:mypass@myaccount/mydb/myschema"  # optional override

ADBC URI format: snowflake://user:password@account/database/schema

Official Documentation: Apache ADBC Snowflake Driver

DuckDB with ADBC

connections:
  DUCKDB:
    type: duckdb
    instance: /path/to/file.db
    use_adbc: true
    # adbc_uri: "duckdb:///path/to/file.db"  # optional override

ADBC URI format: duckdb:///path/to/file.db or duckdb://:memory:

Official Documentation: Apache ADBC DuckDB Driver

SQLite with ADBC

connections:
  SQLITE:
    type: sqlite
    instance: /path/to/file.db
    use_adbc: true
    # adbc_uri: "sqlite:///path/to/file.db"  # optional override

ADBC URI format: sqlite:///path/to/file.db

Official Documentation: Apache ADBC SQLite Driver

BigQuery with ADBC

connections:
  BIGQUERY:
    type: bigquery
    project: myproject
    dataset: mydataset
    key_file: /path/to/service.account.json
    use_adbc: true
    # adbc_uri: "bigquery://myproject"  # optional override

ADBC URI format: bigquery://project

Official Documentation: Apache ADBC BigQuery Driver

Trino with ADBC

connections:
  TRINO:
    type: trino
    http_url: "http://myuser@localhost:8080?catalog=hive&schema=default"
    use_adbc: true
    # adbc_uri: "http://myuser@localhost:8080?catalog=hive&schema=default"  # optional override

ADBC URI format: http://user@host:port?catalog=catalog&schema=schema

Official Documentation: Apache ADBC Trino Driver

Using sling conns

Here are examples of enabling ADBC on existing connections:

# PostgreSQL with ADBC
$ sling conns set POSTGRES type=postgres host=localhost user=myuser password=mypass database=mydb use_adbc=true

# MySQL with ADBC
$ sling conns set MYSQL type=mysql host=localhost user=root password=mypass database=mydb use_adbc=true

# SQL Server with ADBC
$ sling conns set MSSQL type=sqlserver host=localhost user=sa password=mypass database=master use_adbc=true

# Snowflake with ADBC
$ sling conns set SNOWFLAKE type=snowflake account=myaccount user=myuser password=mypass database=mydb use_adbc=true

# With custom ADBC URI override
$ sling conns set POSTGRES type=postgres host=localhost user=myuser password=mypass database=mydb use_adbc=true adbc_uri="postgresql://myuser:mypass@localhost:5432/mydb"

Environment Variable

export POSTGRES='{ type: postgres, host: localhost, user: myuser, password: mypass, database: mydb, use_adbc: true }'

export MYSQL='{ type: mysql, host: localhost, user: root, password: mypass, database: mydb, use_adbc: true }'

export SNOWFLAKE='{ type: snowflake, account: myaccount, user: myuser, password: mypass, database: mydb, use_adbc: true }'

Sling Env File YAML

See here to learn more about the sling env.yaml file.

connections:
  # PostgreSQL with ADBC
  POSTGRES:
    type: postgres
    host: localhost
    user: myuser
    password: mypass
    database: mydatabase
    use_adbc: true

  # MySQL with ADBC
  MYSQL:
    type: mysql
    host: localhost
    user: root
    password: mypass
    database: mydb
    use_adbc: true

  # SQL Server with ADBC
  MSSQL:
    type: sqlserver
    host: localhost
    user: sa
    password: mypass
    database: master
    use_adbc: true

  # Snowflake with ADBC
  SNOWFLAKE:
    type: snowflake
    account: myaccount
    user: myuser
    password: mypass
    database: mydb
    schema: myschema
    use_adbc: true

  # DuckDB with ADBC
  DUCKDB:
    type: duckdb
    instance: /path/to/file.db
    use_adbc: true

  # With custom ADBC URI override
  POSTGRES_CUSTOM:
    type: postgres
    host: localhost
    user: myuser
    password: mypass
    database: mydatabase
    use_adbc: true
    adbc_uri: "postgresql://myuser:mypass@localhost:5432/mydatabase?sslmode=require"

Additional Resources

• Apache ADBC Project

• ADBC Driver Documentation

• dbc CLI Documentation

• Apache Arrow Documentation

If you are facing issues connecting, please reach out to us at [email protected], on discord or open a Github Issue here.