Datasette
Explore and publish SQLite data as a web UI and JSON API
Datasette is an open source tool for exploring and publishing data, turning SQLite databases into an interactive website with a built-in JSON API. It is designed to help share, browse, and query datasets in a user-friendly way, while remaining extensible through plugins.
Key Features
- Interactive web interface for browsing databases, tables, rows, and running SQL queries
- Automatic JSON API for databases, tables, queries, and metadata
- Plugin ecosystem for authentication, permissions, search, UI customization, and integrations
- Configuration via JSON/YAML files for titles, licenses, sources, and instance settings
- Deployment-friendly workflows, including container-based publishing and hosted runtime options
Use Cases
- Publish public datasets for journalism, research, museums, archives, or government transparency
- Provide a lightweight internal data browser and query UI for SQLite-based projects
- Build data-backed prototypes and share queryable datasets with an API for downstream tools
Limitations and Considerations
- Primarily centered around SQLite as the underlying database engine; other databases typically require extraction or mirroring into SQLite
- Advanced write operations and multi-user editing workflows are not the primary focus compared to full database admin platforms
Datasette is a practical choice for quickly turning SQLite data into a shareable, searchable web application with an API. Its plugin architecture and emphasis on publishing make it especially useful for organizations and individuals who need to make datasets explorable without building a custom application from scratch.
Categories:
Tags:
Tech Stack:
SQLite
Docker
Python
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