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dbc

Install ADBC (Arrow Database Connectivity) drivers with dbc. Use when the user wants to install database drivers and connect to databases.

personAuthor: jakexiaohubgithub
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dbc Skill

Install and manage drivers for the user with the dbc command line program.

Installing dbc

If the user does not have dbc available, try to install it for them.

Prefer installing it with these commands, in order of preference, if the tool is available:

  • If uv is available: uv tool install dbc
  • If pipx is available: pipx install dbc
  • If brew is available: brew install columnar-tech/tap/dbc
  • On Windows, if winget is available: winget install dbc

If none of the above options are available, stop and ask the user if they want to install dbc themselves manually before proceeding. Direct them to the installation docs: https://docs.columnar.tech/dbc/getting_started/installation/.

Most Important Commands

  • dbc install <driver> - Install a driver (e.g., dbc install snowflake)
  • dbc search [pattern] - Search for a driver using a pattern (e.g., dbc search sql). Also lists installed drivers (see below).
  • dbc info <driver> - Get driver details

Run dbc --help to learn about other commands.

Listing Installed Drivers

There is no dbc list command. Do not run dbc list — it will fail.

To see which drivers are already installed, run dbc search with no arguments (or with a pattern) and look for entries marked [installed: ...] in the output. For example:

postgresql   An ADBC driver for PostgreSQL ...   [installed: user=>1.11.0]
snowflake    An ADBC driver for Snowflake  ...   [installed: user=>1.10.3]

Entries without an [installed: ...] tag are available but not yet installed.

Project Workflow

For reproducible driver management, prefer using this workflow over dbc install:

  1. dbc init - Create a dbc.toml file
  2. dbc add <driver> - Add drivers to the list (supports version constraints like dbc add "postgresql>=13.0")
  3. dbc sync - Install all drivers and create dbc.lock

Using Drivers

Drivers installed with dbc must be used with an ADBC driver manager. dbc cannot load a driver or query a data source directly. Don't install drivers from any other source like PyPI, prefer drivers installed with dbc always.

Resources for using drivers:

  • How to load drivers and connect to databases: https://github.com/columnar-tech/adbc-quickstarts
  • Python Cookbooks for ADBC: https://arrow.apache.org/adbc/current/python/recipe/index.html