Rusty Conover
Data infrastructure engineer and founder of Query.Farm. Building DuckDB extensions, scaling data platforms, and writing about what I learn along the way.
Recent Activity
View all →Rusty was in full commit mode today, hammering out 13 consecutive pushes to vgi-rpc-python in what can only be described as a focused sprint. No PRs opened, no issues filed—just pure, unadulterated code being pushed into the repo with the intensity of someone who knows exactly what needs fixing. Meanwhile, behind closed doors, classified project and classified project received their fair share of attention, suggesting Rusty was juggling classified operations alongside the open-source grind.
Rusty was the social butterfly of the Apache Arrow ecosystem today, weighing in thoughtfully on issue #4012 in arrow-adbc about GetInfo codes for driver features. Meanwhile, he became the resident philosopher on duckdb's issue #21041, offering five separate helpings of wisdom on the spicy new .llm dot command proposal (because apparently one hot take wasn't enough). Behind the scenes, he juggled commits across query-farm-telemetry-client, vgi-rpc-cpp, and his personal duckdb fork, plus opened a PR on arrow-go to keep the Arrow train rolling. He also snuck in some classified operations on classified project and classified project—mysterious endeavors best left to the imagination. A day of quality over quantity, with genuine community stewardship baked in.
Rusty embarked on a polyglot marathon, distributing 36 commits across the entire vgi-rpc ecosystem—C++ (vgi-rpc-cpp), TypeScript (vgi-rpc-typescript), Python (vgi-rpc-python), Go (vgi-rpc-go), and the website (vgi-rpc-website). This was a full-stack sprint across multiple languages and implementations, with particularly heavy activity in the website and C++ layers. Meanwhile, classified operations continued humming along behind closed doors with classified project. A day of relentless, cross-platform momentum.
TIME Data Type Compatibility Across Databases
A survey of the TIME data type across 14 databases, comparing supported ranges, maximum values, and whether the special value 24:00:00 is accepted.
Telemetry for DuckDB Extensions Without the Pain
I open-sourced the telemetry client I use across Query.Farm's DuckDB extensions. It's two files, one function call, and it only collects platform and version info.
Releasing vgi-rpc: An RPC Framework Built on Apache Arrow
I built an RPC framework for Python that uses Apache Arrow IPC as the wire format and Python Protocol classes as the interface definition. No .proto files, no codegen — just type annotations.
Acronym-Aware Case Conversions in the DuckDB Inflector Extension
The Inflector extension for DuckDB now supports configurable acronyms, so case conversions preserve terms like HTML, API, and URL as fully uppercase — configured through a native DuckDB setting.
DuckDB Extension Development Workshop
DuckDB Developer Meeting #1 — Amsterdam, Netherlands
Building on Flight: Real-World Lessons from the DuckDB Airport Extension
Apache Arrow Summit 2025 — Paris, France
Query.Farm: Growing DuckDB Community Extensions
DuckDB Amsterdam Meetup #3 — Amsterdam, Netherlands
DuckDB, Apache Arrow, & the Future of Data Engineering
The Hedgineer Podcast (S2E3)
What I've Been Working On
Full activity log →I've been deep in DuckDB ecosystem stewardship over the past few months, orchestrating major version migrations, shipping production-ready multi-language implementations, and contributing upstream enhancements across Apache Arrow. February marked a turning point with the complete vgi-rpc ecosystem launch and a DuckDB 1.5 compatibility push across dozens of extensions, while earlier months focused on systematic infrastructure upgrades and core database improvements. Throughout it all, I've balanced high-output public work with classified operations that keep things interesting.
- Led DuckDB 1.5 compatibility across the Query-farm extension portfolio with 40+ PRs, future-proofing extensions like airport, shellfs, and webmacro while standardizing documentation across 29 repositories.
- Shipped a production vgi-rpc ecosystem with implementations in Python, C++, Go, and TypeScript, complete with unified branding, Cloudflare hosting, and Apache 2.0 licensing across the entire suite.
- Contributed upstream enhancements to Apache Arrow across four language implementations, adding custom metadata support for RecordBatch IPC messages that fixed silent data drops in production systems.