Rusty Conover

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.

DuckDB Apache Arrow Rust C++ TypeScript

Posts & Events

Query.Farm

VGI Injector: A Tiny HTTPS Download-and-Execute Binary in Zig

I needed a self-contained binary that downloads a program over HTTPS and exec's it — small enough to run in a FROM scratch container with nothing else. Go and Rust couldn't get small enough. Zig could.

DuckDB

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.

Query.Farm

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.

Query.Farm

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.

DuckDB

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

DuckDB Extension Development Workshop

DuckDB Developer Meeting #1 — Amsterdam, Netherlands

Apache Arrow

Building on Flight: Real-World Lessons from the DuckDB Airport Extension

Apache Arrow Summit 2025 — Paris, France

Query.Farm

Query.Farm: Growing DuckDB Community Extensions

DuckDB Amsterdam Meetup #3 — Amsterdam, Netherlands

What I've Been Working On

Full activity log →

I've been focused on infrastructure modernization and ecosystem stewardship across the DuckDB and Apache Arrow landscapes. February brought a major compatibility push for DuckDB 1.5 across dozens of extensions alongside upstream contributions to Arrow's IPC serialization, while January and December balanced core database improvements with extensive classified work. Throughout these months, I've shifted from tactical bug fixes toward systematic ecosystem health—standardizing documentation, shipping production-ready implementations, and ensuring the extension portfolio stays current and secure.

  • Led DuckDB 1.5 compatibility initiative across 40+ pull requests, standardizing Query-farm extensions like airport, shellfs, webmacro, and inflector while future-proofing the entire portfolio
  • Contributed upstream enhancements to Apache Arrow across JavaScript, Swift, Rust, and Go, adding custom metadata support for RecordBatch IPC messages and fixing silent data loss in production systems
  • Shipped complete vgi-rpc ecosystem with production implementations in Python, C++, Go, and TypeScript, including unified branding, documentation infrastructure, and SEO optimization