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 cut multiple releases on vgi-rpc-python today, shipping three versions in quick succession: v0.6.6, v0.6.7, and v0.6.8. The rapid release cadence suggests either bug fixes or refinements rolling out to address issues discovered in testing or production use.
DuckDB work dominated the day. A fix for DELETE ... RETURNING with local storage merged into the main duckdb repository (PR #21541). More significantly, Rusty opened PR #21794 on duckdb/duckdb to expose column tags via duckdb_columns(), addressing a feature request for better column metadata discovery. The work involved multiple commits on the feature/column-tags-in-duckdb-columns branch in his fork (rustyconover/duckdb), and he also commented on the PR to discuss implementation details with the community.
SEC Filing Data Consistency Work
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.
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
What I've Been Working On
Full activity log →I've spent the last few months deep in ecosystem stewardship, shipping polished infrastructure across multiple language implementations while systematically modernizing the DuckDB extension universe. February marked a turning point—I led a major compatibility crusade across 40+ extensions, contributed upstream enhancements to Apache Arrow across four languages, and shipped a production-ready vgi-rpc ecosystem with unified branding and documentation. The through-line across these months has been balancing high-impact open-source contributions with meticulous gardening work that keeps mature ecosystems healthy and forward-compatible.
- Led DuckDB 1.5 compatibility upgrades across 29+ repositories while standardizing documentation structures and opening 40+ PRs to future-proof the extension portfolio.
- Contributed upstream to Apache Arrow across JavaScript, Swift, Rust, and Go, adding custom metadata support and fixing silent data drops in RecordBatch serialization.
- Shipped Fair Weather Friend with PWA support, astronomical stargazing mode, cycling weather scoring, and dog walking safety alerts—proving weather apps can be delightfully practical.