🌪️ Vortex
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If you are interested in closer collaboration, please email [email protected]
Overview
Vortex is a next-generation columnar file format and toolkit designed for high-performance data processing.
It is the fastest and most extensible format for building data systems backed by object storage. It provides:
🟢 Development Status: Library APIs may change from version to version, but we now consider
the file format stable. From release 0.36.0, all future releases of Vortex should
maintain backwards compatibility of the file format (i.e., be able to read files written by
any earlier version >= 0.36.0).
Key Features
Core Capabilities
- Logical Types - Clean separation between logical schema and physical layout
- Zero-Copy Arrow Integration - Seamless conversion to/from Apache Arrow arrays
- Extensible Encodings - Pluggable physical layouts with built-in optimizations
- Cascading Compression - Support for nested encoding schemes
- High-Performance Computing - Optimized compute kernels for encoded data
- Rich Statistics - Lazy-loaded summary statistics for optimization
Technical Architecture
Logical vs Physical Design
Vortex strictly separates logical and physical concerns:
- Logical Layer: Defines data types and schema
- Physical Layer: Handles encoding and storage implementation
- Built-in Encodings: Compatible with Apache Arrow’s memory format
- Extension Encodings: Optimized compression schemes (RLE, dictionary, etc.)
Quick Start
Installation
Rust Crate
All features are exported through the main vortex crate.
cargo add vortex
Python Package
uv add vortex-data
Command Line UI (vx)
For browsing the structure of Vortex files, you can use the vx command-line tool.
# Install pre-built binary (fast, recommended)
cargo binstall vortex-tui
# Or build from source
cargo install vortex-tui --locked
# Or run via Python without installing
uvx --from vortex-data vx --help
# Usage
vx browse <file>
Development Setup
Prerequisites (macOS)
# Optional but recommended dependencies
brew install flatbuffers protobuf # For .fbs and .proto files
brew install duckdb # For benchmarks
# Install Rust toolchain
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
# or
brew install rustup
# Initialize submodules
git submodule update --init --recursive
# Setup dependencies with uv
uv sync --all-packages
See the development workflows for Python binding and
documentation development, including Maturin rebuilds, targeted tests, and documentation checks.
rust-toolchain.toml pins the toolchain used for development and CI, and is kept on the latest
stable release. Building Vortex as a dependency only requires a toolchain that satisfies the
Rust version compatibility policy.
Benchmarking
Use vx-bench to run benchmarks comparing engines (DataFusion, DuckDB) and formats (Parquet, Vortex):
# Install the benchmark orchestrator
uv tool install "bench_orchestrator @ ./bench-orchestrator/"
# Run TPC-H benchmarks
vx-bench run tpch --engine datafusion,duckdb --format parquet,vortex
# Compare results
vx-bench compare --run latest
See bench-orchestrator/README.md for full documentation.
For optimal performance, we suggest using MiMalloc:
#[global_allocator]
static GLOBAL_ALLOC: MiMalloc = MiMalloc;
Rust Version Compatibility Policy
The policy: Vortex supports the four most recent stable minor releases. Writing the latest
stable release as 1.N, that means 1.N, 1.N-1, 1.N-2, and 1.N-3 all build Vortex, so the
three minor releases older than the latest stable release. Only the minor version is constrained;
Minimum Supported Rust Version (MSRV) declared in Cargo.toml must be no newer than 1.N-3,
patch releases are never a factor.
An MSRV older than 1.N-3 is always acceptable — supporting extra releases cannot break the
guarantee. An MSRV newer than 1.N-3 does not meet the policy. For example, once 1.98 is the
latest stable release:
| Declared MSRV |
Status |
1.94 or older |
Acceptable — supports more releases than required |
1.95 |
Exactly on policy |
1.96 or newer |
Does not meet the policy |
The MSRV is raised in occasional deliberate steps rather than on every Rust release, so it drifts
relative to that bound.
How the policy is applied:
- The MSRV is declared once, as
rust-version in the root Cargo.toml, and inherited by every
crate in the workspace. That value, not this document, is the source of truth.
- The toolchain pinned in
rust-toolchain.toml tracks the latest stable release and is independent
of the MSRV. It is what contributors and most CI jobs build with.
- CI enforces the declared MSRV in the
Rust (MSRV) job, which builds the publishable crates with
exactly that toolchain. When it fails, the first choices are to express the code without the
newer Rust feature, or to hold back the dependency update that raised the requirement. Raising
rust-version is a last resort.
License
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.
Governance
Vortex is an independent open-source project and not controlled by any single company. The Vortex Project is a
sub-project of the Linux Foundation Projects. The governance model is documented in
CONTRIBUTING.md and is subject to the terms of
the Technical Charter.
Contributing
Please do read CONTRIBUTING.md before you contribute.
Reporting Vulnerabilities
If you discover a security vulnerability, please email [email protected]. See
SECURITY.md for our full security policy, including emergency reporting and CRA
stewardship.
Trademarks
Copyright © Vortex a Series of LF Projects, LLC.
For terms of use, trademark policy, and other project policies please see https://lfprojects.org
Acknowledgments
The Vortex project benefits enormously from groundbreaking work from the academic & open-source communities.
Research in Vortex
Vortex in Research
- Anyblox - A Framework for Self-Decoding Datasets
- F3 - Open-Source Data File Format for the Future
Open Source Inspiration
Thanks to all contributors who have shared their knowledge and code with the community! 🚀
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