Introduction

A while back, I wrote What the Heck is GizmoSQL? , about Philip Moore's project that took DuckDB , an in-process library, and turned it into a proper server with concurrent sessions, authentication, TLS, and an Arrow Flight SQL endpoint. It solved a real problem. DuckDB is fantastic, but it lives in your process, and when multiple people or applications need to access the same data, you need something in front of it.

Well, the GizmoData folks have gone and replaced it. On October 21, 2026, they announced Hardcharger , a brand new open-source server for DuckDB 2.0, written from scratch rather than ported from the GizmoSQL codebase. It's licensed under Apache 2.0, with no editions or license keys, a notable change I will come back to.

Let's Dive In

Why did Hardcharger ditch Arrow Flight SQL in favor of a new protocol called Chargewire?…