Does Fastify Work With Turso?
Fastify works seamlessly with Turso; you get a lightweight, high-performance web framework paired with an edge-distributed SQLite database.
Quick Facts
How Fastify Works With Turso
Fastify integrates with Turso through the `@libsql/client` npm package, which provides both HTTP and WebSocket clients for connecting to Turso databases. Since Fastify is a minimal, unopinionated framework, there's no built-in ORM or database layer—you simply install the Turso client and use it in your route handlers. This is actually a strength: you have full control over query execution and can optimize database calls per endpoint.
The typical pattern is to initialize a Turso client once at startup and reuse it across all routes via dependency injection or a module-level singleton. Fastify's request lifecycle hooks (`onRequest`, `onSend`, etc.) can wrap database operations with logging or monitoring. The edge-distributed nature of Turso means reduced latency for globally distributed users, which complements Fastify's low-overhead philosophy. You can deploy Fastify anywhere (Vercel, Netlify, Railway, self-hosted) and connect to your Turso database with minimal network overhead.
One architectural consideration: Turso has connection limits and billing based on API calls, so you may want to implement query caching or batch operations in high-traffic scenarios. Fastify's streaming response support pairs well with Turso for returning large result sets efficiently.
Best Use Cases
Quick Setup
npm install fastify @libsql/clientimport Fastify from 'fastify';
import { createClient } from '@libsql/client/web';
const fastify = Fastify();
const db = createClient({
url: process.env.TURSO_CONNECTION_URL!,
authToken: process.env.TURSO_AUTH_TOKEN!,
});
fastify.get('/posts', async (request, reply) => {
const result = await db.execute('SELECT id, title FROM posts LIMIT 10');
return result.rows;
});
fastify.post('/posts', async (request, reply) => {
const { title, body } = request.body as { title: string; body: string };
const result = await db.execute(
'INSERT INTO posts (title, body) VALUES (?, ?) RETURNING *',
[title, body]
);
reply.code(201);
return result.rows[0];
});
fastify.listen({ port: 3000 });Known Issues & Gotchas
Turso has connection limits (rate limiting on free tier). High-concurrency Fastify servers can quickly exhaust quotas.
Fix: Implement connection pooling with `@libsql/client` or cache frequently-accessed data. Monitor your API quota usage in the Turso dashboard.
Turso's HTTP client has slightly higher latency than native SQLite. Expect 10-50ms additional latency per query depending on geography.
Fix: Use Turso's embedded replica feature if you need sub-millisecond reads, or batch queries to reduce round trips.
Transaction support in Turso is limited; long-running transactions over HTTP can timeout or fail.
Fix: Design for eventual consistency where possible. Keep transactions short and test timeout scenarios in development.
Alternatives
- •Express.js + Turso: More mature ecosystem but heavier than Fastify; good if you need extensive middleware.
- •Remix + Turso: Full-stack framework with built-in data loading; better for server-side rendering.
- •SvelteKit + Turso: Edge-first framework with automatic API routes; optimal for static-site-plus-database projects.
Resources
Related Compatibility Guides
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