ADR-0006: MotherDuck as the cloud path

Status: Superseded · 2026-07 by the local-only platform decision in ADR-0007 and .10x/decisions/local-only-birding-product-architecture.md

Historical record only. MotherDuck is no longer a supported backend. The configuration and commands below describe the former implementation and MUST NOT be used as current setup instructions.

Context

The local stack was considered insufficient for sharing data across laptops or publishing a live portfolio dashboard. Managed warehouses, object storage plus a query service, MotherDuck, and self-hosted DuckDB were evaluated as possible cloud paths.

Historical decision

MotherDuck was selected as a cloud DuckDB path while local DuckDB remained the default. The former implementation selected local or cloud database URIs, dlt destinations, and SQLMesh gateways with an environment variable.

Supersession rationale

The product is now explicitly local-only. A cloud warehouse and Dive publication path add deployment, authentication, synchronization, proprietary service, and application-state complexity without serving the personal local product. Databox now has one supported warehouse path: data/databox.duckdb, written through Quack and transformed through the local SQLMesh gateway.

Historical changelog and terminal project records retain the old decision as factual history. Active configuration, runtime code, tests, task commands, and setup documentation do not expose the former cloud path.