Our review
This skill provides a comprehensive reference for 12 NewSQL and distributed SQL databases, including configuration, consistency models, scaling strategies, and operational patterns for production deployments.
Strengths
- Covers a wide range of leading distributed SQL databases.
- Includes specific reference files for deep dives.
- Provides a comparison table and anti-patterns to avoid common mistakes.
- Addresses the CAP theorem context for distributed consistency.
Limitations
- Requires familiarity with SQL and database concepts.
- May not include the latest updates for each database.
- Focuses on operational aspects, not application-level optimizations.
Use when designing or operating globally distributed, horizontally scalable SQL databases in production.
Do not use for simple single-node database tasks or if you need a shallow overview without operational depth.
Security analysis
SafeThe skill provides informational guidance on distributed SQL databases with no destructive or exfiltrating instructions. The Bash tool is allowed but not used in a risky manner; no actual commands are specified.
No concerns found
Examples
I need to set up a CockroachDB cluster across three regions with geo-partitioning and ensure serializable isolation. Load the CockroachDB reference and guide me through the multi-region topology steps.I want to use TiDB for hybrid transactional and analytical processing. Load the TiDB reference and explain how to configure TiFlash for columnar analytics while maintaining OLTP performance.I need to design a Vitess sharding schema for a user table with billions of rows. Load the Vitess reference and help me define a VSchema with proper shard keys and table colocation.name: newsql-distributed description: | Deep operational guide for 12 NewSQL/distributed SQL databases. CockroachDB (multi-region, geo-partitioning, CDC), YugabyteDB (YSQL/YCQL, DocDB, xCluster), TiDB (TiKV/TiFlash HTAP), Spanner (TrueTime), Vitess (sharding, VSchema), PlanetScale, Citus, SingleStore, OceanBase. Use when implementing globally distributed SQL, horizontal scaling, or HTAP workloads. allowed-tools: Read, Grep, Glob, Bash
You are a NewSQL and distributed SQL database specialist providing production-level guidance across 12 database technologies.
Distributed SQL Comparison
| Database | Consistency | PG Compatible | Scale | HTAP | Managed | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | CockroachDB | Serializable | Wire + SQL | Auto sharding | No | CockroachDB Cloud | | YugabyteDB | Serializable | YSQL (PG) + YCQL (CQL) | Auto sharding | No | YugabyteDB Aeon | | TiDB | Snapshot isolation | MySQL wire | TiKV auto-split | Yes (TiFlash) | TiDB Cloud | | Google Spanner | External consistency | PG via pgAdapter | Auto splits | No | Fully managed | | Vitess | MySQL-dependent | MySQL wire | Manual (VSchema) | No | PlanetScale | | PlanetScale | MySQL-dependent | MySQL wire | Vitess sharding | No | Fully managed | | Citus | PG defaults (RC) | Native PG extension | Manual distribution | No | Azure Cosmos for PG | | SingleStore | Read committed | MySQL wire | Shard-nothing | Yes (columnstore) | SingleStore Helios | | OceanBase | RC / Snapshot | MySQL + Oracle modes | Auto partitioning | Yes | OceanBase Cloud | | Neon | PG defaults | Full PG | Scale-to-zero | No | Fully managed serverless | | AlloyDB | PG defaults | Full PG | Read replicas | Analytics accelerator | Google Cloud managed |
Reference Files
Load the relevant reference for the task at hand:
- CockroachDB: multi-region topologies, CDC changefeeds, serializable isolation, cluster settings, backup: references/cockroachdb.md
- YugabyteDB YSQL/YCQL/DocDB/xCluster, TiDB TiFlash HTAP, TiCDC, placement rules, online DDL: references/yugabytedb-tidb.md
- Google Spanner TrueTime/interleaved tables, Vitess VSchema/MoveTables/Reshard, PlanetScale branching: references/spanner-vitess-planetscale.md
- Citus distributed tables, SingleStore rowstore/columnstore, OceanBase multi-tenancy, design patterns, monitoring: references/citus-singlestore-oceanbase-patterns.md
CAP Theorem Context
NewSQL databases choose CP (Consistency + Partition Tolerance):
- Raft/Paxos consensus ensures consistency across partitions
- Automatic failover preserves availability in practice
- Latency increases with geographic distance between replicas
- Use follower reads (CRDB) or bounded staleness reads for geo-distributed latency reduction
Anti-Patterns
- Auto-increment primary keys as shard keys (hotspot on insert)
- Cross-shard JOINs without table colocation (scatter-gather overhead)
- Long-running transactions in serializable isolation (contention explosion)
- Missing retry loop for 40001 RETRY_SERIALIZABLE in CockroachDB applications
- Blocking DDL on distributed tables without expand-contract migration
- Skipping connection pooling (per-connection overhead is significant at scale)
Prompt Engineering
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Prompt engineering best practices and templates to maximize AI outputs.
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Generates data visualizations and charts tailored to your data.
RAG Architecture Setup
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Setup guide for RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) architectures.