Clickhouse local dev loop

ClickHouse Local Dev Loop

Overview

Run ClickHouse in Docker for local development with fast schema iteration, seed data, and integration testing using vitest. This skill scaffolds a Docker-Compose-based dev loop: an auto-migrating init script, a seed generator, a reusable client singleton, and a truncate-between-tests integration harness — so schema changes and query work stay a docker compose up away.

Prerequisites

• Docker or Docker Compose installed and running (docker info succeeds).
• Node.js 18+ with the @clickhouse/client package for the seed/test scripts.
• A local project directory you can Write files into. No cloud account or network access is required — everything runs on localhost.

Authentication

This is a local dev setup with no external ClickHouse Cloud service. The container's credentials are declared inline in docker-compose.yml (CLICKHOUSE_USER: default, CLICKHOUSE_PASSWORD: dev_password) and consumed by the client via env vars (CLICKHOUSE_USER, CLICKHOUSE_PASSWORD, CLICKHOUSE_HOST, CLICKHOUSE_DATABASE). Keep real per-developer overrides in a git-ignored .env.local; commit only a .env.example. Never reuse dev_password outside local development.

Instructions

Follow the seven-step build. The lean skeleton is below; the full walkthrough carries the complete file contents for every step.

1. Docker Compose setup — Write a docker-compose.yml exposing 8123 (HTTP) and 9000 (native TCP), mounting ./init-db for auto-migration and a named volume for persistence:

   services:
     clickhouse:
       image: clickhouse/clickhouse-server:latest
       ports: ["8123:8123", "9000:9000"]
       volumes:
         - clickhouse-data:/var/lib/clickhouse
         - ./init-db:/docker-entrypoint-initdb.d
       environment:
         CLICKHOUSE_PASSWORD: dev_password
         CLICKHOUSE_DEFAULT_ACCESS_MANAGEMENT: 1
   volumes:
     clickhouse-data:
   

   Then docker compose up -d and verify with curl http://localhost:8123/ping → Ok.

2. Init script — Write init-db/001-schema.sql with your CREATE DATABASE / CREATE TABLE ... ENGINE = MergeTree() DDL. ClickHouse auto-runs it on the container's first start.

3. Seed data — Write scripts/seed.ts that batch-inserts synthetic rows via client.insert({ format: 'JSONEachRow' }).

4. Project structure — lay out init-db/, scripts/, src/, tests/, and the .env.local / .env.example pair.

5. Client singleton — Write src/db.ts exposing a memoized getClient() that reads connection settings from env vars with localhost fallbacks.

6. Integration testing — Write a vitest tests/setup.ts that TRUNCATEs tables in beforeEach and closes the client in afterAll, then write per-feature test files.

7. Package scripts — Edit package.json to add db:up, db:down, db:reset, db:seed, db:shell, and test scripts.

Read the full walkthrough for the exact, copy-pasteable contents of each file.

Output

Running this skill produces a working local ClickHouse dev loop:

• A running clickhouse-server container reachable at http://localhost:8123 (HTTP) and localhost:9000 (native), answering curl .../ping with Ok.
• An auto-created app database and schema from init-db/001-schema.sql.
• Seedable data via npm run db:seed (default: 1000 synthetic events).
• A green vitest integration suite that inserts and queries against the live container, resetting table state between tests.
• One-command lifecycle scripts (db:up, db:down, db:reset, db:seed, db:shell, test) wired into package.json.

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Solution
Connection refused :8123	Container not running	docker compose up -d
READONLY	User lacks write perms	Set CLICKHOUSE_DEFAULT_ACCESS_MANAGEMENT=1
Too many parts	Tiny frequent inserts	Batch inserts or increase parts_to_throw_insert
Memory limit exceeded	Large query on small container	Add --memory 4g to Docker

Examples

Bring the stack up, seed it, and confirm the rows landed:

docker compose up -d
curl http://localhost:8123/ping                 # → "Ok.\n"
npm run db:seed                                   # seeds 1000 events
curl 'http://localhost:8123/?query=SELECT+count()+FROM+app.events'   # → 1000

Open an interactive SQL shell:

docker exec -it <container> clickhouse-client --password dev_password

See more examples — server-state inspection, HTTP queries, environment reset, and a passing integration-test run.

Resources

• Full implementation walkthrough — all seven build steps with complete file contents.
• Examples — cold-start, shell, HTTP query, reset, and test-run recipes.
• ClickHouse Docker Image
• clickhouse-client CLI
• Vitest Documentation

Next Steps

Once the local loop is green, see the clickhouse-sdk-patterns skill for production-ready client patterns (connection pooling, retries, typed query helpers, and async inserts) that build on the getClient() singleton above.