About Dynoxide

Dynoxide is a DynamoDB emulator, backed by SQLite. The same engine runs as a local HTTP server, embeds into Rust and iOS applications as a library, compiles to WebAssembly for the browser, and exposes an MCP server for coding agents. It ships as a single static binary, so there's no runtime or database to install alongside it.

Why it exists

DynamoDB Local was slowing my test suites down. It needs a JVM, the usual Docker setup adds a couple of seconds of cold start before anything useful happens, and it can't embed, so giving every test its own isolated database means paying that cost over and over. On a suite that runs a few hundred times a day, the database stops being a detail and starts being the reason you're waiting.

Dynoxide starts in milliseconds and downloads at around 3 MB. Point any AWS SDK at it and the only thing that changes is the endpoint.

It isn't a production database and isn't trying to be. There's no capacity metering, no throttling, no replication and no IAM. Compatibility sets out what it implements, what it deliberately leaves alone, and the handful of places its behaviour knowingly differs from the real thing.

Who maintains it

I'm Martin Hicks, an AWS consultant based in Manchester, UK. Dynoxide is an independent open-source project under the nubo-db organisation on GitHub, dual-licensed MIT or Apache-2.0. Issues and pull requests are welcome on the repository.

A disclosure about the conformance figures

Dynoxide's behaviour is scored by Parity Suite, a public conformance suite that runs one test matrix against real DynamoDB on AWS, then against every emulator the same way. The standings on this site come from its latest published run.

I maintain Parity Suite too. Dynoxide is scored on the same public matrix as every other target, and the suite, the test code and the raw results are all open, so anyone can rerun it and check. You should still know where the scoreboard comes from before you read it, which is why the claim made here is about the method rather than about the ranking. Conformance explains how the grading works and what the suite doesn't cover.

Not affiliated with AWS

Amazon DynamoDB, DynamoDB and AWS are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Dynoxide is an independent project, not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Amazon, and nothing here grants any right to use those names or marks.

Questions, bugs or security reports? Get in touch.