KDB-X Release Notes

This page details the latest features and improvements released to KDB-X.

Releases

KDB-X General Availability - 2025.11.17

This release marks the general availability (GA) of KDB-X, along with the new Community Edition license.

This is a major milestone as KDB-X is now fully supported for production use, and we’re thrilled to introduce the Community Edition, which is free for both personal and commercial use, making it easier than ever to get started.

This release includes all the features released during Public Preview and more! Some of the highlights:

Parquet Support
Modules
Embedded rlwrap
Visualization
MCP Server
VS Code

1. Parquet Support

A new Parquet module pq is now available, introducing native support for executing queries on Parquet files, leveraging partition and row-group pruning to minimize processed data. See Parquet for more details.

2. Modules

KDB-X now includes native module support which introduces primitives to modernize library handling and safety through import aliasing. This gives users a standardized way of organizing, managing, and distributing code within their organization and the wider KDB-X community. See the Module Management overview page for more details.

This release also includes our first set of KDB-X and open-source modules:

3. Embedded `rlwrap`

KDB-X now includes an embedded support for rlwrap to give users immediate productivity in the terminal experience, without requiring new users to install additional software.

4. Visualization

KDB-X now integrates with KX Dashboards, enabling real-time data visualization. See the Dashboards overview for more details.

5. MCP Server

This release includes the KDB-X MCP Server integration, enabling natural language interaction through AI tools (for example, Claude, GPT, Gemini). See the MCP Server overview for more details.

6. VS Code Support

This release adds VSCode IDE support for KDB-X including first time installation with the KDB-X Community Edition.

Head to the KDB-X Tutorials page to begin experimenting with the new features, and be sure to review the KDB-X Roadmap to see what's coming next!

KDB-X Public Preview release – 2025.10.22

The following are the highlights of this release:

Modules
Dashboards

1. Modules

The following enhancements have been made for modules:

Modules framework: Added a new framework for creating and administering modules. This gives users a standardized way of organizing, managing, and distributing code within their organization and the wider KDB-X community.
See the Module Management overview page for more details.
New modules available: The following modules are now available for Public Preview:
AI Library enhancements: Added support for advanced AI libraries, enabling:
- semantic search on unstructured data
- Time Series Similarity Search (TSS)

KX will continue to roll out new modules designed to power and simplify your KDB-X development journey.

2. Dashboards

KDB-X now integrates with KX Dashboards, enabling real-time data visualization.
See the Dashboards overview for more details.

KDB-X Public Preview release – 2025.06.25

The following are the highlights of this release:

Community license support
.Q.lim resource limits
Limit improvements
Versioning and startup
Configuration file support
Embedded components: q.k and kxsql
Telemetry
Console enhancements
Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server

1. Community license support

Support has been added for the new community kc.lic license with embedded resource limits: cores, threads, memory, and connections.

2. `.Q.lim` resource limits

.Q.lim[] returns resource limits:

q).Q.lim[]
cores  | 24
threads| 4
mem    | 17179869184
conns  | 8

3. Limit improvements

Several limit improvements were added:

Core limit checked on startup versus CPU affinity.
Thread limit restricts secondary threads:

$ q -s 9
'max number of secondary threads 8

Multi-threaded input on negative ports is disabled:

$ q -p -4321
'-port disabled

Memory limit enforces heap safety:

q)b:til 100000000
q)do[20;a,:b]
'stop

Once breached, individual operations are limited to a 64MB stack:

q)til 10000000
'stop

Variable assignment is blocked:

q)c:1
'noupdate: `. `c

Delete operations are allowed for recovery:

q)delete a from `.
q)c:1
q)til 10000000
0 1 2 3 4 ..

The conns limit restricts simultaneous IPC connections:

q)hopen each 8#1234;
q)hopen 1234
'conn

Note

Applies to IPC, HTTP, and sd1() main-loop connections.

4. Versioning and startup

.z.v exposes environment defaults:

QCFG → $HOME/.kx/config
QHOME → one level above executable
QLIC → empty string → checks QHOME
QINIT → q.q

Example:

$ ~/.kx/bin/q
q).z.v
version|"0.1.0t"
QCFG   |"/home/homer/.kx/config"
QHOME  |"/home/homer/.kx"
QLIC   |""
QINIT  |"q.q"

5. Configuration file support

Define key=value pairs in ~/.kx/config:

QLIC=/tmp/kdbx/lic
QINIT=kdbx.q

Inspect values:

q).Q.cfg

Override config path via environment:

QCFG=~/.kx/config2 q

Or via -v flag (highest precedence):

q -v ~/.kx/config3

Single-character keys represent command-line options:

e=1
p=1234
c=25 100

Explicit flags override config:

q -p 4321

6. Embedded components: `q.k` and `kxsql`

q.k is now embedded:

q).Q.qk

kxsql can be initialized with:

q).s.init[]

Use SQL inline:

q)t:([]a:1 2 3;b:4 5 6)
q)t~.s.e"select * from t"

Release date:

q).s.rel
2025.01.16

Related content: KX SQL Interface

7. Telemetry

Check status:

q).Q.tel[]
1b

8. Console enhancements

Auto-size rows and columns:

q)\c
25 80i
q)\c 50 0N
q)\c

Explicit 0N required for row/column separation.

Invalid values now produce domain errors:

q)\c aa bb
'domain

9. Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server

Adds support for KDB-X MCP Server integration, enabling natural language interaction through AI tools (Claude, GPT, Gemini).
See the MCP Server overview for more details.

NUC (Not Upwardly Compatible)