explaingit

mateusamp2119/iris-lakehouse

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

1GoAudience · ops devopsComplexity · 4/5Setup · moderate

TLDR

A Go powered data pipeline engine that tracks exactly where every row of data came from, backed by Postgres.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Runs data pipelines
      Tracks row level lineage
      Signed tamper evident journal
    Tech stack
      Go
      PostgreSQL
      CLI tool
    Use cases
      Orchestrate scheduled data jobs
      Trace origin of a data row
      Manage failed pipeline runs
    Audience
      Data engineers
      Ops teams
    Setup
      Single install command
      Self managed Postgres
      Multi instance HA option

Code map

Detail Auto

An interactive map of this repo's files and how they connect — its source is parsed live in your browser. Click Visualize to build it.

filefunction / class

What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Orchestrate recurring data pipelines written in any language.

USE CASE 2

Trace exactly which run and script produced a specific row in a table.

USE CASE 3

Run a self managed Postgres backed data engine without extra external services.

USE CASE 4

Query pipeline and run status through a read only HTTP API.

What is it built with?

GoPostgreSQLCLIed25519

How does it compare?

mateusamp2119/iris-lakehouseadvayc/wrappedaegrail/aegrail-engine
Stars111
LanguageGoGoGo
Setup difficultymoderateeasyhard
Complexity4/52/55/5
Audienceops devopsgeneralops devops

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Needs a Postgres 16 or newer cluster, either self managed by Iris or pointed at an external one.

No license information is stated in the README.

In plain English

Iris Lakehouse is a data engine with a command line tool, written in Go, for running data pipelines and tracking exactly where every piece of data came from. The project describes itself as a more capable version of a cron job scheduler, rebuilt as a daemon that runs recurring tasks called pipelines. Each pipeline is a folder containing one script, written in any programming language, plus a small declaration file that says what the pipeline reads, writes, and depends on. The core feature is data lineage: every write to a table is recorded inside the same database transaction as the write itself, tagged with the run, the program, and the declaration that produced it. This history is sealed into a tamper evident journal signed with ed25519 cryptography, so a command like iris data provenance can tell you exactly where any row in any table came from, at any point in its history. All of this state, including pipeline definitions and the lineage journal, is stored in a PostgreSQL database, which Iris can either manage for you automatically or connect to an existing Postgres 16 or newer cluster. There are no other external services required, and the tool is designed to run on anything from a single small server up to a multi instance setup built for high availability. Installing Iris is a single shell command that downloads a ready to run binary, with no other dependencies needed. Developers with Go 1.25 or newer installed can also install it directly through Go's own install command, or clone the repository and build it from source. A snapshot channel is also available for people who want the newest, untested code from the development branch rather than the stable release. Once installed, the command line tool lets you apply pipeline and schema declarations, queue pipeline runs, view a live graph of running and completed runs, inspect logs, and manage failed runs through a dedicated retry list. It also exposes a read only web API, protected by access tokens, so other programs can query the current state of pipelines, runs, and the underlying data tables. This is aimed at people building or maintaining data infrastructure who need trustworthy answers about where their data came from, rather than casual users, the README assumes familiarity with databases, command line tools, and running background services.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Write an iris-declare.yaml pipeline declaration for a script that ingests daily orders data.
Prompt 2
Explain how iris data provenance traces a row back to the run that produced it.
Prompt 3
Walk me through installing Iris Lakehouse and starting the engine daemon for the first time.
Prompt 4
Show me how to switch this project from the stable release channel to the snapshot channel.

Frequently asked questions

What is iris-lakehouse?

A Go powered data pipeline engine that tracks exactly where every row of data came from, backed by Postgres.

What language is iris-lakehouse written in?

Mainly Go. The stack also includes Go, PostgreSQL, CLI.

What license does iris-lakehouse use?

No license information is stated in the README.

How hard is iris-lakehouse to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated moderate, with roughly 30min to a first successful run.

Who is iris-lakehouse for?

Mainly ops devops.

Open on GitHub → Explain another repo

This repo across BitVibe Labs

Verify against the repo before relying on details.