Skip to main content

ClickHouse JS

The official JS client for connecting to ClickHouse. The client is written in TypeScript and provides typings for the client public API.

There are two different versions of the client available for different environments:

  • @clickhouse/client - Node.js only
  • @clickhouse/client-web - browsers (Chrome/Firefox), CloudFlare workers

When using TypeScript, make sure it is at least version 4.5, which enables inline import and export syntax.

Environment requirements (Node.js)

Node.js must be available in the environment to run the client. The client is compatible with all the maintained Node.js releases.

As soon as a Node.js version approaches End-Of-Life, the client drops support for it as it is considered outdated and insecure.

Environment requirements (Web)

Web version of the client is officially tested with the latest Chrome/Firefox browsers and can be used as a dependency in, for example, React/Vue/Angular applications, or CloudFlare workers.

Installation

To install the latest available Node.js client version, run:

npm i @clickhouse/client

Web version installation:

npm i @clickhouse/client-web

Compatibility with ClickHouse

Client versionClickHouse
0.2.022.8 - 23.7

ClickHouse Client API

Most of the examples should be compatible with both Node.js and web versions of the client, unless explicitly stated otherwise.

Creating a client instance

You can instantiate as many client instances as necessary with createClient factory.

import { createClient } from '@clickhouse/client' // or '@clickhouse/client-web'

const client = createClient({
/* configuration */
})

If your environment doesn't support ESM modules, you can use CJS syntax instead:

const { createClient } = require('@clickhouse/client');

const client = createClient({
/* configuration */
})

A client instance can be pre-configured during instantiation.

Configuration

When creating a client instance, the following connection settings can be adjusted:

  • host?: string - a ClickHouse instance URL. Default value: http://localhost:8123
  • request_timeout?: number - the request timeout in milliseconds. Default value: 30_000.
  • compression?: { response?: boolean; request?: boolean } - enable compression. Compression docs
  • username?: string - The name of the user on whose behalf requests are made. Default value: default.
  • password?: string - The user password. Default: ''.
  • application?: string - The name of the application using the Node.js client. Default value: clickhouse-js.
  • database?: string - Database name to use. Default value: default
  • clickhouse_settings?: ClickHouseSettings - ClickHouse settings to apply to all requests. Default value: {}.
  • log?: { LoggerClass?: Logger, level?: ClickHouseLogLevel } - configure logging. Logging docs
  • session_id?: string - optional ClickHouse Session ID to send with every request.

Node.js-specific configuration parameters

  • max_open_connections?: number - maximum number of sockets to allow per host. Default value: Infinity.
  • tls?: { ca_cert: Buffer, cert?: Buffer, key?: Buffer } - configure TLS certificates. TLS docs
  • keep_alive?: { enabled?: boolean, socket_ttl?: number, retry_on_expired_socket?: boolean } - See Keep Alive docs

Connecting

Gather your connection details

To connect to ClickHouse with HTTP(S) you need this information:

  • The HOST and PORT: typically, the port is 8443 when using TLS or 8123 when not using TLS.

  • The DATABASE NAME: out of the box, there is a database named default, use the name of the database that you want to connect to.

  • The USERNAME and PASSWORD: out of the box, the username is default. Use the username appropriate for your use case.

The details for your ClickHouse Cloud service are available in the ClickHouse Cloud console. Select the service that you will connect to and click Connect:

ClickHouse Cloud service connect button

Choose HTTPS, and the details are available in an example curl command.

ClickHouse Cloud HTTPS connection details

If you are using self-managed ClickHouse, the connection details are set by your ClickHouse administrator.

The client implements a connection via HTTP(s) protocol. The ClickHouse binary protocol is not supported yet.

The following example demonstrates how to set up a connection against ClickHouse Cloud. It assumes host (including protocol and port) and password values are specified via environment variables, and default user is used.

Example: Node.js Client instance creation using environment variables. Source code.

import { createClient } from '@clickhouse/client'

const client = createClient({
host: process.env.CLICKHOUSE_HOST ?? 'http://localhost:8123',
username: process.env.CLICKHOUSE_USER ?? 'default',
password: process.env.CLICKHOUSE_PASSWORD ?? '',
})

Connection pool (Node.js only)

To avoid the overhead of establishing a connection on every request, the client creates a pool of connections to ClickHouse to reuse. By default, the size of connection pool is not limited, but you can change it with max_open_connections configuration option. There is no guarantee the same connection in a pool will be used for subsequent queries unless the user sets max_open_connections: 1. This is rarely needed but may be required for cases where users are using temporary tables.

Query ID

Every method that sends an actual query (command, exec, insert, select) will provide query_id in the result.

This unique identifier is assigned by the client per query, and might be useful to fetch the data from system.query_log, if it is enabled in the server configuration.

If necessary, query_id can be overridden by the user in command/query/exec/insert methods params.

NB: if you override query_id, ensure its uniqueness for every call.

Query method

Used for most statements that can have a response, such as SELECT, or for sending DDLs such as CREATE TABLE. Please consider using the dedicated method insert for data insertion or command for DDLs.

Should be awaited. The returned result set is expected to be consumed in the application.

interface QueryParams {
// Query to execute that might return some data.
query: string
// Format of the resulting dataset.
format?: DataFormat
// ClickHouse settings that can be applied on query level.
clickhouse_settings?: ClickHouseSettings
// Parameters for query binding.
query_params?: Record<string, unknown>
// AbortSignal instance to cancel a query in progress.
abort_signal?: AbortSignal
// query_id override; if not specified, a random identifier will be generated automatically.
query_id?: string
}

interface ClickHouseClient {
query(params: QueryParams): Promise<ResultSet>
}
tip

Do not specify the FORMAT clause in query, use format parameter instead.

ResultSet and Row abstractions

Provides several convenience methods for data processing in your application.

Node.js ResultSet implementation uses Stream.Readable under the hood, while the web version uses Web API ReadableStream.

interface BaseResultSet<Stream> {
// See "Query ID" section above
query_id: string

// Consume the entire stream and get the contents as a string
// Can be used with any DataFormat
// Should be called only once
text(): Promise<string>

// Consume the entire stream and parse the contents as a JS object
// Can be used only with JSON formats
// Should be called only once
json<T>(): Promise<T>

// Returns a readable stream for responses that can be streamed (i.e. all except JSON)
// Every iteration over the stream provides an array of Row[] in the selected DataFormat
// Should be called only once
// NB: if called for the second time, the second stream will be just empty
stream(): Stream
}

interface Row {
// Get the content of the row as a plain string
text: string

// Parse the content of the row as a JS object
json<T>(): T
}

Example: (Node.js/Web) A query with a resulting dataset as json in JSONEachRow format. Source code.

const resultSet = await client.query({
query: 'SELECT * FROM my_table',
format: 'JSONEachRow',
})
const dataset = await resultSet.json()

Example: (Node.js only) A query with a resulting dataset as a stream of objects in JSONEachRow format consumed using classic on('data') approach. Source code

const resultSet = await client.query({
query: 'SELECT number FROM system.numbers_mt LIMIT 5',
format: 'CSV',
})
const stream = resultSet.stream()
stream.on('data', (rows: Row[]) => {
rows.forEach((row: Row) => {
console.log(row.text)
})
})
await new Promise((resolve) => {
stream.on('end', () => {
console.log('Completed!')
resolve(0)
})
})

Example: (Node.js only) A query with a resulting dataset as a stream of objects in JSONEachRow format consumed using for await const syntax. Source code.

A bit less code than on('data') approach, but it may have negative performance impact. See this issue for more details.

const resultSet = await client.query({
query: 'SELECT number FROM system.numbers LIMIT 10',
format: 'JSONEachRow',
})
for await (const rows of resultSet.stream()) {
rows.forEach(row => {
console.log(row.text)
})
}

Example: (Web only) Iteration over the ReadableStream of objects

const resultSet = await client.query({
query: 'SELECT * FROM system.numbers LIMIT 10',
format: 'JSONEachRow'
})

const reader = resultSet.stream().getReader()
while (true) {
const { done, value: rows } = await reader.read()
if (done) { break }
rows.forEach(row => {
console.log(row.json())
})
}

Insert method

The primary method for data insertion. Does not return anything aside from query_id - the response stream is immediately destroyed.

export interface InsertResult {
query_id: string
}

interface ClickHouseClient {
insert(params: InsertParams): Promise<InsertResult>
}

Insert streaming in Node.js

It can work with both Stream.Readable (all formats except JSON) and plain Array<T> (JSON* family formats only). It is recommended to avoid arrays in case of large inserts to reduce application memory consumption and consider streaming for most of the use cases.

When inserting arrays or finite streams (for examples, files) - should be awaited when called. When working with endless streams (could be the case when it's used with a message broker), the other approach is possible - see one of the examples below.

interface InsertParams<T> {
// Table name to insert the data into
table: string
// A dataset to insert. Stream will work for all formats except JSON.
values: ReadonlyArray<T> | Stream.Readable
// Format of the dataset to insert.
format?: DataFormat
// ClickHouse settings that can be applied on statement level.
clickhouse_settings?: ClickHouseSettings
// Parameters for query binding.
query_params?: Record<string, unknown>
// AbortSignal instance to cancel an insert in progress.
abort_signal?: AbortSignal
// query_id override; if not specified, a random identifier will be generated automatically.
query_id?: string
}

Web version limitations

Currently, inserts in @clickhouse/client-web only work with Array<T> and JSON* formats. Inserting streams is not supported in the web version yet due to poor browser compatibility.

This is a subject to change in the future.

interface InsertParams<T> {
// Table name to insert the data into
table: string
// A dataset to insert.
values: ReadonlyArray<T>
// Format of the dataset to insert.
format?: DataFormat
// ClickHouse settings that can be applied on statement level.
clickhouse_settings?: ClickHouseSettings
// Parameters for query binding.
query_params?: Record<string, unknown>
// AbortSignal instance to cancel an insert in progress.
abort_signal?: AbortSignal
// query_id override; if not specified, a random identifier will be generated automatically.
query_id?: string
}
info

A request canceled with abort_signal does not guarantee that data insertion did not take place.

Example: (Node.js/Web) Insert an array of values. Source code.

await client.insert({
table: 'my_table',
// structure should match the desired format, JSONEachRow in this example
values: [
{ id: 42, name: 'foo' },
{ id: 42, name: 'bar' },
],
format: 'JSONEachRow',
})

Example: (Node.js only) Endless stream - periodically insert objects into the stream. Source code.

const stream = new Stream.Readable({ objectMode: true, read() {} });

// note that we do not await the promise yet
const insertPromise = client
.insert({
table: tableName,
values: stream,
format: 'CSV',
})
.then(() => console.info('\nData ingestion is finished'))

// Periodically generate some random data and push it into the stream...
const timer = setInterval(pushData(stream), 100)

// When Ctrl+C is pressed...
async function cleanup() {
clearInterval(timer)
// finally, close the stream
stream.push(null)
// when the stream is closed, the insert promise should be awaited
await insertPromise
await client.close()
process.exit(0)
}

process.on('SIGINT', cleanup)
process.on('SIGTERM', cleanup)

function pushData(stream: Stream.Readable) {
return () => {
console.info('Pushing several records into the stream...')
stream.push({ id: `${randomInt(1, 100_000_000)}`})
}
}

Example: (Node.js only) Insert a stream of strings in CSV format from a CSV file. Source code.

await client.insert({
table: 'my_table',
values: fs.createReadStream('./path/to/a/file.csv'),
format: 'CSV',
})

If you have a custom INSERT statement that is difficult to model with this method, consider using command

Command method

It can be used for statements that do not have any output, when the format clause is not applicable, or when you are not interested in the response at all. An example of such a statement can be CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE.

Should be awaited.

The response stream is destroyed immediately, which means that the underlying socket is released.

interface CommandParams {
// Statement to execute.
query: string
// ClickHouse settings that can be applied on query level
clickhouse_settings?: ClickHouseSettings
// Parameters for query binding.
query_params?: Record<string, unknown>
// AbortSignal instance to cancel a request in progress.
abort_signal?: AbortSignal
// query_id override; if not specified, a random identifier will be generated automatically.
query_id?: string
}

interface CommandResult {
query_id: string
}

interface ClickHouseClient {
command(params: CommandParams): Promise<CommandResult>
}

Example: (Node.js/Web) Create a table in ClickHouse Cloud. Source code.

await client.command({
query: `
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS my_cloud_table
(id UInt64, name String)
ORDER BY (id)
`,
// Recommended for cluster usage to avoid situations
// where a query processing error occurred after the response code
// and HTTP headers were sent to the client.
// See https://clickhouse.com/docs/en/interfaces/http/#response-buffering
clickhouse_settings: {
wait_end_of_query: 1,
},
})

Example: (Node.js/Web) Create a table in a self-hosted ClickHouse instance. Source code.

await client.command({
query: `
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS my_table
(id UInt64, name String)
ENGINE MergeTree()
ORDER BY (id)
`,
})

Example: (Node.js/Web) INSERT FROM SELECT

await client.command({
query: `INSERT INTO my_table SELECT '42'`,
})
info

A request cancelled with abort_signal does not guarantee that statements wasn't executed by server.

Exec method

If you have a custom query that does not fit into query/insert, and you are interested in the result, you can use exec as an alternative to command.

exec returns a readable stream that MUST be consumed or destroyed on the application side.

interface ExecParams {
// Statement to execute.
query: string
// ClickHouse settings that can be applied on query level
clickhouse_settings?: ClickHouseSettings
// Parameters for query binding.
query_params?: Record<string, unknown>
// AbortSignal instance to cancel a request in progress.
abort_signal?: AbortSignal
// query_id override; if not specified, a random identifier will be generated automatically.
query_id?: string
}

interface ClickHouseClient {
exec(params: ExecParams): Promise<QueryResult>
}

Stream return type is different in Node.js and Web versions.

Node.js:

export interface QueryResult {
stream: Stream.Readable
query_id: string
}

Web:

export interface QueryResult {
stream: ReadableStream
query_id: string
}

Ping

The ping method provided to check the connectivity status returns true if the server can be reached.

If the server is unreachable, the underlying error is included in the result as well.

type PingResult =
| { success: true }
| { success: false; error: Error }

interface ClickHouseClient {
ping(): Promise<PingResult>
}

Example: (Node.js/Web) Ping a ClickHouse server instance. Source code.

const result = await client.ping();
if (!result.success) {
// process result.error
}

NB: due to /ping endpoint not implementing CORS, the web version uses a simple SELECT 1 to achieve a similar result.

Close (Node.js only)

Closes all the open connections and releases resources. No-op in the web version.

await client.close()

Supported Data formats

The client handles data formats as JSON or text.

If you specify format as one of the JSON-family (JSONEachRow, JSONCompactEachRow, etc.), the client will serialize and deserialize data during the communication over the wire.

Data provided in the text formats (CSV, TabSeparated and CustomSeparated families) are sent over the wire without additional transformations.

FormatInput (array)Input (stream)Input (object)Output (JSON)Output (text)
JSON✔️✔️✔️
JSONObjectEachRow✔️✔️✔️
JSONStrings✔️✔️✔️
JSONCompact✔️✔️✔️
JSONCompactStrings✔️✔️
JSONColumnsWithMetadata✔️✔️✔️
JSONEachRow✔️✔️✔️✔️
JSONStringsEachRow✔️✔️✔️✔️
JSONCompactEachRow✔️✔️✔️✔️
JSONCompactStringsEachRow✔️✔️✔️✔️
JSONCompactEachRowWithNames✔️✔️✔️✔️
JSONCompactEachRowWithNamesAndTypes✔️✔️✔️✔️
JSONCompactStringsEachRowWithNames✔️✔️✔️✔️
JSONCompactStringsEachRowWithNamesAndTypes✔️✔️✔️✔️
CSV✔️✔️
CSVWithNames✔️✔️
CSVWithNamesAndTypes✔️✔️
TabSeparated✔️✔️
TabSeparatedRaw✔️✔️
TabSeparatedWithNames✔️✔️
TabSeparatedWithNamesAndTypes✔️✔️
CustomSeparated✔️✔️
CustomSeparatedWithNames✔️✔️
CustomSeparatedWithNamesAndTypes✔️✔️

The entire list of ClickHouse input and output formats is available here.

Supported ClickHouse data types

TypeStatusJS type
UInt8/16/32✔️number
UInt64/128/256✔️❗- see belowstring
Int8/16/32✔️number
Int64/128/256✔️❗- see belowstring
Float32/64✔️number
Decimal✔️❗- see belownumber
Boolean✔️boolean
String✔️string
FixedString✔️string
UUID✔️string
Date32/64✔️❗- see belowstring
DateTime32/64✔️❗- see belowstring
Enum✔️string
LowCardinality✔️string
Array(T)✔️T[]
JSON✔️object
Nested-
Tuple✔️Tuple
Nullable(T)✔️JS type for T or null
IPv4✔️string
IPv6✔️string
Point✔️[ number, number ]
Ring✔️Array<Point>
Polygon✔️Array<Ring>
MultiPolygon✔️Array<Polygon>
Map(K, V)✔️Record<K, V>

The entire list of supported ClickHouse formats is available here.

Date* / DateTime* types caveats

Since the client inserts values without additional type conversion, Date* type columns can only be inserted as strings and not as Unix time epochs. It might be changed with the future ClickHouse database releases.

Example: Insert a Date type value. Source code .

await client.insert({
table: 'my_table',
values: [ { date: '2022-09-05' } ],
format: 'JSONEachRow',
})

Decimal* types caveats

Since the client performs no additional type conversion, it is not possible to insert Decimal* type columns as strings, only as numbers. This is a suboptimal approach as it might end in float precision loss. Thus, it is recommended to avoid JSON* formats when using Decimals as of now. Consider TabSeparated*, CSV* or CustomSeparated* formats families for that kind of workflows.

Example: Insert 12.01 and 5000000.405 into the destination table my_table, assuming that the table has two Decimal type fields:

await client.insert({
table: 'my_table',
values: ['12.01\t5000000.405\n'],
format: 'TabSeparated',
})

See the tests for more information.

Integral types: Int64, Int128, Int256, UInt64, UInt128, UInt256

Though the server can accept it as a number, it is returned as a string in JSON* family output formats to avoid integer overflow as max values for these types are bigger than Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER.

This behavior, however, can be modified with output_format_json_quote_64bit_integers setting .

Example: Adjust the JSON output format for 64-bit numbers.

const resultSet = await client.query({
query: 'SELECT * from system.numbers LIMIT 1',
format: 'JSONEachRow',
})

expect(await resultSet.json()).toEqual([ { number: '0' } ])
const resultSet = await client.query({
query: 'SELECT * from system.numbers LIMIT 1',
format: 'JSONEachRow',
clickhouse_settings: { output_format_json_quote_64bit_integers: 0 },
})

expect(await resultSet.json()).toEqual([ { number: 0 } ])

ClickHouse settings

The client can adjust ClickHouse behavior via settings mechanism. The settings can be set on the client instance level so that they will be applied to every request sent to the ClickHouse:

const client = createClient({
clickhouse_settings: {}
})

Or a setting can be configured on a request-level:

client.query({
clickhouse_settings: {}
})

A type declaration file with all the supported ClickHouse settings can be found here.

info

Make sure that the user on whose behalf the queries are made has sufficient rights to change the settings.

Advanced topics

Queries with parameters

You can create a query with parameters and pass values to them from client application. This allows to avoid formatting query with specific dynamic values on client side.

Format a query as usual, then place the values that you want to pass from the app parameters to the query in braces in the following format:

{<name>: <data type>}

where:

  • name — Placeholder identifier.
  • data type - Data type of the app parameter value.

Example:: Query with parameters. Source code .

await client.query({
query: 'SELECT plus({val1: Int32}, {val2: Int32})',
format: 'CSV',
query_params: {
val1: 10,
val2: 20,
},
})

Check https://clickhouse.com/docs/en/interfaces/cli#cli-queries-with-parameters-syntax for additional details.

Compression

NB: request compression is currently not available in the web version. Response compression works as normal.

Data applications operating with large datasets over the wire can benefit from enabling compression. Currently, only GZIP is supported using zlib.

createClient({
compression: {
response: true,
request: true
}
})

Configurations parameters are:

  • response: true instructs ClickHouse server to respond with compressed response body. Default value: response: true
  • request: true enables compression on the client request body. Default value: request: false

Logging (Node.js only)

info

The logging is an experimental feature and is subject to change in the future.

The default logger implementation emits log records into stdout via console.debug/info/warn/error methods. You can customize the logging logic via providing a LoggerClass, and choose the desired log level via level parameter (default is OFF):

import type { Logger } from '@clickhouse/client'

class MyLogger implements Logger {
debug({ module, message, args }: LogParams) {
// ...
}
info({ module, message, args }: LogParams) {
// ...
}
warn({ module, message, args }: LogParams) {
// ...
}
error({ module, message, args, err }: ErrorLogParams) {
// ...
}
}

createClient({
log: {
LoggerClass: MyLogger,
level: ClickHouseLogLevel
}
})

Check an example implementation here.

TLS certificates (Node.js only)

Node.js client optionally supports both basic (Certificate Authority only) and mutual (Certificate Authority and client certificates) TLS.

Basic TLS configuration example, assuming that you have your certificates in certs folder and CA file name is CA.pem:

createClient({
host: 'https://<hostname>:<port>',
username: '<username>',
password: '<password>', // if required
tls: {
ca_cert: fs.readFileSync('certs/CA.pem'),
},
})

Mutual TLS configuration example using client certificates:

createClient({
host: 'https://<hostname>:<port>',
username: '<username>',
tls: {
ca_cert: fs.readFileSync('certs/CA.pem'),
cert: fs.readFileSync(`certs/client.crt`),
key: fs.readFileSync(`certs/client.key`),
},
})

See full examples for basic and mutual TLS in the repository.

Keep Alive (Node.js only)

By default, client enables Keep-Alive in the underlying HTTP agent. If you are experiencing socket hang up errors, there are several options to resolve this issue:

  • Increase the value of the keep_alive_timeout ClickHouse server setting in config.xml, as by default it could be as little as 3s. This could help if your application idles for slightly more than the default server setting. However, it is not always possible to increase it (for example, no access to server's config.xml), and this setting shouldn't be increased to unreasonable values, and even then a particular request can happen at an unfortunate timing. Expired socket detection feature can help in such situations.

  • Enable expired socket detection and retry mechanism in the client:

const client = createClient({
keep_alive: {
enabled: true,
// should be slightly less than the `keep_alive_timeout` setting in server's `config.xml`
// default is 3s there, so 2500 milliseconds seems to be a safe client value in this scenario
// another example: if your configuration has `keep_alive_timeout` set to 60s, you could put 59_000 here
socket_ttl: 2500,
// default: false
retry_on_expired_socket: true,
},
})

If a potentially expired socket is detected (more than socket_ttl since that idle socket was used), and retry is enabled in the configuration, both socket and request will be immediately destroyed (before sending the data), and the client will recreate the request. Note that socket_ttl should be slightly less than the server keep_alive_timeout setting to make it work. If socket_ttl is configured appropriately, it should resolve socket hang up issues in a reliable way.

  • As a last resort, it is possible to disable Keep-Alive feature entirely:
const client = createClient({
keep_alive: {
enabled: false,
},
})

Known limitations (Node.js/Web)

Known limitations (Web)

  • Streaming for select queries works, but it is disabled for inserts (on the type level as well).
  • KeepAlive is disabled and not configurable yet.
  • Request compression is disabled and configuration is ignored. Response compression works.
  • No logging support yet.

Tips for performance optimizations

  • To reduce application memory consumption, consider using streams for large inserts and selects when applicable.
  • Node.js HTTP(s) Agent has infinite max open sockets by default. In some cases, you might want to limit that by using ClickHouseClientConfigOptions.max_open_connections setting.
  • The client enable compression for query responses by default, but insert compression is disabled. When using large inserts, you might want to enable request compression as well. You can use ClickHouseClientConfigOptions.compression.request for that.
  • Compression has some performance penalty. As it is enabled by default for responses, you might consider disabling it if you need to speed the selects up, but, on the other hand, it comes with a cost of network traffic increase.