REALTIME

Realtime, built in

Subscribe to a query and receive every change as it commits. LIVE SELECT turns any query into a realtime feed over WebSockets, DEFINE EVENT runs server-side logic on writes, and changefeeds give you an ordered, durable stream of mutations - no message broker to run alongside the database.

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01 |LIVE QUERIES

Any query can become a subscription

Add LIVE to a SELECT and the same filter, permissions, and shape you already use stream to the client on every matching change - full records or just the diff.

LIVE SELECT * FROM message
    WHERE channel = $auth.channel;

-- The client receives each matching change as it commits:
-- { action: "CREATE", result: { id: message:9f2, text: "hi" } }
-- { action: "UPDATE", result: { id: message:9f2, text: "hey" } }
-- { action: "DELETE", result: { id: message:9f2 } }

LIVE SELECT

Subscribe with the query you already wrote

A live query carries the same WHERE clause and permissions as a normal one. The client receives new, updated, and deleted records as they commit.

LIVE SELECT * FROM document
    WHERE account = $auth.account OR public = true;

-- Stream only what changed, not the whole record
LIVE SELECT DIFF FROM task
    WHERE status != "closed";

-- Stop receiving updates
KILL "0189d1af-8f1c-7f3a-9d4e-2c1b6a5e0f77";

EVENTS AND CHANGEFEEDS

React on write, replay on demand

DEFINE EVENT runs logic in the engine when data changes; a changefeed keeps an ordered, durable record of mutations you can replay from any point.

DEFINE TABLE product CHANGEFEED 7d;

SHOW CHANGES FOR TABLE product
    SINCE d"2024-01-01T00:00:00Z" LIMIT 100;

Reactive data without a broker

Subscriptions, triggers, and durable change streams are part of the engine - so realtime is a query, not a second system to run.

Live queries

Turn any SELECT into a realtime subscription over WebSockets, with the same filters and permissions.

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Full records or diffs

Receive the whole updated record, or only the changeset, to keep payloads small on high-frequency feeds.

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Server-side events

DEFINE EVENT runs logic in the database when data changes - validation, fan-out, and derived writes.

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Changefeeds

An ordered, durable stream of mutations per table, replayable from any point in the retention window.

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Filtered subscriptions

Subscribe to one record, a filtered set, or a whole table - and to graph-joined shapes across relationships.

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Permissions apply live

Row-level rules govern subscriptions too, so a client only ever streams the records it is allowed to see.

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02 |ONE ENGINE

No message broker in the middle

The usual realtime stack polls the database, or wires a broker and a change-data-capture pipeline beside it. SurrealDB pushes changes from the engine that made them.