MotherDuck

MotherDuck uses DuckDB’s built-in md: connection support. No extra installation needed beyond the core DuckDB dependency.

Connection config

adapter = "motherduck"
default_target = "dev"

[connections.motherduck]
database = "my_database"
token = "your_motherduck_token"

[targets.dev]
connection = "motherduck"
database = "my_database"
schema = "dev"

Field	Description
database	MotherDuck database name. Automatically prefixed with md: if not already present. Defaults to md: (your default MotherDuck database).
token	MotherDuck access token. Can also be set via environment variable.

Authentication

MotherDuck requires an access token. Generate one from the MotherDuck UI and pass it via the connection config or an environment variable:

[connections.motherduck]
database = "my_database"
token = "${ENV:MOTHERDUCK_TOKEN}"

Shared connections across targets

Use targets to separate production and development databases on MotherDuck:

adapter = "motherduck"

[connections.motherduck]
token = "${ENV:MOTHERDUCK_TOKEN}"
database = "my_database"

[targets.prod]
connection = "motherduck"
database = "prod_db"
schema = "prod"

[targets.dev]
connection = "motherduck"
database = "dev_db"
schema = "dev"

Local development with DuckDB

Use sqlbuild_local.toml to override the adapter for local development against a plain DuckDB file:

adapter = "duckdb"

[connections.local]
database = "local_dev.duckdb"

[targets.dev]
connection = "local"
schema = "dev"

This lets you develop and test locally with zero MotherDuck compute cost, then deploy to MotherDuck in production. SQLBuild’s scenario replay also runs locally in DuckDB regardless of the production adapter.