A Search-and-Inference Database from Scratch in Pure Zig
Summary
A technical write-up detailing why Antfly rewrote its Go-based search-and-inference engine in Zig, emphasizing first-principles thinking, performance, and testability. The article covers the move to Zig for portability and C interoperability, the adoption of VOPR simulation testing, and the development of a multi-engine data stack (document, relational, lake) with a language-agnostic testing framework. It also discusses architectural goals, zero-dependency builds, and how these choices enable embedding the engine across applications and environments.