A Strata database is a local directory, so the simplest way to share one is to copy it. For curated datasets — a prepared corpus, an embeddings set, a demo — Strata adds a lightweight distribution model: a hub hosts datasets, and strata clone pulls one into a new local database. This page is the concept; the Cloning datasets guide has the commands.

What a hub is

A hub is an HTTP endpoint that serves prepared datasets by slug. Strata resolves which hub to use from a layered configuration — a --hub flag, the STRATA_HUB_URL environment variable, project or global config, and finally a built-in default. strata config show prints the resolved hub and names the layer it came from. In this line the hub substrate is metadata-only: it is a way to distribute prepared databases, not a sync service or a multi-writer backend.

Cloning a dataset

strata clone <slug> [dest] resolves a hub, requests the dataset, and writes a new local database (defaulting to ./<slug>.strata). A cloned database is an ordinary database — it opens, branches, time-travels, and queries exactly like one you created yourself. Cloning is how you go from “a dataset someone prepared” to “a local database I can fork and explore” in one step.

Clone artifacts, not bundles

A clone is delivered as a clone artifact: the hub’s representation of a dataset that clone materializes into a local database. This replaces the older “branch bundle” export files — instead of producing and passing around a bundle, you publish a dataset to a hub and clone it. The unit of sharing is a dataset you clone, not a file you export.

Provenance: a clone remembers its origin

A cloned database records where it came from. strata remote reports the origin — the hub and dataset a database was pulled from — while a database you created yourself has no origin (origin: null). That provenance lets you trace a local copy back to its source, which matters when a dataset is shared, forked locally, and evolved.

How it composes

Clone once, then use every other concept locally: fork branches off the cloned data, read it as of past commits, and partition it with spaces. The hub gets you a starting database; everything after is ordinary local Strata.

Next

• Cloning datasets guide — clone, hub resolution, and remote, with the exact commands.
• Configuration reference — the hub config keys and resolution layers.
• Embedded architecture — why a database is a directory in the first place.