New to StrataDB? Take these three steps in order. (Still deciding whether it fits your problem? Start with Why Strata — what it is, when to use it, and how it compares.)

1. Installation — install the strata CLI and confirm it runs.
2. Your first database — create a durable database, work in the REPL and one-shot forms, write across the KV and JSON capabilities, fork a branch, and read an earlier version.
3. For AI agents — if you are wiring StrataDB into a coding agent or an MCP client, start here for the integration recipe.

What you are installing

StrataDB is embedded: it runs inside your process against a local directory, the way SQLite or DuckDB does. There is no server to start, no port to open, and no daemon to keep alive. You install one binary, strata, and point it at a path — that directory is your database.

That one binary carries five data capabilities over a single storage substrate — key-value, JSON documents, an event log, vectors, and a graph — plus git-style branches and per-commit time travel. The same binary is also a Model Context Protocol server, so an AI agent can drive it with no extra package.

What each step gives you

The installation page covers the installer script, Homebrew, and building from source, and ends with a one-line check that the CLI works.

The first database tutorial is hands-on against the real binary: you create a database on disk, write and read data, open the interactive REPL, fork a branch to isolate a change, and read a value as it stood at an earlier commit. Every command and output on that page comes from a live run.

The for AI agents page is the tight integration recipe — how the binary describes its own commands and errors, how to onboard a repository, and how to run the built-in MCP server.

After the tutorial

Once the moves feel familiar, read Concepts to understand branches, commits, and durability. Then use the Guides to go deep on one capability at a time, and the Cookbook for end-to-end patterns.

If something breaks, Troubleshooting lists real failure modes and the error codes they carry.