RavenDB is a NoSQL database that fuses extreme performance with ease-of-use, offering above the roof developer experience. Learn more at https://ravendb.net or visit our GitHub repository.

Installation

npm install ravendb-embedded

pnpm add ravendb-embedded

yarn add ravendb-embedded ravendb

The ravendb client is a peer dependency — npm and pnpm install it automatically. Yarn does not.

No further setup is required: on the first startServer() call the package downloads the RavenDB server binaries for your platform automatically and caches them per version, as long as licensing.eulaAccepted = true is set. Download progress is printed to stderr so the first run never looks like a hang — inject a logger to redirect or silence it. Subsequent starts reuse the cache and make no network calls. See Server download details for cache location, version pinning, opt-out and manual installation.

Check the runtime prerequisites in our docs. In short:

When only Raven.Server.dll is present (no native executable), a .NET runtime matching serverOptions.frameworkVersion must be installed.
Extraction uses the system tar (ships with Windows 10+, Linux and macOS); without it, install the server manually (see below).

Getting started

Initialize

import { embeddedServer, ServerOptions } from "ravendb-embedded";

const options = new ServerOptions({
    licensing: { eulaAccepted: true }
});

await embeddedServer.startServer(options);

const store = await embeddedServer.getDocumentStore("Embedded");
const session = store.openSession();
// Your code here

await embeddedServer.dispose();

embeddedServer is a shared singleton. Instantiate new EmbeddedServer() for isolated servers (e.g. tests).

Runnable samples live in examples/.

EULA semantics: licensing.eulaAccepted gates the automatic binaries download and is forwarded to the server as --License.Eula.Accepted — enforcement of the flag itself is up to the server. A manual install in serverDirectory is run as-is.

Options are snapshotted: startServer() takes a copy of the ServerOptions object. The caller's object is never mutated (the resolved download directory and server URL stay internal — use getServerUri()), and editing it after the call has no effect on the running server.

Start semantics: startServer() awaits the full server startup, so configuration errors surface immediately at the call site.

startServer() also accepts an AbortSignal to cancel a startup in flight — the spawned process is torn down immediately:

await embeddedServer.startServer(options, AbortSignal.timeout(30_000));

Graceful shutdown on process exit

The server watches its parent process (--Embedded.ParentProcessId) and exits when it dies — that safety net is always on. For a graceful shutdown when the host receives SIGINT/SIGTERM (Ctrl-C, kill, container stop), opt in:

options.installSignalHandlers = true;

On a signal the server is disposed first; the signal is then re-raised only when your app has no handler of its own, so the process still exits with the conventional exit code — apps with their own handlers keep full control. beforeExit also disposes the server. This is opt-in because it changes process-global signal behavior.

Store documents

class Category {
    public id?: string;
    public name?: string;
}

class Product {
    public id?: string;
    public name?: string;
    public category?: string;
    public unitsInStock?: number;
}

const session = store.openSession();               // Open a session on the 'Embedded' database

const category = new Category();
category.name = "Database Category";

await session.store(category);                     // Assign an 'Id' and collection (Categories)
                                                   // and start tracking an entity

const product = new Product();
product.name = "RavenDB Database";
product.category = category.id;
product.unitsInStock = 10;

await session.store(product);                      // Assign an 'Id' and collection (Products)
                                                   // and start tracking an entity

await session.saveChanges();                       // Send to the Server
                                                   // one request processed in one transaction

Query

const session = store.openSession();               // Open a session on the 'Embedded' database

const productNames = await session
    .query<Product>({ collection: "Products" })    // Query for Products
    .whereGreaterThan("unitsInStock", 5)           // Filter
    .skip(0).take(10)                              // Page
    .selectFields<string>("name")                  // Project
    .all();                                        // Materialize query

Secured server

The server certificate must be a PKCS#12 (PFX) file — RavenDB loads Security.Certificate.Path with the .NET certificate loader, which does not parse PEM (a PEM file fails at startup with "Unable to find the private key in the provided certificate"). Node in turn cannot parse PKCS#12, so the thumbprint cannot be computed here — pass it explicitly:

options.secured("/path/to/cert.pfx", "password", "<server cert thumbprint>");
// Self-signed certificate: pass its PEM as the CA bundle so the client trusts it:
options.secured("/path/to/cert.pfx", "password", "<thumbprint>", "/path/to/cert.pem");

Convert a PEM certificate + key to PFX and compute the thumbprint with:

openssl pkcs12 -export -out cert.pfx -inkey key.pem -in cert.pem -passout pass:password
openssl x509 -in cert.pem -fingerprint -sha1 -noout   # strip the colons

(or in PowerShell: (Get-PfxCertificate cert.pfx).Thumbprint; from Node, with a PEM copy of the certificate: new crypto.X509Certificate(pem).fingerprint.replace(/:/g, "")).

The certificate must carry keyUsage=digitalSignature and extendedKeyUsage=serverAuth (RavenDB validates both); add clientAuth when the same certificate is used as the client certificate — which is exactly what secured() does: the PFX also authenticates the document stores.

Certificate from a vault/HSM (external program)

When the server certificate lives in a vault or HSM instead of a file, let the server obtain it by running an external program (--Security.Certificate.Load.Exec):

options.securedWithExec(
    "vault-cli",                       // program the server runs
    "get --cert ravendb-server",       // its arguments (raw string)
    "<server cert thumbprint>",        // required — the cert is loaded by the server
    "/path/to/client-cert.pem",        // client certificate for document stores
    undefined,                         // client certificate password, if any
    "/path/to/ca.pem"                  // CA bundle the client should trust
);

The client certificate's thumbprint is registered as the server admin certificate. For a PEM client certificate it is computed automatically; for PFX the serverCertThumbprint value is used as a fallback (correct when the same certificate secures the server and authenticates the client).

Server certificate trust (no thumbprint pinning)

The ravendb Node client exposes no certificate-validation hook (its auth options are only type/certificate/password/ca), so pinning the server certificate by thumbprint is not available in this package. Trust the server through the ca option instead: for a self-signed server certificate, its own PEM is the CA — pass it as caCertificatePath (shown above). The serverCertThumbprint parameters exist for the PFX fallback described above.

Logging

Silent by default, with one exception: automatic server download progress goes to stderr, so a ~350 MB first-run download never looks like a hang. Inject any logger implementing debug/info/warn to redirect everything — or noopLogger for full silence:

import type { Logger } from "ravendb-embedded";

options.logger = {
    debug: message => console.debug(message),
    info: message => console.info(message),
    warn: (message, error) => console.warn(message, error)
};

Log points: server start (PID), graceful shutdown, kill fallback, document store creation, database-already-exists — plus download progress.

Server download details

Cache location: %LOCALAPPDATA%\ravendb-embedded\{version}-{platform} on Windows, $XDG_CACHE_HOME/ravendb-embedded/{version}-{platform} (default ~/.cache/ravendb-embedded/...) elsewhere. Override with serverOptions.downloadCacheDirectory or RAVENDB_EMBEDDED_CACHE_DIR.
Version: serverOptions.serverVersion or RAVENDB_EMBEDDED_SERVER_VERSION. The default is pinned to the server release this package version was built and tested against (exported as DEFAULT_SERVER_VERSION; the package version tracks it), so builds are deterministic. Set "latest" to opt into the current stable release instead — it resolves once and then stays pinned in the cache (latest-*.version marker), so later runs are offline and deterministic; delete the marker to move.
Opt out: set serverOptions.downloadServer = false or RAVENDB_EMBEDDED_SKIP_DOWNLOAD=1.
Manual installation always wins: extract the distribution from https://ravendb.net/download into ./RavenDBServer (or any directory passed via serverOptions.serverDirectory) — the zip can be extracted as-is, its nested Server/ subdirectory is detected automatically. When binaries are present, the network is never touched. A custom serverDirectory is treated as user-managed and is never downloaded into.

Pre-warm the cache (Docker images, CI):

pnpm ravendb install            # pinned default version (the release this package was tested against)
pnpm ravendb install 7.2.4      # specific version (or "latest")
pnpm ravendb install 7.2.4 --dir /path/to/cache

(npx ravendb install ... / yarn ravendb install ... work the same way.)

Integrity: downloads run over HTTPS and are verified against the response Content-Length (truncated downloads are rejected). RavenDB does not publish a checksum manifest for its distributions yet, so a stronger check is not possible.
Clear the cache (old versions accumulate, one distribution per version+platform):
```
pnpm ravendb clear-cache --keep 7.2.5 --dir /path/to/cache
```
The command asks for confirmation before removing anything; pass --yes to skip the prompt (required in non-interactive sessions such as CI). Or from code: ServerDownloader.clearCache({ keepVersions: ["7.2.5"] }).

Learning resources

Embedded Server Guide - https://ravendb.net/articles/building-a-beer-vending-machine-program-with-ravendb-embedded-server 🛣️
Documentation - https://ravendb.net/docs/article-page/server/embedded 🎒
Code Samples - https://demo.ravendb.net/ 🧑‍💻

Community

RavenDB's Discord - https://discord.gg/ravendb 🍻
Articles & guides - https://ravendb.net/articles 📰
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@ravendb_net 🍿
Blog - https://ayende.com/blog/ 🧑‍💻

Tests

npm run test:unit — no server needed
npm run test:integration — requires binaries in ./RavenDBServer; the secured scenario additionally requires openssl on PATH (skipped otherwise); the download scenario is opt-in via RAVENDB_EMBEDDED_TEST_DOWNLOAD=1 (fetches a full ~350 MB distribution)