The Archive

Release: datasette-tailscale 0.1a0 A very experimental alpha plugin which lets you do this: datasette tailscale mydata.db \ --ts-authkey tskey-auth-xxxx --ts-hostname datasette-preview This starts a localhost Datasette server with a Tailscale sidecar that connects it to your Tailnet, such that http://datasette-preview/ serves Datasette. It's using the Python bindings for the experimental tailscale-rs library. I filed an issue asking if there's a cleaner way of setting up the proxy mechanism. Tags: datasette , tailscale

Release: datasette-apps 0.1a3 Fixed a bug where users without the create-app permission could still create apps. #27 Fixed a bug where it was impossible to grant permission to edit an app to users who were not the app's owner. The rules for edit/delete are now the same as view: if the app is private only the owner can modify it, otherwise permission is controlled by Datasette's regular permission system. #29 Tags: datasette

Release: datasette-apps 0.1a2 Custom network/CSP origins for apps are now guarded by a new apps-set-csp permission, with an optional allowed_csp_origins plugin allow-list for non-privileged users. The Datasette Agent app creation tool enforces the same rules. #24 Stored query picker now supports keyboard navigation and shows the three most recent accessible stored queries when focused. #fragment links inside apps are no longer intercepted by the external-link confirmation modal. #23 Fixed link confirmation modal and logging panels in ?full=1 full-screen mode. #26 Tags: datasette

Release: datasette-agent 0.3a0 New tool, execute_write_sql , which requests user approval and then writes to a database - taking user permissions into account. #27 I added a mechanism for asking user approval in datasette agent 0.2a0 . The new execute_write_sql tool can now prompt the user for all kinds of useful operations. Here's an example where I add some pelican sightings to my pelican_sightings table: The new version also enhances the datasette agent chat terminal mode to support approvals, and adds several new options including --unsafe mode for auto-approving them: datasette agent cha...

Research: Mapping SQLite result columns back to their source `table.column` It would be neat if arbitrary SQL queries in Datasette could be rendered with additional information based on which columns from which tables were included in the results. To build that, we would need to be able to look at a SQL query like select users.name, orders.total from users join orders on orders.user_id = users.id and programmatically identify the table.column for each result - navigating not just joins but also more complex syntax like CTEs. I decided to set Claude Code (Opus 4.8, since Fable is currently ban...

After two days of experience with Claude Fable 5 I think the best way to describe it is relentlessly proactive . It knows a whole lot of tricks and it will deploy pretty much any of them to get to its goal. I'll illustrate this with an example. I was hacking on Datasette Agent today when I noticed a glitch: a horizontal scrollbar that shouldn't be there in the jump menu chat prompt. I snapped this screenshot: Then I started a fresh claude session in my datasette-agent checkout, dragged in the screenshot and told it: Look at dependencies to help figure out why there is a horizontal scrollbar h...

Release: datasette 1.0a33 This alpha is a significant step on the road to a stable 1.0, finally extending the ?_extra= pattern I introduced in Datasette 1.0a3 to cover queries and rows in addition to tables. That pattern is also now documented ! I wrote a whole lot more about the new release on the Datasette project blog: Datasette 1.0a33 with JSON extras in the API . Because API explorer tools are almost free to build now I had Claude Fable 5 in Claude Code (for the plan ) and GPT-5.5 xhigh in Codex Desktop (for the implementation ) build me this custom extras API explorer to help demonstrat...

Release: asyncinject 0.7 I built this utility library to support an asyncio dependency injection pattern a few years ago. I was using it with Datasette and Claude Fable 5 spotted some bugs in the dependency which it then fixed for me. It's a very proactive model! Tags: async , projects , python , claude-mythos

Release: datasette-agent 0.2a0 Highlights from the release notes: Tools can now ask the user questions mid-execution. Tools that declare a context parameter receive a ToolContext object, and await context.ask_user(...) can ask a yes/no, multiple-choice ( options=[...] ) or free-text ( free_text=True ) question. While a question is unanswered the agent turn suspends: the question renders as a form in the chat UI and persists to the internal database, so suspended conversations survive a server restart. Once answered, the tool re-executes from the top with stored answers replayed, so call ask_u...

Release: datasette-agent-edit 0.1a0 I'm planning several plugins for Datasette Agent which can make edits to existing pieces of text - things like collaborative Markdown editing, updating large SQL queries, and editing SVG files. Agentic editing of text is a little tricky to get right. My favorite published design for this is for the Claude text editor , which implements the following tools: view - view sections of a file, with line numbers added to every line. str_replace - find an exact old_str and replace it with new_str - fail if the original string is not unique insert - insert the speci...

I've been experimenting with different approaches to running code in a sandbox for several years now, but my latest attempt feels like it might finally have all of the characteristics I've been looking for. I've released it as an alpha package called micropython-wasm , and I'm using it for a code execution sandbox plugin for Datasette Agent called datasette-agent-micropython . Why do I want a sandbox? My key open source projects - Datasette , LLM , even sqlite-utils - all support plugins. I absolutely love plugins as a mechanism for extending software. A carefully designed plugin system reduc...

Release: datasette-agent-micropython 0.1a0 I want Datasette Agent to be able to generate and execute Python code safely. This alpha is looking very promising so far. GPT-5.5 has so far failed to break out of the sandbox! Tags: python , sandboxing , datasette , webassembly , datasette-agent

Release: micropython-wasm 0.1a1 Fixes for some limitations that emerged while I was trying to use this to build datasette-agent-micropython . Tags: python , sandboxing , webassembly

I just sent out the May edition of my sponsors-only monthly newsletter . If you are a sponsor (or if you start a sponsorship now) you can access it here . This month: Al got expensive, and Anthropic had a really good month The model releases were a little disappointing Conferences and podcasts I launched Datasette Agent and made a lot of progress on Datasette What I'm using, May 2026 edition Miscellaneous extras Here's a copy of the April newsletter as a preview of what you'll get. Pay $10/month to stay a month ahead of the free copy! Tags: newsletter

Release: datasette 1.0a32 A minor bugfix release. Fixes a bug with INSERT ... RETURNING queries via the new /db/-/execute-write endpoint and a bunch of base_url issues which showed up when I was experimenting with Service Workers yesterday. Tags: datasette , annotated-release-notes

Research: Running Python ASGI apps in the browser via Pyodide + a service worker Datasette Lite is my version of Datasette that runs entirely in the browser using Pyodide in WebAssembly. When I first built it four years ago I used Web Workers and code that intercepts navigation operations and fetches the generated HTML by running the Python app. This worked, but had the disadvantage that any JavaScript in <script> tags would not be executed - breaking some Datasette functionality and a whole lot of Datasette plugins. This morning I set Claude Opus 4.8 the task (in Claude Code for web) of figu...

Release: datasette 1.0a31 Another significant alpha release, with two new headline features. Datasette now offers users with the necessary permissions the ability to both execute write queries against their database and to save stored queries (renamed from "canned queries") both privately and for use by other members of their Datasette instance. There's more detail in SQL write queries and stored queries in Datasette 1.0a31 on the Datasette blog, which now has three posts introducing new features since the blog launched two weeks ago. Here's an animated demo from the blog post showing how the...

Datasette 1.0a30 alpha adds customizable Jump to menu with plugin hook support for extensibility.

datasette-agent 0.1a4 integrates agentic chat interface into Datasette's Jump to menu.

datasette-fixtures 0.1a0 provides test fixture database helpers for Datasette plugin suites.

Simon Willison releases Datasette Agent, a conversational AI assistant for querying structured data with chart generation capabilities.

datasette-agent-sprites 0.1a0 plugin enables Datasette Agent to execute commands in Fly Sprites sandbox environments.

datasette-agent-charts 0.1a2 adds SQL query inspection UI below chart renders.

datasette-agent 0.1a3 release update for the extensible AI assistant framework.

datasette-agent-charts 0.1a1 adds color scaling, tooltips, and permission checks for SQL execution.

datasette-llm-accountant 0.1a4 fixes bug in response chain tracking for LLM accounting.

datasette-llm 0.1a8 fixes llm_prompt_context() hook to properly collect response chains.

datasette-llm-limits 0.1a0 adds per-user LLM spending caps to Datasette via configuration.

datasette-agent 0.1a2 binds tool availability to required_permission; defaults require datasette-agent-background permission.

datasette-agent 0.1a1 filters table listing based on execute-sql permission for users.