Quickstart Guide
Deploy KOLMOS in 5 minutes and connect standard database drivers.
Last Updated: August 2026
1. What is KOLMOS?
KOLMOS is a high-performance multi-protocol database engine that speaks **MongoDB (27017)**, **MySQL (3306)**, and **PostgreSQL (5432)** wire protocols over a single unified columnar storage engine. It provides **80% to 90% storage cost reduction** by storing data in compressed Apache Arrow/Parquet format and offloading cold segments to object storage like Cloudflare R2 or AWS S3.
2. Running the Server
You can launch KOLMOS using the pre-compiled single binary CLI or Docker image.
bashKOLMOS Reference
# Run single binary with all protocol listeners active:
./kolmos serve \
--root ./data \
--mongo-port 27017 \
--mysql-port 3306 \
--pg-port 5432 \
--password my-secret-password
# Docker run:
docker run -d -p 27017:27017 -p 3306:3306 -p 5432:5432 \
-v ./data:/data \
-e KOLMOS_PASSWORD=my-secret-password \
kolmos/kolmos:latest3. Connection Strings
Connect any standard driver or GUI tool using the exact connection string format for each database:
textKOLMOS Reference
# 1. MongoDB Connection String (mongosh, Mongoose, PyMongo, Compass)
mongodb://kolmos:my-secret-password@127.0.0.1:27017/?authMechanism=SCRAM-SHA-256&authSource=admin&directConnection=true
# 2. MySQL Connection String (mysql CLI, DBeaver, Prisma, TypeORM)
mysql://root:my-secret-password@127.0.0.1:3306/main
# 3. PostgreSQL Connection String (psql, pgAdmin, Prisma, SQLAlchemy)
postgres://postgres:my-secret-password@127.0.0.1:5432/main4. Testing Connection with mongosh & mysql
Test your running KOLMOS instance in terminal:
bashKOLMOS Reference
# Test MongoDB Wire Protocol:
mongosh "mongodb://kolmos:my-secret-password@127.0.0.1:27017/?authMechanism=SCRAM-SHA-256&authSource=admin&directConnection=true"
> db.users.insertOne({ name: "Alice", age: 28, status: "active" })
> db.users.find({ age: { $gte: 25 } })
# Test MySQL Wire Protocol:
mysql -h 127.0.0.1 -P 3306 -u root -p
mysql> SHOW DATABASES;
mysql> SELECT name, age FROM users WHERE age >= 25;