Cloudflare acquires Outerbase, folds data tooling into D1 and Durable Objects
Cloudflare has acquired Outerbase, the database interface and management platform built on Cloudflare's own developer stack. The Outerbase team will join Cloudflare and integrate its data explorer, query editor, and related tooling directly into the Cloudflare dashboard for D1 and Durable Objects users.
Outerbase began as a simpler way to browse tables, edit rows, and run queries without forcing users to memorize SQL syntax. Over time it grew into a broader platform with visualization features, row-level security, automatic REST APIs, and WebSocket support for streaming queries. One of its more notable projects was Starbase, a SQLite-compatible database built on Durable Objects that also served as a testbed for the tools now being absorbed into Cloudflare.
What changes for Outerbase users
The hosted Outerbase cloud will shut down on October 15, 2025. The open-source repositories will remain available, and users who prefer to self-host can still do so, with guidance provided for running Outerbase inside a Cloudflare account. The company's stated goal is to make the best parts of Outerbase part of the Cloudflare developer experience so that a separate choice is no longer necessary.
The two teams had already been collaborating since last year, when Outerbase added support for importing and managing D1 databases. That work highlighted the alignment between Cloudflare's infrastructure goals and Outerbase's focus on data accessibility, and it set the stage for the acquisition.
What lands in Q2 2025
The integration work is already underway, with several features expected to arrive over the course of Q2 2025:
- Adapting Outerbase's table viewer and query runner for D1 and Durable Objects
- Improving the Durable Objects getting-started experience in Wrangler, the dashboard, and client applications
- Better visualization of Workflow state, including the potentially large numbers of instances running at any time
- Pre- and post-query hooks for D1 that register handlers to act on data automatically
- Bringing the Starbase API to D1, expanding D1's existing REST API, and adding WebSocket support for applications hosted outside of Workers
A unified data explorer for D1 and Durable Objects is expected in the coming weeks. The team is also working on connecting Starbase features such as pre- and post-query hooks and row-level security to existing D1 databases and Durable Objects from within Cloudflare's platform.
const beforeQuery = ({ sql, params }) => {
// Prevent unauthorized queries
if (!isAllowedQuery(sql)) throw new Error('Query not allowed');
};
const afterQuery = ({ sql, result }) => {
// Basic PII masking example
for (const row of result) {
if ('email' in row) row.email = '[redacted]';
}
};
// Execute the query with pre- and post- query hooks
const { results } = await env.DB.prepare("SELECT * FROM users;", beforeQuery, afterQuery);The broader roadmap also includes improving how developers access data in Workers KV, R2, Workflows, and AI Agents, though specifics on those efforts were not detailed in the announcement.
