The shared model
Both systems route queries, control fanout, coordinate primary changes, and move data while continuing to serve eligible traffic.
The implementation for each system is designed with the underlying relational database in mind.
Foundations
Neki vs Vitess
Vitess concepts mapped to Neki’s Postgres architecture
If you already know Vitess, Neki will look familiar. A router sits in front of shards, configuration defines data placement, and live workflows can copy and stream data for operations such as resharding while the database continues serving traffic. Cutover, failures, and client reconnects can still produce transient errors that applications must handle.
However, Neki is not Vitess with MySQL swapped for Postgres.
Many parts of Vitess’s design are MySQL-specific.
Neki serves a similar purpose but implements routing and cluster operations for Postgres semantics.