Introducing Flights: agent-native data pipelines in MotherDuckJoin the livestream

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Estuary

Real-time data integration platform for streaming data between systems. It integrates with MotherDuck for loading data from operational systems, APIs, files, or event streams.

How it works with MotherDuck​

Estuary materializes collections into MotherDuck tables. The connector uses object storage as a temporary staging area while writing to MotherDuck.

Prerequisites​

  • An Estuary Flow collection to materialize.
  • A MotherDuck service token.
  • A target MotherDuck database and schema.
  • A staging bucket in S3, S3-compatible storage, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob Storage, or Cloudflare R2.

Setup​

  1. In MotherDuck, create a service token for Estuary.
  2. Prepare a staging bucket and credentials with read/write access.
  3. In Estuary, create a MotherDuck materialization.
  4. Enter the MotherDuck service token, database, and schema.
  5. Configure the staging bucket.
  6. Add bindings from Estuary collections to MotherDuck table names.
  7. Start the materialization.

Authentication and configuration​

  • Use the MotherDuck service token for the /token connector field.
  • Set /database and /schema for the target database and default schema.
  • Configure per-binding table names and optional schema overrides for specific collections.
  • Choose the staging bucket type and credentials that match your object storage provider.

Important notes​

  • The staging bucket is temporary working storage for the materialization, not the permanent analytical data store.
  • Estuary recommends S3 in us-east-1 for best performance and cost when using S3 staging.
  • Delta updates can improve latency and cost for large datasets when your events have suitable keys, but they are not the default.

Use cases​

  • Stream source collections into MotherDuck tables.
  • Materialize operational and SaaS data into a MotherDuck analytics database.
  • Use Estuary-managed sync schedules for repeatable MotherDuck loads.

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