First Application

Build a simple healthcare compliance application using the Kimberlite Rust SDK.

What You’ll Build

A patient record system that:

• Stores patient records with HIPAA data classification
• Creates an immutable audit trail for every access
• Queries historical records via time travel

Prerequisites

• kimberlite installed — see Start
• Rust 1.88+ installed

Step 1: Start the Database

# Tip: run `kimberlite init` for an interactive wizard with template selection
kimberlite init my-health-db --template healthcare
cd my-health-db
kimberlite dev

Step 2: Create Your Project

cargo new patient-records
cd patient-records

Add Kimberlite to Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
kimberlite-client = "0.4"
anyhow = "1"
tokio = { version = "1", features = ["rt-multi-thread", "macros"] }

Step 3: Write the Application

Replace src/main.rs:

use anyhow::Result;
use kimberlite_client::{Client, ClientConfig};
use kimberlite_types::TenantId;

fn main() -> Result<()> {
    // Connect to the local dev server
    let config = ClientConfig::default();
    let mut client = Client::connect("127.0.0.1:5432", TenantId::new(1), config)?;

    // Create the patients table
    client.query(
        "CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS patients (
            id BIGINT,
            name TEXT,
            dob TEXT,
            diagnosis TEXT,
            PRIMARY KEY (id)
        )",
        &[],
    )?;

    println!("✓ Table created");

    // Insert patient records
    client.query(
        "INSERT INTO patients VALUES (1, 'Jane Doe', '1980-01-15', 'Hypertension')",
        &[],
    )?;
    client.query(
        "INSERT INTO patients VALUES (2, 'John Smith', '1992-07-22', 'Diabetes Type 2')",
        &[],
    )?;

    println!("✓ Patient records inserted");

    // Query all patients
    let result = client.query("SELECT id, name, dob FROM patients ORDER BY id", &[])?;

    println!("\nPatient Records:");
    println!("{:-<40}", "");
    for row in &result.rows {
        let id = &row[0];
        let name = &row[1];
        let dob = &row[2];
        println!("{:<5} {:<20} {}", id, name, dob);
    }
    println!("{} patients found", result.rows.len());

    // Query a single patient by ID (point lookup — O(1))
    let single = client.query("SELECT * FROM patients WHERE id = 1", &[])?;
    println!("\nRecord for patient 1:");
    if let Some(row) = single.rows.first() {
        for (col, val) in result.columns.iter().zip(row) {
            println!("  {}: {}", col, val);
        }
    }

    println!("\n✓ Application complete");
    Ok(())
}

Step 4: Run the Application

cargo run

Expected output:

✓ Table created
✓ Patient records inserted

Patient Records:
----------------------------------------
1     Jane Doe             1980-01-15
2     John Smith           1992-07-22
2 patients found

Record for patient 1:
  id: 1
  name: Jane Doe
  ...

✓ Application complete

Step 5: View the Audit Trail in Studio

Open http://localhost:5555 and click the Studio tab.

Every insert and query is recorded in the immutable log. You can:

• Browse all data in the schema explorer
• Execute SQL queries interactively
• Use the time-travel slider to see the database at any past state

Next Steps

• Compliance — HIPAA, GDPR, and 21 more frameworks
• RBAC — Role-based access control
• Field Masking — Mask PHI fields automatically
• Python SDK — Use Kimberlite from Python