ExArrow – Apache Arrow IPC, Flight & ADBC Support for Elixir

I’m announcing the public release of ExArrow:

ExArrow provides a focused, BEAM-friendly implementation of:

• Arrow IPC encoding / decoding
• Arrow Flight client support
• Arrow Database Connectivity (ADBC) integration
• Explorer interoperability

The library concentrates on Arrow’s memory model and transport protocols.

Design Scope

ExArrow is not:

• A dataframe library
• A database driver
• A replacement for Explorer or ADBC

It is the Arrow-native infrastructure layer.

It exposes Arrow in a way that integrates cleanly with existing Elixir data tooling.

Ecosystem Positioning

ExArrow complements these libraries by handling Arrow IPC, Flight, and columnar structures directly.

How It Fits Into Real Workflows

Typical architecture:

1. ADBC retrieves Arrow data from a database
2. ExArrow handles IPC or Flight transport
3. Explorer consumes Arrow-backed dataframes
4. ExZarr stores large chunked datasets when persistence is required

This layered model enables:

• Zero-copy data interchange
• Clean separation of responsibilities
• Cross-language interoperability
• Arrow-native services in Phoenix or distributed BEAM systems

Practical Impact

Apache Arrow has become a core interoperability layer in modern analytics systems.

ExArrow makes Arrow directly usable in Elixir without requiring external bridges or conversion layers.

The intent is to provide a stable foundation for columnar-native applications on the BEAM.

Contributions, benchmarks, and production feedback are welcome.

— Thanos Vassilakis

https://github.com/thanos/ex_arrow