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Virtual Servers

Perspective’s Virtual Server feature lets you connect <perspective-viewer> to external data sources without loading data into Perspective’s built-in engine. Instead, queries are translated and executed natively by the external database.

For a detailed explanation of how virtual servers work, see the Virtual Servers concepts page.

Perspective ships with built-in virtual server implementations for:

  • DuckDB — query DuckDB databases in-browser via @duckdb/duckdb-wasm, or on the server via Node.js.
  • ClickHouse — query a ClickHouse server directly from the browser or from Node.js.

You can also implement your own virtual server to connect Perspective to any data source by implementing the VirtualServerHandler interface.