rotki Database

rotki uses two different SQLite databases: one with information about assets, prices, and other non-sensitive information (global.db), and one with user information (rotkehlchen.db). The latter is encrypted using an extension called SQLCipher that provides transparent 256-bit AES full database encryption.

Database Location

Databases are stored in directories under the rotki data directory.

• The global database is stored at global/global.db.
• The accounts you create in rotki have their own database stored at users/<account_name>/rotkehlchen.db.

If you need to manually access the database, you can find the guide here.

DB Upgrades

Database upgrades are needed when changes in the schema occur. rotki checks a setting in the database with the version and executes a check against the version to verify if the upgrade needs to happen.

When the database schema is changed, it is important to note that the operation is not reversible. Therefore, to open the upgraded database with an older version, you would need a backup. For more information, check upgrade_manager.py.

When adding a new upgrade, remember to bump ROTKEHLCHEN_DB_VERSION in settings.py. Generally, we only make one upgrade per release, so if you need to make changes to the schema, simply add them to the latest unreleased migration.

rotki generates a backup before any schema upgrade. These backups are stored in the same directory as the database with the name <timestamp>_rotkehlchen_db_v<version>.backup or <timestamp>_global_db_v<version>.backup.

rotki uses the same mechanism of updating the schema for both the global and user databases.

DB Migrations

When developers need to make changes in the data but the schema does not change, a data migration is made instead. This operation can be a simple task such as deleting old backup files, inserting some rows, or running a background task to update some table. In this case, the database can be opened using the previous version of rotki. For more information, check data_migrations.