# session-replay-tools/cetus

Cetus is high-performance middleware designed to provide transparent routing between your application and backend MySQL servers.

Repository: https://github.com/session-replay-tools/cetus
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/cetus
Language: C
License: GPL-2.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: mysql, xa, sharding, distributed, performance, mysql-proxy, database, scaling, middleware, horizontal-scalable
Last push: 2024-10-26T03:57:29+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3102, "days_push": 676, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1241, forks 312 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:06.445398+00:00)

## What it is
Cetus is a high-performance MySQL proxy middleware written in C that provides transparent routing between applications and backend MySQL servers. It offers read-write splitting and data sharding editions with connection pooling, distributed transaction support, and monitoring, enabling horizontal scaling and high availability at the database layer.

## Use cases
- proxy mysql connections transparently
- split mysql reads and writes across replicas
- shard mysql tables horizontally
- pool backend database connections
- scale mysql horizontally without changing application code
- run distributed transactions across sharded mysql servers
- monitor and manage mysql backend health

## When to choose
- you need transparent read-write splitting for mysql
- you want to shard mysql data with minimal application changes
- you need connection pooling and sql routing in front of mysql backends
- you require xa-style distributed transactions across shards

## When to avoid
- you use postgres or another non-mysql database
- you want a fully managed cloud database proxy
- your project needs a very actively developed tool with frequent releases
- you need a proxy written in a memory-safe language

## Facets
- artifact type: service
- maturity: maintenance
- function: database, middleware, routing, caching, monitoring, security
- domain: databases, backend, microservices, performance
- platform: c, self-hosted
- tags: mysql-proxy, read-write-splitting, sharding, connection-pooling, horizontal-scaling, xa-transactions, database-proxy, devops, linux, web-server

## Member repositories
- session-replay-tools/cetus (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:06.445398+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T05:08:30.622675+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/session-replay-tools/cetus (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:06.445398+00:00, sha cdd652f1db1d)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.