DumboDB is DoltHub’s NoSQL, version-controlled database. It aims to be a drop-in replacement for MongoDB, with the added benefit of version control. DoltHub also supports Dolt, Doltgres, and Doltlite — all SQL databases with version control layered on top.
DoltHub is a startup, and we are very keen to understand how our products are being used. To that end, our servers all have the ability to “phone home” and send us anonymous usage statistics. This information helps us make decisions about how to allocate our development effort. And yes, it is helpful when asking for funding too.
Release 0.3.6 of DumboDB started phoning home. Let’s discuss.
User Metrics, What?!#
I’m the first to admit that user metrics are a bit of a touchy subject. When my OS asks me if I want to help debug its product with detailed crash reports, I smash the “No” button without hesitation. What makes DoltHub any different?
The information we collect is very limited and entirely anonymous. Here is what we collect:
- Machine Hash (see below)
- Application Name (Dumbo)
- Application Version
- OS Platform
The “Machine Hash” is a unique identifier for your machine. The machineid package is used to generate a stable unique identifier. It uses values specific to different operating systems to generate a unique ID for your machine, VM, or Docker instance. We then further obfuscate this value by hashing it with SHA256. This means that we can identify unique machines, but we cannot identify you or your machine.
There are two specific events that we are notified about: when a server starts and a heartbeat every 24 hours after startup. These two pieces of information let us know when people are kicking the tires on the product (the startup event) and when they are running persistent instances (the heartbeat event).
As you can see, there is no way for us to really know anything about the caller. We aren’t trying to track you; we are just trying to track server usage. No funny business.
On, By Default#
By default, when you start a DumboDB server (or a Dolt or a Doltgres server), it will send anonymous usage statistics to DoltHub. We’ve done this for years, and we’ve always been clear about how to disable it.
You can see that we phone home in your server startup logs. When you start a DumboDB server, you will see the following log message:
time=2026-08-03T12:23:30.231-07:00
level=INFO
source=dumbodb/main.go:174
msg="anonymous usage metrics enabled; disable with --no-metrics or DUMBODB_NO_METRICS=1"We try to be as transparent as possible about this feature, and we want to make sure you know we are phoning home. And even if you didn’t read this blog, it’s pretty clear how to disable it. But we’ll spell it out for you in the next section.
If You Don’t Want to Phone Home#
We at DoltHub would obviously prefer that you continue to share this information with us. But we understand that there are organizational policies and other reasons why you may not want to share this information. We understand that a mechanism to disable this feature is important, and we have provided one.
There are two levers you can pull to prevent DumboDB from phoning home. The first is to use the --no-metrics flag when starting the server. The second is to set the environment variable DUMBODB_NO_METRICS=1. Either of these will prevent DumboDB from sending any anonymous usage statistics to DoltHub.
Servers started with the --no-metrics flag will log the following message:
$ dumbodb --data-dir /tmp/mydb --no-metrics
[...snip...]
time=2026-08-03T14:07:29.640-07:00 level=INFO source=dumbodb/main.go:176 msg="anonymous usage metrics disabled"Or if you prefer environment variables, you can set DUMBODB_NO_METRICS=1 before starting the server:
$ export DUMBODB_NO_METRICS=1
$ dumbodb --data-dir /tmp/mydb
[...snip...]
time=2026-08-03T14:07:29.640-07:00 level=INFO source=dumbodb/main.go:176 msg="anonymous usage metrics disabled"Results?#
Well, we need more users. Plain and simple. I know some of you are waiting for DumboDB to be production-ready before you try it, but we need real usage and user feedback to get there. So please, if you are interested in a version-controlled NoSQL database, give DumboDB a try and let us know what you think.
Want to learn more about Dolt and Dumbo? Hop on our Discord to ask questions and nerd out about version-controlled databases!
