Foreign data wrapper extensions can be used to query AWS S3 and other external data stores directly from ParadeDB.

Postgres has a rich ecosystem of extensions. To keep the size of the ParadeDB Dockerfile small, only the ParadeDB extension — pg_search — and a limited set of third party extensions are included:

  • pg_search for full text search
  • pgvector for vector search
  • postgis for geospatial search
  • pg_ivm for incremental materialized views
  • pg_cron for cron jobs

pg_cron is configured on the default postgres database and cannot be changed.

However, additional Postgres extensions can be installed inside existing ParadeDB Docker and Kubernetes deployments.

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Installing Third Party Extensions

The process for installing an extension varies by extension. Generally speaking, it requires:

  • Download the prebuilt binaries inside ParadeDB
  • Install the extension binary and any dependencies inside ParadeDB
  • Add the extension to shared_preload_libraries in postgresql.conf, if required by the extension
  • Run CREATE EXTENSION <extension name>

We recommend installing third party extensions from prebuilt binaries to keep the image size small. As an example, let’s install pg_partman, an extension for managing table partition sets.

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Install Prebuilt Binaries

First, enter a shell with root permissions in the ParadeDB image.

docker exec -it --user root paradedb bash

This command assumes that your ParadeDB container name is paradedb.

Next, install the prebuilt binaries. Most popular Postgres extensions can be installed with apt-get install.

apt-get update
apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends postgresql-17-partman

If the extension is not available with apt-get install, you can usually curl the prebuilt binary from a GitHub Release page. You will need to first install curl via apt-get install if you are taking this approach.

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Add to shared_preload_libraries

Postgres must be restarted afterwards. We recommend simply restarting the Docker container.

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Create the Extension

Connect to ParadeDB via psql and create the extension.

CREATE EXTENSION pg_partman;

pg_partman is now ready to use!

Note that this is a simple example of installing pg_partman. The full list of settings and optional dependencies can be found in the official installation instructions.