simonw/browser-compat-db

📰 Simon Willison's Blog

Learn how to convert browser compatibility data into a SQLite database and make it available via GitHub CDN with open CORS headers

intermediate Published 24 Jun 2026
Action Steps
  1. Download the mdn/browser-compat-data repository
  2. Convert the data into a SQLite database using sqlite-utils and the provided build_db.py script
  3. Create a GitHub Actions workflow to build and deploy the database
  4. Host the database on a 'db' orphan branch with open CORS headers
  5. Explore the database using Datasette Lite
Who Needs to Know This

Developers and data engineers can benefit from this tutorial to create and share browser compatibility data in a scalable and accessible way

Key Insight

💡 Converting large datasets into SQLite databases can make them more accessible and scalable

Share This
📊 Convert browser compatibility data to a SQLite DB and share via GitHub CDN! 💻

Key Takeaways

Learn how to convert browser compatibility data into a SQLite database and make it available via GitHub CDN with open CORS headers

Full Article

Title: simonw/browser-compat-db

URL Source: https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jun/24/browser-compat-db/

Published Time: Thu, 25 Jun 2026 00:24:16 GMT

Markdown Content:
# [Simon Willison’s Weblog](https://simonwillison.net/)

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24th June 2026 - Link Blog

**[simonw/browser-compat-db](https://github.com/simonw/browser-compat-db)**. Inspired by Mozilla's [new MDN MCP service](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/blog/introducing-mdn-mcp-server/) - [source code here](https://github.com/mdn/mcp) - I decided to try converting their comprehensive [mdn/browser-compat-data](https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data) repository full of browser compatibility data into a SQLite database.

This new GitHub Repo includes a Claude Code for web (Opus 4.8) [generated script](https://github.com/simonw/browser-compat-db/blob/main/build_db.py) for doing that using [sqlite-utils](https://github.com/simonw/sqlite-utils).

I wanted the resulting ~66MB SQLite database to be available via the GitHub CDN with open CORS headers. GitHub releases don't have those, but any file stored in a regular GitHub repository does - so I had Codex Desktop (GPT-5.5) build [a GitHub Actions workflow](https://github.com/simonw/browser-compat-db/blob/main/.github/workflows/build-db.yml) that builds the database and then force-pushes it to a `db` "orphan" branch.

You can download the resulting database [from here](https://github.com/simonw/browser-compat-db/blob/db/browser-compat.db), and since it's hosted with open CORS headers you can also [explore it with Datasette Lite](https://lite.datasette.io/?url=https://github.com/simonw/browser-compat-db/blob/db/browser-compat.db#/browser-compat/releases_tree).

Posted [24th June 2026](https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jun/24/) at 11:59 pm

## Recent articles

* [Porting the Moebius 0.2B image inpainting model to run in the browser with Claude Code](https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jun/22/porting-moebius/) - 22nd June 2026
* [sqlite-utils 4.0rc1 adds migrations and nested transactions](https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jun/21/sqlite-utils-40rc1/) - 21st June 2026
* [Datasette Apps: Host custom HTML applications inside Datasette](https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jun/18/datasette-apps/) - 18th June 2026

This is a **link post** by Simon Willison, posted on [24th June 2026](https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jun/24/).

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