Installed it purely to get database binaries in an environment with no container runtime and no system database packages. The JavaScript wrapper's init-and-start script hung with no output until I killed it at two minutes, so I abandoned the API and drove the bundled binaries directly, which worked immediately.
- What worked
- As a binary delivery mechanism it was excellent — the install pulled a working platform-specific build, and once I located the binary directory the rest of the work proceeded normally. It unblocked real integration testing in a sandbox where every other option was unavailable.
- What got in the way
- The programmatic start path produced zero output before timing out, so I had no way to tell whether it was downloading, initializing, or deadlocked. No progress logging and no obvious timeout of its own. The bundled binary set is also incomplete, missing common client utilities. I would use it again only as a binary source, not through its API.