Firebird News

New versions of three Firebird Python packages were released today:

• firebird-base 2.0.4
• firebird-driver 2.1.0
• firebird-lib 2.1.0

The main changes are summarized below.

firebird-base 2.0.4

• Extended the hook system to support callbacks registered with ANY as the source.
• Added a coding-agent skill for working with firebird-base.
• Migrated documentation to Markdown/Zensical, with expanded guides and API documentation.

firebird-driver 2.1.0

• Introduced a runtime provider interface for selecting client library implementations through load_api(). This enables integration with alternative providers, including custom embedded Firebird distributions.
• Added support for Firebird 6 trace session plugins.
• Added configurable timeouts for server service output queries, allowing applications to distinguish a timeout from the end of output.
• Added a coding-agent skill for working with firebird-driver.
• Reorganized and migrated documentation to Markdown/Zensical.
• Compatibility change: Corrected the keyhoder keyword to keyholder in backup and restore methods. The old spelling is no longer accepted.

firebird-lib 2.1.0

• Extended schema metadata support for Firebird 4+ with role system privileges and SQL SECURITY settings, including their representation in generated DDL.
• Extended gstat parsing with encrypted generator page statistics and big record page counts.
• Updated the schema and monitor modules to materialize BLOB values retrieved by internal cursors.
• Added a coding-agent skill for working with firebird-lib.
• Migrated documentation to Markdown/Zensical.
• Now requires firebird-driver 2.1.x.

All three packages now advertise Python 3.14 and 3.15 support.

The new coding-agent skills are distributed with the project repositories and can be used with compatible AI coding assistants.

Downloads and full changelogs:

• firebird-base: https://github.com/FirebirdSQL/python3-base
• firebird-driver: https://github.com/FirebirdSQL/python3-driver
• firebird-lib: https://github.com/FirebirdSQL/python3-lib

All three packages are also available from PyPI.

In addition to these releases, IBPhoenix has published a new package, firebird-embedded (https://github.com/IBPhoenix/python3-embedded), which implements the FirebirdProvider protocol introduced in firebird-driver 2.1.0.

The project maintains three separate branches for building binary wheel distributions of Firebird 3, 4, and 5. Prebuilt packages are available for Firebird 3.0.14, 4.0.7, and 5.0.4 on Windows and Linux, covering both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms, including ARM support for Firebird 5.

The packages are available on PyPI (https://pypi.org/project/firebird-embedded/).

The focus is on a large‑scale update to the ER diagram editor, as well as targeted improvements to the interface, profiler, and overall stability.

New features in the ER diagram editor:

🔴 Support for views, global temporary, and system tables

🔴 Convenient filtering, diagram synchronization with the database, and new options for automatic placement

🔴 Full support for dark theme, scaling, moving, and copying fragments

🔴 Export to PNG, JPG, SVG, Mermaid, draw.io and JSON, as well as import of Mermaid and IBExpert (.grc) files

🔴 Advanced print settings

What’s new

🔴The ability to rename editor tabs has been added

🔴The profiler now includes digit separators for query execution time, which makes analysis more visual

Fixes

🔴Freezing when viewing large profiling logs has been resolved

🔴The parsing of trace logs has been adjusted for new versions of Red Database / Firebird.

🔴The application launch on Linux with glibc versions below 2.34 has been fixed.

For the full list of changes and technical details, see the changelog on the website.

You can join to the Telegram chat for discussion.

We’re pleased to announce that the September 2026 issue of EmberWings (2026/3) is now available.

This issue considers a familiar professional hazard: a system, concept, or answer can look known just enough to discourage another question. That is often where the interesting work begins. When technologies, workloads, and habits meet in a new context, surface similarity can conceal consequences that appear only under pressure.

The September edition follows that thread through the engine and the wider Firebird ecosystem. It brings together technical perspective, experience from inside the project, practical observations, and the questions that keep turning up when familiar assumptions meet real systems.

As always, EmberWings is presented in a clean, print-friendly format designed for comfortable reading, whether you prefer reading on screen or on paper.

The latest issue is available only to all Firebird Associates and Firebird Partners. It will be available to the general public in December 2026. And as always, the June issue is now available to everyone.

IBPhoenix is pleased to announce the release of PhoenixVault — the secure, embedded database engine powered by Firebird.

PhoenixVault combines Firebird 5 Embedded with built-in database encryption, licensing and streamlined deployment. The complete embedded engine, client library, encryption and international support are integrated into a single library, making secure local database deployment considerably simpler than with a standard Firebird Embedded installation.

PhoenixVault is designed as a drop-in replacement for both Firebird Embedded and the Firebird client library. Existing Firebird applications can use the standard Firebird API without special encryption support in the application, while all databases created by the embedded engine are automatically encrypted.

A flexible license-based key management scheme lets software vendors control how encryption is bound to their products, customers or individual installations, without requiring an external key management infrastructure. PhoenixVault can also protect essential Firebird configuration files against inspection or tampering.

For full details, including supported platforms, pricing and available maintenance options, see the PhoenixVault product page.

This update makes working with databases more comfortable and stable. We have improved system integration and fixed visual issues that interfered with work. Note that the key used to apply autocompletion has changed from Enter to Tab, but you can revert it in the settings.

Added:

🟥 System-wide application installation support on Linux.

🟥 Windows UAC dialog requesting administrator rights to update the application.

🟥 Shortcuts configuration for some commands.

Fixed:

🟥 Automatically display autocomplete tooltips in the Query Editor.

🟥 Generating a DDL for table when exporting data to a SQL script.

🟥 “Result Set Limit Reached” dialog appears multiple times.

For a detailed breakdown of all technical modifications, please visit the full changelog on our website and join the chat.