# Building an LSM Storage Engine from Scratch in Rust

DevFeed: [Building an LSM Storage Engine from Scratch in Rust](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/building-strata-39414.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://n8z.dev/posts/building-strata/>)

Author: Nevin Zheng

Published: 2026-03-05T00:00:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [nevzheng](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/nevzheng.md>)

Topics: [Rust](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/rust.md>), [Databases](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/databases.md>), [Data structures](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/data-structures.md>)

Tags: [code](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/code.md>), [compaction](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/compaction.md>), [data-structures](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/data-structures.md>), [database](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/database.md>), [merge](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/merge.md>), [mvcc](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mvcc.md>), [rust](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/rust.md>), [storage](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/storage.md>), [storage-engine](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/storage-engine.md>)

## AI overview

A personal engineering account of building an LSM storage engine from scratch in Rust. The author discusses choosing LSM trees, prioritizing correctness and developer experience, versioning keys for possible MVCC exploration, and considering key-value separation to reduce compaction costs.

## Source excerpt

Building my own perfectly imperfect LSM storage engine from scratch in Rust.