DuckDB ships a peg parser — so you can write queries in plain English

DuckDB 20 just landed with a new peg parser that lets you write SQL using regular English words instead of the usual SQL syntax. The parser accepts statements like "SELECT name FROM customers WHERE age > 30" in whatever form makes sense, and translates it into the actual SQL that runs. This isn't an AI agent. It's a grammar file — a PEG, a parsing expression grammar — that tells DuckDB how to read natural-language queries and turn them into something the engine can execute.

The reason this matters is that SQL is already one of the most widely used languages in the world and one of the most frustrating for anyone who isn't a developer. Writing it requires knowing exact keywords, table names, and join syntax. The peg parser strips some of that away — you don't need semicolons, you don't need the exact word order, and you can spell things out like a human would. The parser lives in the repo as a .peg file, which is the kind of thing that's easy to read, easy to modify, and easy to extend when the team wants to add new phrases.

This is a practical tool for a practical audience. It fits the same pattern as other DuckDB features that make the engine easier to use for people doing data work outside of code shops — analysts, ops folks, anyone writing reports or running queries on the command line. It's not a headline-grabbing AI feature. It's a grammar file that makes SQL less painful to type.

Why this matters for us: a lot of la gente runs queries on the command line or in dashboards where the syntax is a barrier; this shaves off the friction so they can get to the data without needing a SQL tutorial.