Oracle has proposed a more transparent approach to developing its open source database MySQL, including new features supporting vectors.
As if answering recent criticism of Oracle’s custodianship of the LAMP stack poster child, Big Red published a blog post claiming “MySQL is fundamental to our data strategy.”
Co-authored by vice president Heather VanCura and MySQL community manager Lenka Kasparova, the post continues: “Oracle firmly believes that MySQL’s enduring strength arises from this vibrant global community. We are excited to work with the MySQL Community on the strategy we announced in Belgium, January 29, 2026, including adding more features and functionality, accelerating innovation directly in the MySQL core.”
Among the new features now “prioritized” for developers are “AI and cloud alignment, such as vector, developer experience and developer-focused features, performance, such as scaling, observability, extensibility, and ecosystem/tooling/connectors.”
Lack of vector support has become a problem for MySQL. Fellow open source database PostgreSQL’s support for vectors began with pgvector v0.1.1 on April 25, 2021. Most commercial databases offer vector support in some way. Google introduced vector search for its database service Cloud SQL for MySQL two years ago.
In their blog post, VanCura and Kasparova say Oracle will prioritize new features on “community selection principles” starting with low-risk, easy-to-adopt capabilities preserving stability and upgradeability. It will re-evaluate priorities in every release cycle.
The blog post also points to Planet MySQL, the community website “key to growing the overall MySQL Ecosystem and adoption.” It includes blogs from vendors other than Oracle, such as open source consultancy Percona and ProxySQL.
Last month, a group of influential users and developers invited Oracle to join plans to create an independent foundation to guide development of MySQL. It aims to establish a nonprofit to support the MySQL community and wants Oracle to help form the plans as the owner of the MySQL software and trademark.
The move was prompted by concerns including the declining popularity and market share of MySQL as new projects and younger developers are more likely to use PostgreSQL. As such, it has become difficult to attract new developers to MySQL, the community argued.
Under Oracle’s management, MySQL’s development lacks transparency and largely takes place behind closed doors through private code drops, “with limited visibility into the roadmap or decision-making,” the group letter said.
The group also claimed MySQL lacks features that should be standard in a modern database, including vector search, which is often used to support AI applications.
It followed a meeting in January in San Francisco, which discussed recent job losses at Oracle’s MySQL core development team – the database’s founding developer Michael “Monty” Widenius said he was “heartbroken” on hearing the news – and a dramatic fall in the number of commits to the project that led some to believe it is reaching a critical crossroads.
In response to Oracle’s latest move, the group is understood to be “positive on what was shared, but looking for more concrete information on timescales.” More detail is likely to follow before the end of the month. ®