In DuckLake, every snapshot represents a consistent state of the database. DuckLake keeps a record of all historic snapshots and their changesets, unless compaction is triggered and historic snapshots are explicitly deleted.
Using time travel, it is possible to query the state of the database as of any recorded snapshot.
The snapshot to query can be specified either (1) using a timestamp, or (2) explicitly using a snapshot identifier.
The snapshots function can be used to obtain a list of valid snapshots for a given DuckLake database.
Examples
Query the table at a specific snapshot version.
SELECT * FROM tbl AT (VERSION => 3);
Query the table as it was last week.
SELECT * FROM tbl AT (TIMESTAMP => now() - INTERVAL '1 week');
Attach a DuckLake database at a specific snapshot version.
ATTACH 'ducklake:file.db' (SNAPSHOT_VERSION 3);
Attach a DuckLake database as it was at a specific time.
ATTACH 'ducklake:file.db' (SNAPSHOT_TIME '2025-05-26 00:00:00');