simonw/browser-compat-db

Simon Willison · Simon Willison · 2026-06-24

Simon Willison converts Mozilla's MDN browser compatibility dataset into a queryable 66MB SQLite database using AI-generated scripts, hosting it on a GitHub orphan branch to obtain open CORS headers for use with Datasette Lite.

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Appears in

Simon Willison's AI-Augmented Datasette Ecosystem: Agent, Apps, and Plugins

Extraction

Topics: developer-toolssqlitebrowser-compatibilityai-assisted-programmingmodel-context-protocol

Claims

Mozilla's mdn/browser-compat-data repository can be converted into a SQLite database using sqlite-utils, making the data directly queryable.
Files stored in regular GitHub repository branches have open CORS headers, unlike GitHub Releases, making them suitable for hosting databases consumed by browser-side tools.
Claude Code (Opus 4.8) generated the conversion script and Codex Desktop (GPT-5.5) built the GitHub Actions workflow, demonstrating mixed-AI-tool workflows.
The resulting database can be explored interactively in the browser via Datasette Lite without any server-side infrastructure.

Key quotes

I wanted the resulting ~66MB SQLite database to be available via the GitHub CDN with open CORS headers. GitHub releases don't have those, but any file stored in a regular GitHub repository does.