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-# storage
-Storage backends for protobom
+# protobom storage
+
+[![Go Reference](https://pkg.go.dev/badge/github.com/protobom/storage.svg)](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/protobom/storage)
+
+Storage backends for [protobom](https://github.com/protobom/protobom), the
+format-neutral SBOM data model. Each backend implements the
+[`storage.Backend`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/protobom/protobom/pkg/storage#Backend)
+interface from protobom, so a `sbom.Document` parsed from SPDX or CycloneDX can
+be persisted and retrieved from a database or object store with the same
+`Store` / `Retrieve` calls.
+
+## Backends
+
+| Package                 | Storage                     | Notes                                                                                       |
+| ----------------------- | --------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
+| `backends/ent`          | SQLite via [ent](https://entgo.io) | Fully relational schema, in-memory or file-backed. Supports document and node annotations. |
+| `backends/clickhouse`   | [ClickHouse](https://clickhouse.com) | Stores the serialized document plus wide node and edge tables for analytical queries. |
+| `backends/gcs`          | Google Cloud Storage        | Object-store backend with a key index for lookups by identifier, hash and name.            |
+| `backends/objectstore`  | Any object store            | Provider-agnostic core used by `gcs`. Implement the `ObjectStore` interface to add S3, MinIO, etc. |
+
+## Installation
+
+```console
+go get github.com/protobom/storage
+```
+
+## Quick start
+
+The example below parses a CycloneDX SBOM, stores it in an in-memory SQLite
+database using the `ent` backend, and reads it back by document ID.
+
+```go
+package main
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+
+	"github.com/protobom/protobom/pkg/reader"
+
+	"github.com/protobom/storage/backends/ent"
+)
+
+func main() {
+	// Parse an SBOM (SPDX or CycloneDX) into a protobom document.
+	doc, err := reader.New().ParseFile("sbom.cdx.json")
+	if err != nil {
+		panic(err)
+	}
+
+	// Create the backend. The default database is ":memory:";
+	// use ent.WithDatabaseFile("sboms.db") to persist to disk.
+	backend := ent.NewBackend()
+	if err := backend.InitClient(); err != nil {
+		panic(err)
+	}
+	defer backend.CloseClient()
+
+	// Store the document.
+	if err := backend.Store(doc, nil); err != nil {
+		panic(err)
+	}
+
+	// Retrieve it again by its ID.
+	stored, err := backend.Retrieve(doc.GetMetadata().GetId(), nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		panic(err)
+	}
+
+	fmt.Printf("%s has %d nodes\n", stored.GetMetadata().GetId(), len(stored.GetNodeList().GetNodes()))
+}
+```
+
+Switching backends only changes the constructor. For example, to use ClickHouse:
+
+```go
+backend := clickhouse.NewBackend(
+	clickhouse.WithAddr("localhost:9000"),
+	clickhouse.WithCredentials("default", ""),
+)
+```
+
+or Google Cloud Storage:
+
+```go
+backend := gcs.NewBackend(gcs.WithBucket("my-sboms"))
+```
+
+See the `Example` test in [`backends/ent/example_test.go`](backends/ent/example_test.go)
+for a complete, runnable round trip and the per-package documentation on
+[pkg.go.dev](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/protobom/storage) for all options.
+
+## Development
+
+```console
+make help             # list all targets
+make lint             # run golangci-lint
+make test-unit        # ent backend unit tests (no external services)
+make test-clickhouse  # needs a ClickHouse server; see CLICKHOUSE_ADDR/USER/PASSWORD
+make test-gcs         # needs STORAGE_EMULATOR_HOST or GCS credentials
+```
+
+## License
+
+Apache-2.0. See [LICENSE](LICENSE).