Segmentation Fault when using list_cosine_similarity in 1.2.2-alpha.19

[pokutuna]

Description

When using the list_cosine_similarity function with @duckdb/node-api version 1.2.2-alpha.19, the application crashes with a segmentation fault.
The same code works correctly with version 1.2.2-alpha.18.

Initially, I thought this might be related to my local build environment or setup, but I've been able to reproduce the issue with minimal code in both my local environment and on a Linux server (Google Cloud Shell). This confirms it's an issue with the library itself rather than environment-specific configuration.

I've only confirmed the issue with list_cosine_similarity, and haven't tested whether other similar functions (like other vector operations) might be affected as well. The scope of the issue beyond this specific function is currently unknown.

Environment

• Node.js version: v20.12.2, v22.15.1
• @duckdb/node-api version: 1.2.2-alpha.19
• Operating systems tested:
  • macOS (darwin-arm64)
  • Linux (via Google Cloud Shell)

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a database with a table containing vector embeddings (768-dimension double arrays)
2. Execute a query using list_cosine_similarity to find the most similar vector to a query vector
3. The application crashes with a segmentation fault

Error Output

On macOS (darwin-arm64):

[1]    91808 segmentation fault  node index.mjs

Or sometimes:

node:internal/process/promises:289
        triggerUncaughtException(err, true /* fromPromise */);
    ^

[Error: Failed to execute prepared statement]

Node.js v20.12.2

On Linux (x86_64, Node.js v22.15.1, Linux 6.6.87+):

Segmentation fault (core dumped)

Reproduction Repository

I've created a repository to reproduce this issue:
pokutuna/20250521-duckdb-segmentation-fault-repro

The repository contains:

• A version using alpha.18 (working correctly)
• A version using alpha.19 (crashing with segmentation fault)
• Minimal code that isolates the issue to just the list_cosine_similarity functionality
• Sample data
• GDB debug logs showing the crash details

[jraymakers]

Thanks for the detailed report. This is puzzling, because not a lot changed between alpha.18 and alpha.19. The only change to native code was this PR, which does perform some native memory management, but using well-established patterns. The error message is superficially similar to that in #207, but that occurred with alpha.18, before alpha.19 was released. The stack trace reported in the repo README is deep inside DuckDB core, but Node Neo using release binaries for DuckDB core, and those binaries didn't change between alpha.18 and alpha.19.

One thing that might provide more information is if this reproduces with the recently released 1.3.0-alpha.20. That does contain new DuckDB binaries, of course, for the new DuckDB version.

[jraymakers]

I think this is likely the same issue as #223, which has to do with passing parameters to run (which I see your example does). I think I understand the problem and the fix, and I hope to have a new version out shortly.

[jraymakers]

I believe 1.3.0-alpha.21 should have the fix. Please try and let me know whether it works for you.

[pokutuna]

Thank you!
I confirmed that using version 1.3.0-alpha.21 resolved the errors in both environments I mentioned.

[jraymakers]

Awesome, thanks for confirming.