add full UPDATE / DELETE / INSERT support

[andrisi]

Describe the solution you'd like
Steampipe developers clearly understand that the world (or any API) can be seen as a relation database and queried the SQL. Unfortunately getting data is just one slice of these possibilities. Without proper UPDATE support we are only harnessing a part of this magic solution. Also, it's great that you already support SQLite and PostgreSQL FDW APIs, which in turn do support UPDATE, so we are missing out on that.

Additional context
Lets say I create a plugin that sees running processes and display windows as tables. Ok, I can get data on them, but I do want to let them be updateble - thus moving windows around, or changing the priority of a process, etc.

[pskrbasu]

Hi @andrisi, thank you for taking the time to raise this and for sharing your thoughts on the potential of treating APIs as relational databases — it's an interesting perspective!

However, Steampipe was designed from the ground up as a read-only querying tool. The core architecture — from the FDW layer through to the plugin SDK — is built around the concept of translating SQL SELECT queries into API calls and streaming results back. Supporting write operations (UPDATE/DELETE/INSERT) would represent a fundamental shift in the project's design philosophy and scope.

We appreciate the creative thinking here, but this isn't a direction we plan to take Steampipe.

Thanks again for the suggestion!

[andrisi]

@pskrbasu just imagine if the inventors of SQL did the same. Let's create a great way to query databases... Oooops, we forgot, that some sizeable portion of users might want to update their data. I honestly wonder how you made that initial design choice or "design philosophy". It feels more like an obvious missing feature. Even more so because according to my research, Steampipe has the simplest API to add connectors. You're missing out on many use caes, and obviously it is not just my fringe one.