Hiraeth: a lean local AWS SQS emulator for fast integration tests

What is Hiraeth?

Hiraeth is a local AWS emulator focused on fast integration testing, with SQS as its first target. It accepts signed AWS SDK requests over an HTTP endpoint, stores state in SQLite, and exposes an optional web admin UI on a separate port for inspecting queues, messages, attributes and tags. Think: SigV4 auth, Docker-friendly, and a minimal feature set built to move quickly — no bells and whistles, just the parts you need to test. Tired of slow, heavyweight emulators? This aims to be the nimble alternative.

Try it

Getting started is simple: docker compose up --build will bring up the emulator (AWS endpoint on http://localhost:4566, admin UI on http://localhost:4567). The repo ships a seeded test credential (AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID/test, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY/test) and release images are published to GitHub Container Registry (ghcr.io/sethpyle376/hiraeth:v0.1.0). If you prefer running from source, set HIRAETH_DATABASE_URL to a local SQLite path and cargo run -p hiraeth_runtime — environment variables control ports, host binding, and whether the web UI is enabled.

Caveats and current status

It has been reported that this project is early and intended strictly for local development and test environments, not as a drop-in production replacement for AWS. The web UI does not use SigV4, so keep HIRAETH_WEB_HOST bound to a trusted interface. SQS support is already usable: core operations like ChangeMessageVisibility, DeleteMessage, DeleteQueue and several batch variants are implemented, while CreateQueue parity and a few edge behaviors remain partial. In short: useful now for integration tests, but expect rough edges — and yes, it may be exactly what your CI pipeline has been begging for.

Sources: github.com/sethpyle376, Hacker News