diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index cf721dc..2fcd4eb 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -200,6 +200,15 @@ version = "0.13.0"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "904dfeac50f3cdaba28fc6f57fdcddb75f49ed61346676a78c4ffe55877802fd"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "bincode"
+version = "2.0.0-dev"
+source = "git+https://github.com/dequbed/bincode.git?branch=feature/in_place_buffer#bdea73bc3542257ef3b9788d4d54e53af236ed7a"
+dependencies = [
+ "byteorder",
+ "serde",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "bindgen"
 version = "0.55.1"
@@ -510,6 +519,7 @@ version = "0.2.0"
 dependencies = [
  "async-channel",
  "async-trait",
+ "bincode",
  "capnp",
  "capnp-futures",
  "capnp-rpc",
@@ -536,6 +546,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "slog-async",
  "slog-term",
  "smol",
+ "tempfile",
  "toml",
  "uuid",
  "walkdir",
@@ -1536,6 +1547,15 @@ version = "0.6.25"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "f497285884f3fcff424ffc933e56d7cbca511def0c9831a7f9b5f6153e3cc89b"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "remove_dir_all"
+version = "0.5.3"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "3acd125665422973a33ac9d3dd2df85edad0f4ae9b00dafb1a05e43a9f5ef8e7"
+dependencies = [
+ "winapi",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "rsasl"
 version = "1.4.0"
@@ -1790,6 +1810,20 @@ version = "0.2.2"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "f764005d11ee5f36500a149ace24e00e3da98b0158b3e2d53a7495660d3f4d60"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "tempfile"
+version = "3.2.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "dac1c663cfc93810f88aed9b8941d48cabf856a1b111c29a40439018d870eb22"
+dependencies = [
+ "cfg-if 1.0.0",
+ "libc",
+ "rand",
+ "redox_syscall",
+ "remove_dir_all",
+ "winapi",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "term"
 version = "0.7.0"
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index c7a5f41..860c709 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ capnp-futures = "0.14.1"
 serde = { version = "1.0.130", features = ["derive"] }
 toml = "0.5.8"
 flexbuffers = "2.0.0"
+bincode = "2.0.0-dev"
 
 serde_dhall = { version = "0.10.1", default-features = false }
 
@@ -72,3 +73,7 @@ walkdir = "2.3.2"
 
 [dev-dependencies]
 futures-test = "0.3.16"
+tempfile = "3.2"
+
+[patch.crates-io]
+bincode = { git = "https://github.com/dequbed/bincode.git", branch = "feature/in_place_buffer" }
diff --git a/src/db.rs b/src/db.rs
index 0e86860..8697c85 100644
--- a/src/db.rs
+++ b/src/db.rs
@@ -64,3 +64,280 @@ impl Databases {
         })
     }
 }
+
+use lmdb::{
+    Environment,
+    Database,
+    Transaction,
+    RoTransaction,
+    RwTransaction,
+    WriteFlags,
+};
+
+#[derive(Debug, Clone)]
+pub struct DB {
+    env: Arc<Environment>,
+    db: Database,
+}
+
+impl DB {
+    pub fn new(env: Arc<Environment>, db: Database) -> Self {
+        Self { env, db }
+    }
+
+    pub fn open(env: Arc<Environment>, name: &str) -> lmdb::Result<Self> {
+        env.open_db(Some(name)).map(|db| { Self::new(env.clone(), db) })
+    }
+
+    pub fn get<'txn, T: Transaction, K>(&self, txn: &'txn T, key: &K) -> lmdb::Result<&'txn [u8]> 
+        where K: AsRef<[u8]>
+    {
+        txn.get(self.db, key)
+    }
+
+    pub fn put<K, V>(&self, txn: &mut RwTransaction, key: &K, value: &V, flags: WriteFlags)
+        -> lmdb::Result<()>
+        where K: AsRef<[u8]>,
+              V: AsRef<[u8]>,
+    {
+        txn.put(self.db, key, value, flags)
+    }
+
+    pub fn reserve<'txn, K>(&self, txn: &'txn mut RwTransaction, key: &K, size: usize, flags: WriteFlags) 
+        -> lmdb::Result<&'txn mut [u8]>
+        where K: AsRef<[u8]>
+    {
+        txn.reserve(self.db, key, size, flags)
+    }
+
+    pub fn del<K, V>(&self, txn: &mut RwTransaction, key: &K, value: Option<&V>) -> lmdb::Result<()>
+        where K: AsRef<[u8]>,
+              V: AsRef<[u8]>,
+    {
+        txn.del(self.db, key, value.map(AsRef::as_ref))
+    }
+
+    pub fn begin_ro_txn<'env>(&'env self) -> lmdb::Result<RoTransaction<'env>> {
+        self.env.begin_ro_txn()
+    }
+
+    pub fn begin_rw_txn<'env>(&'env self) -> lmdb::Result<RwTransaction<'env>> {
+        self.env.begin_rw_txn()
+    }
+}
+
+use std::result::Result as StdResult;
+use serde::{Serialize, Deserialize};
+use bincode::Options;
+
+pub trait DatabaseAdapter {
+    type Key: ?Sized;
+    type Err: From<lmdb::Error> + From<bincode::Error>;
+
+    fn serialize_key(key: &Self::Key) -> &[u8];
+    fn deserialize_key<'de>(input: &'de [u8]) -> StdResult<&'de Self::Key, Self::Err>;
+}
+
+// Should we for some reason ever need to have different Options for different adapters we can have
+// this in the DatabaseAdapter trait too
+fn bincode_default() -> impl bincode::Options {
+    bincode::DefaultOptions::new()
+        .with_varint_encoding()
+}
+
+use std::marker::PhantomData;
+
+pub struct TypedDatabase<'a, A, V: ?Sized> {
+    pub db: DB,
+    adapter: A,
+    marker: PhantomData<&'a V>
+}
+
+impl<A, V: ?Sized> TypedDatabase<'_, A, V> {
+    pub fn new(db: DB, adapter: A) -> Self {
+        Self {
+            db: db,
+            adapter: adapter,
+            marker: PhantomData,
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+impl<'txn, A, V> TypedDatabase<'txn, A, V>
+    where A: DatabaseAdapter,
+          V: ?Sized + Serialize + Deserialize<'txn>,
+{
+    pub fn get<T: Transaction>(&self, txn: &'txn T, key: &A::Key) 
+        -> StdResult<Option<V>, A::Err>
+    {
+        let opts = bincode_default();
+
+        self.db.get(txn, &A::serialize_key(key))
+            .map_or_else(
+                |err| match err {
+                    lmdb::Error::NotFound => Ok(None),
+                    e => Err(e.into()),
+                },
+                |ok| opts.deserialize(ok)
+                    .map_err(|e| e.into())
+                    .map(Option::Some)
+            )
+    }
+
+    /// Update `value` in-place from the database
+    /// 
+    /// Returns `Ok(false)` if the key wasn't found. If this functions returns an error `value`
+    /// will be in an indeterminate state where some parts may be updated from the db.
+    pub fn get_in_place<T: Transaction>(&self, txn: &'txn T, key: &A::Key, value: &mut V)
+        -> StdResult<bool, A::Err>
+    {
+        let opts = bincode_default();
+
+        self.db.get(txn, &A::serialize_key(key))
+            .map_or_else(
+                |err| match err {
+                    lmdb::Error::NotFound => Ok(false),
+                    e => Err(e.into()),
+                },
+                |ok| opts.deserialize_in_place_buffer(ok, value)
+                    .map_err(|e| e.into())
+                    .map(|()| true)
+            )
+    }
+
+
+    pub fn put(&self, txn: &'txn mut RwTransaction, key: &A::Key, value: &V, flags: lmdb::WriteFlags)
+        -> StdResult<(), A::Err>
+    {
+        let opts = bincode::DefaultOptions::new()
+            .with_varint_encoding();
+
+        // Serialized values are always at most as big as their memory representation.
+        // So even if usize is 32 bit this is safe given no segmenting is taking place.
+        let bufsize = opts.serialized_size(value)? as usize;
+
+        let buffer = self.db.reserve(txn, &A::serialize_key(key), bufsize, flags)?;
+
+        opts.serialize_into(buffer, value).map_err(|e| e.into())
+    }
+
+    pub fn del(&self, txn: &'txn mut RwTransaction, key: &A::Key)
+        -> StdResult<(), A::Err>
+    {
+        self.db.del::<&[u8], &[u8]>(txn, &A::serialize_key(key), None).map_err(|e| e.into())
+    }
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+    use std::result::Result;
+    use std::ops::Deref;
+
+    use lmdb::{
+        EnvironmentFlags as EF,
+        DatabaseFlags as DF,
+        WriteFlags as WF,
+    };
+
+    pub struct TempEnv {
+        dir: tempfile::TempDir,
+        env: Arc<Environment>,
+    }
+
+    impl Deref for TempEnv {
+        type Target = Arc<Environment>;
+        fn deref(&self) -> &Self::Target {
+            &self.env
+        }
+    }
+
+    pub fn open_test_env() -> TempEnv {
+        let dir = tempfile::tempdir().expect("Failed to create tempdir for testdb");
+        let env = Environment::new()
+            .set_flags(EF::NO_SYNC | EF::WRITE_MAP)
+            .open(dir.path()).expect("Failed to open lmdb");
+        let env = Arc::new(env);
+
+        TempEnv { dir, env }
+    }
+
+    struct TestAdapter;
+
+    #[derive(Debug)]
+    enum TestErr {
+        Utf8(std::str::Utf8Error),
+        Binc(Box<bincode::ErrorKind>),
+        LMDB(lmdb::Error),
+    }
+
+    impl From<lmdb::Error> for TestErr {
+        fn from(e: lmdb::Error) -> TestErr {
+            TestErr::LMDB(e)
+        }
+    }
+
+    impl From<std::str::Utf8Error> for TestErr {
+        fn from(e: std::str::Utf8Error) -> TestErr {
+            TestErr::Utf8(e)
+        }
+    }
+
+    impl From<bincode::Error> for TestErr {
+        fn from(e: bincode::Error) -> TestErr {
+            TestErr::Binc(e)
+        }
+    }
+
+    impl DatabaseAdapter for TestAdapter {
+        type Key = str;
+        type Err = TestErr;
+
+        fn serialize_key(key: &Self::Key) -> &[u8] {
+            key.as_bytes()
+        }
+        fn deserialize_key<'de>(input: &'de [u8]) -> Result<&'de Self::Key, Self::Err> {
+            std::str::from_utf8(input).map_err(|e| e.into())
+        }
+    }
+
+    type TestDB<'txn> = TypedDatabase<'txn, TestAdapter, &'txn str>;
+
+    #[test]
+    fn simple_get() {
+        let e = open_test_env();
+        let ldb = e.create_db(None, DF::empty()).expect("Failed to create lmdb db");
+
+        let db = DB::new(e.env.clone(), ldb);
+
+        let adapter = TestAdapter;
+        let testdb = TestDB::new(db.clone(), adapter);
+
+        let mut val = "value";
+        let mut txn = db.begin_rw_txn().expect("Failed to being rw txn");
+        testdb.put(&mut txn, "key", &val, WF::empty()).expect("Failed to insert");
+        txn.commit().expect("commit failed");
+
+        {
+            let txn;
+            txn = db.begin_ro_txn().unwrap();
+
+            let val = testdb.get(&txn, "key").expect("Failed to retrieve");
+            assert_eq!(Some("value"), val);
+        }
+
+        {
+            let val2 = "longer_value";
+            let mut txn = db.begin_rw_txn().unwrap();
+            testdb.put(&mut txn, "key", &val2, WF::empty()).expect("Failed to update");
+            txn.commit().unwrap();
+        }
+
+        {
+            let txn = db.begin_ro_txn().unwrap();
+            let found = testdb.get_in_place(&txn, "key", &mut val).expect("Failed to retrieve update");
+            assert!(found);
+            assert_eq!("longer_value", val);
+        }
+    }
+}