(I guess I can test or ask in the rqlite Slack etc)

Can I try to use a UNIX socket to TCP socket so I can use rqlite as a drop-in sqlite replacement (where a client expects a file)? for ex:

socat TCP-LISTEN:4000,reuseaddr,fork UNIX-CLIENT:/path/to/sqlite

No, rqlite doesn't support that kind of access. No reason it couldn't, but it currently only exposes a HTTP API.

https://rqlite.io/docs/faq/#is-it-a-drop-in-replacement-for-...