db.execute() write statements now commit automatically

Raw write statements previously opened an implicit transaction that
stayed open until something committed it - the write was visible on
the same connection, making it look saved, but was silently rolled
back when the connection closed. execute() now commits any implicit
transaction it opens, so raw writes behave like every other write
in the library: committed as soon as they run, unless an explicit
transaction (db.begin() or db.atomic()) is open, in which case they
join it.

Row-returning writes such as INSERT ... RETURNING via db.query()
commit once their rows have been iterated. atomic(), commit() and
rollback() now issue literal COMMIT/ROLLBACK statements, which have
identical semantics in every sqlite3 connection mode. The CLI bulk
command uses db.atomic() instead of 'with db.conn:'.

This simplifies the transaction contract to: everything commits
immediately unless you explicitly opened a transaction. Docs
updated throughout; changelog and upgrading guide cover the
breaking change for code that relied on rolling back uncommitted
execute() writes.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01UnLnhsH25Nnv7LHhekUfPd
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Claude 2026-07-04 23:15:01 +00:00
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@ -76,9 +76,10 @@ Python API changes
**Transaction behavior is now well-defined.** 4.0 introduces the :ref:`db.atomic() <python_api_atomic>` context manager and uses it consistently for every write operation - the full model is described in :ref:`python_api_transactions`. Changes you may notice:
- Write statements executed with raw ``db.execute()`` calls now commit automatically, unless a transaction is already open in which case they join it. Previously they opened an implicit transaction that nothing committed - if your code used ``db.execute()`` for writes and relied on ``db.conn.rollback()`` to undo them, open an explicit transaction with the new ``db.begin()`` method first.
- Multi-step operations such as ``table.transform()`` no longer commit an existing transaction you have open - they use savepoints inside it instead.
- ``db.enable_wal()`` and ``db.disable_wal()`` raise a ``sqlite_utils.db.TransactionError`` if called while a transaction is open, instead of silently committing it.
- Using ``Database`` as a context manager (``with Database(path) as db:``) closes the connection on exit *without* committing - uncommitted changes from raw ``db.execute()`` calls are rolled back.
- Using ``Database`` as a context manager (``with Database(path) as db:``) closes the connection on exit *without* committing - a transaction you explicitly opened with ``db.begin()`` and did not commit is rolled back.
- ``Database()`` rejects connections created with the Python 3.12+ ``sqlite3.connect(..., autocommit=True)`` or ``autocommit=False`` options, raising ``sqlite_utils.db.TransactionError``. On those connections every write the library made was silently discarded when the connection closed.
Packaging changes