The technical documentation of MonetDB is mainly geared at application developers and those interested in the inner workings of the system. The starting point for getting acquainted with the system is to read the architecture overview of Overview. Although it is rather technically oriented, it creates a general understanding of its design and inner workings.

The User Guide of the MonetDB Interpreter Language (MIL Guide) explains the algebraic interface of the MonetDB back end. Front ends like the SQL front end translate high level query languages to MIL. This document is a must if you plan to develop your own front end, or need low-level access to the MonetDB server. An overview of the architecture and features of the SQL front end is described separately in [an error occurred while processing this directive]. Tutorials on SQL syntax and semantics are abundantly available on the web and thus not included here.

The MonetDB Extension Language (MEL Guide) is a specification language for creating extension modules that add new algebra operators and atomic types to MIL. Implementations should be provided separately in C/C++.
The utility that parses MEL specifications and generates glue code is also called mel.

Extension programmers are advised to first study the technical documentation of Kernel Guide to get acquainted with the most important internal data structures and APIs.