tuiql

A fully-featured SQL database client that lives in your terminal. Fast, keyboard-driven, and designed to replace heavyweight GUI clients.

Why tuiql?

Most terminal database tools are either too basic or painful to use. tuiql gives you the power of a native database client, table browsing, filtering, sorting, pagination, JSON viewing, theming, and more without ever leaving the terminal.

No mouse required. No Electron. No waiting.

Supported Databases

• PostgreSQL
• MySQL
• MariaDB
• SQLite
• Turso

Install

cargo install tuiql

Quick Start

Connect directly:

tuiql connect --type postgres --url "postgres://user:pass@localhost:5432/mydb"

Save a connection for later:

tuiql add --type postgres --name mydb --host localhost --port 5432 --user admin --pass secret --database mydb

Then open it by name:

tuiql open mydb

List saved connections:

tuiql ls

Rename a saved project (including its query history):

tuiql rename mydb production

Edit one or more details of a saved connection:

tuiql edit production --host db.internal --port 5433 --database analytics

Use --password or --token to securely prompt for a replacement credential.

Keybindings

Navigation

Table

Command Mode

Press : to enter command mode.

Query Presets

Query presets belong to the currently selected table and save its row limit, WHERE clause, and ORDER BY clause. Loading a preset starts from the first page and re-fetches that table. Presets are stored in the saved project's configuration alongside its command history, so they are available the next time the project is opened.

Presets are only available when the database was opened as a saved project with tuiql open. Preset names cannot contain spaces, and the current query state must differ from the defaults before it can be saved. A name can be reused for different tables, but duplicate names on the same table are rejected. Loading or removing a name that does not exist for the selected table reports an error.

For example:

:where status = 'active'
:order-by created_at desc
:limit 100
:save-preset active-users

:load-preset active-users
:remove-preset active-users

Features

• Built with Rust for instant startup and minimal resource usage
• Vim-style navigation throughout the entire interface
• Inline WHERE and ORDER BY filtering without writing full queries
• Named query presets for saved projects
• Paginated table browsing with configurable page sizes
• JSON cell viewer for inspecting complex data
• Customizable themes

Configuration

Run tuiql --config-path to see where your config files are stored.

Settings

License

This project is licensed under the MIT license - see the LICENSE file for details.

Testing

Testing this app is done with the following free sample databases:

• Postgres: pagila
• Mysql/Mariadb: sakila