tuiql

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

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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 — 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

Keybindings

Navigation

Key	Action
j | Down | Ctrl-n	Move down
k | Up | Ctrl-p	Move up
Ctrl-d	Scroll 10 rows down
Ctrl-u	Scroll 10 rows up
g	Go to top
G	Go to bottom
n	Next page
p	Previous page
Tab	Switch between panes

Table

Key	Action
w	Add a WHERE clause
o	Add an ORDER BY clause
r	Refresh query result
y	Copy highlighted row to clipboard

Command Mode

Press : to enter command mode.

Command	Shorthand	Action
help	h	Open the help view
quit	q	Quit the application
count	c	Count fetched rows
total-count	tc	Count total rows in the selected table regardless of filters
goto page 5	g p	Jump to a specific page
goto table_name	g	Jump to a table by name
limit 1000|1k	l	Set rows per page
refresh	r	Re-fetch data with current filters
order-by col desc	ob	Add ORDER BY (no args to reset)
where col = 'val'	w	Add WHERE clause (no args to reset)
set key value		Change a setting at runtime

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
• 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

Setting	Options	Default	Description
transparent_background	true, false	false	Use terminal background instead of theme color
default_limit	number	200	Sets the default query limit on every table
default_sort	"asc", "desc"	"asc"	Sets the default sorting direction on table load

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