VSQLite Explorer

Browse, query, and edit SQLite databases directly from the VS Code sidebar.

Early release — please open an issue if you hit a snag.

Features

• Connections sidebar — add, edit, and remove SQLite connections with persistent storage
• Schema navigation — browse Tables, Views, and Indexes in a collapsible tree
• Table preview & editing — view rows, edit cells in-place, insert new rows, commit or discard changes
• Create Table — define columns, types, constraints, and optional indexes
• Query Editor — run ad-hoc SQL with a results grid (SELECT) or change summary (INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE)
• Integrity Check — run PRAGMA integrity_check on any connection
• Double-click to open — click any .sqlite, .db, .sqlite3, or .db3 file to auto-register and browse it
• Connection options — configure journal mode, synchronous, busy timeout, foreign keys, cache size, temp store, and read-only mode per connection

Installation

From Marketplace

Search for VSQLite Explorer in the VS Code extensions panel, or install from the command line:

code --install-extension ChristopherThomas.vsqlite-explorer

From Source

git clone https://github.com/antimatter-studios/vsqlite-explorer.git
cd vsqlite-explorer
npm install
npm run build

Press F5 to launch the Extension Development Host.

Usage

1. Click the VSQLite Explorer icon in the activity bar
2. Click + to add a SQLite database file
3. Expand a connection to browse tables, views, and indexes
4. Click a table to preview its data — edit cells, insert rows, then Submit or Discard
5. Right-click a connection for Query Editor, Connection Properties, or Integrity Check

Or simply double-click any .sqlite / .db / .sqlite3 / .db3 file in the explorer.

Commands

Requirements

• VS Code 1.86.0 or later

Building & Publishing

# Full build (TypeScript + webviews)
npm run build

# Package as .vsix
npm run package

# Publish to both VS Code Marketplace and Open VSX
npm run publish:all

# One-step release (bump version + package + publish)
npm run release:patch   # 0.1.0 → 0.1.1
npm run release:minor   # 0.1.0 → 0.2.0
npm run release:major   # 0.1.0 → 1.0.0

Publishing requires tokens in .env.local:

vscode-extensions=<your-azure-devops-pat>
openvsx-extensions=<your-openvsx-token>

NPM Scripts

Known Limitations

• Table preview loads up to 50 rows (no pagination yet)
• Query Editor executes one statement at a time
• No CSV/JSON export or import
• Read-only connections prevent all mutations by design

Architecture

The extension uses @vscode/sqlite3 for database access — Microsoft's fork of sqlite3 built with Node-API (N-API) for stable ABI compatibility across Node.js and Electron versions. This eliminates the native module version mismatch errors that plague extensions using sqlite3 or better-sqlite3.

The build pipeline uses esbuild to bundle TypeScript into a single extension.js, with a plugin that copies the native vscode-sqlite3.node binding alongside it and intercepts the binding loader at bundle time.

Webviews (table preview, query editor, etc.) are React + Zustand apps built with Vite, communicating with the extension host via postMessage.

Testing

npm run test:unit

Tests use real temporary SQLite databases (no mocking) with fixture generators for mixed data types, special character names, foreign keys, large tables, read-only databases, and more.

Changelog

v0.3.0 — 2026-03-03

• Right-click any table in the sidebar to open Query Editor pre-filled with a SELECT query
• Search button in table preview toolbar to open Query Editor for the current table
• Draggable split handle in Query Editor between SQL input and results
• Fixed: Query Editor context menu now works on table nodes (was database-only)
• Renamed all internal command IDs from vsqlite.* to vsqlite-explorer.* for full consistency

v0.2.0 — 2026-03-03

• Switched from sqlite3 to @vscode/sqlite3 (Microsoft's N-API fork) — eliminates NODE_MODULE_VERSION mismatch errors across VS Code/Electron versions
• Updated esbuild config to bundle vscode-sqlite3.node native binding
• Added 54 unit tests for all database operations with fixture generators
• Updated sidebar icon
• New marketplace logo

v0.1.1 — 2026-03-03

• Bumped version for marketplace republish
• Fixed repository URLs for renamed repo
• Fixed marketplace category (Other instead of Developer Tools)
• Removed deprecated CI runner (darwin-x64)

v0.1.0 — 2026-03-02

• Renamed from SQLite Explorer to VSQLite Explorer
• Centralized all extension IDs into src/constants.ts
• Double-click .sqlite / .db / .sqlite3 / .db3 files to open and browse
• Custom editor shows database overview with clickable table list
• Fixed webview bundle path resolution (now works in any workspace)
• New sidebar icon and marketplace icon
• Publishing support for VS Code Marketplace and Open VSX
• GitHub Actions workflow for automated releases

v0.0.1 — 2026-03-01

• Initial release
• Connections sidebar with add, edit, remove
• Schema tree navigation (tables, views, indexes, columns)
• Table preview with inline cell editing and row insertion
• Create Table panel with column definitions and indexes
• Query Editor for ad-hoc SQL execution
• Connection properties with PRAGMA configuration
• Integrity check command
• Read-only connection support

License

MIT