CBeaver (VS Code Extension)

Browse Couchbase Lite .cblite2 databases directly inside VS Code.

Features (v1 scaffold)

Open a .cblite2 folder (or any file inside it, or a SQLite file directly)
Auto-detect inner SQLite DB
List documents with:
- documentId
- inferred columns from document body
- internal metadata columns from the table
List discovered collections/tables in the opened .cblite2 and switch between them
Search by doc ID/body text
Column-level filter (documentId + metadata columns)
Paged reading for large datasets
Click a row to open full document + metadata in a side panel
Attachment insights:
- _attachments inspection
- base64-like field detection
Schema metadata banner (table/id/body/metadata columns)

Getting started

Install dependencies:
```
npm install
```
Compile:
```
npm run compile
```
Press F5 in VS Code to launch an Extension Development Host.
Run command: CBeaver: Open .cblite2

If debugger attach is flaky on your machine

Run Extension Host without debugger:

npm run compile
npm run run:devhost

Then in the new window run CBeaver: Open .cblite2.

run:devhost forces --inspect-extensions=0 to avoid extension-host startup stalls caused by break-on-entry debugging. On macOS this script works even when code command is not installed in PATH.

Most reliable fallback: install VSIX (no debugger required)

npm run compile
npm run package:vsix

Then in VS Code:

Open Extensions view
... menu → Install from VSIX...
Select generated .vsix from this project folder
Reload window
Run CBeaver: Open .cblite2

Notes and limitations

Backend strategy:
- tries native better-sqlite3 first (low-memory, best for very large DBs)
- falls back to sql.js when native addon is unavailable
Some Couchbase Lite internals may store body data in non-JSON/binary encoding; this scaffold falls back to text/base64 rendering when JSON parse fails.
Built-in Fleece decode: CBeaver now includes a pure JavaScript Fleece decoder (with shared-keys support), so many Couchbase Lite binary bodies are readable without external tools.
Optional external fallback: when cblite CLI is installed, CBeaver can still call it as a fallback for bodies not decoded by the built-in path. Configure with:
- cbeaver.schema.fleeceDecoderEnabled (default true)
- cbeaver.schema.fleeceDecoderCommand (default cblite)
Use command CBeaver: Check Fleece Decoder to run one-click diagnostics (--version and lscoll checks).
Table/column discovery is heuristic and designed to be safe. You can tighten it per your exact Couchbase Lite schema.

Deterministic schema mapping (recommended for production)

Set these VS Code settings to bypass heuristics:

cbeaver.schema.tableName
cbeaver.schema.idColumn
cbeaver.schema.bodyColumn
cbeaver.schema.metadataColumns

If set, CBeaver uses them first and falls back to auto-detection only when values are missing/invalid.

Publishing

Set your real publisher name in package.json (publisher field).
Login with VSCE (npx @vscode/vsce login <publisher>) or set VSCE_PAT.
Publish:

npm run publish:vsce

CBeaver

Muruganandham