SQLite/LibSQL/Turso P&E

English | 简体中文

A VS Code extension for previewing and editing SQLite / LibSQL / Turso database files.

[!WARNING] Early development. This project is at an early stage: it still has a fair number of rough edges, and its behaviour and configuration may change frequently. Please weigh that before relying on it.

Contents

• Driver
• Features
• Supported databases
• Settings
• Diagnostics
• AI Disclosure
• Support
• License

Driver

The extension runs on the built-in native libSQL driver (libsql, the libSQL C fork of SQLite, packaged as an npm module). It directly opens local files and reads/writes the universal SQLite format 3 container format, so the same editor can handle SQLite, LibSQL, and Turso Database files.

This is the only driver, and it is used for every file. See Driver vs dialect for how the label differs from the driver.

Supported architectures:

macOS Intel, Alpine/musl, and Windows arm64 are not supported. If your platform is not listed, the extension cannot load the driver, and no database can be opened.

Features

• .db / .sqlite / .sqlite3 / .libsql / .turso files (see Supported databases)
• Based on the libSQL engine (a C fork of SQLite), so the standard feature set is available: STRICT tables, ALTER TABLE … RENAME COLUMN / DROP COLUMN, RETURNING, UPSERT, and ADD COLUMN with a non-constant default
• The vector_* functions work for LibSQL/Turso files — they are implemented in the libSQL engine itself
• Features that only Turso Database provided are not available: CREATE SEQUENCE / nextval() and ALTER TABLE … ALTER COLUMN (for example near "SEQUENCE": syntax error)
• Files using those features still open and browse normally; only executing such a statement fails
• Automatic dialect detection (SQLite, LibSQL, or Turso Database)
• UI follows VS Code theme colors
• Data browser
• SQL statement editor
• Export sql / csv / json, import csv / json
• Read-only mode
• English and Simplified Chinese

Supported databases

Three file types are supported, and they share a single on-disk container (SQLite format 3):

Because the container is shared, all three open directly — recognition never decides whether a file can be opened. It determines only the reported dialect.

Driver vs dialect

The info panel reports two independent values.

Driver — the implementation that executes queries. Its value is always libsql: the bundled libSQL engine is the only driver and there is no fallback.

Dialect — the SQL dialect the file is written in, inferred from the file itself. Its value is SQLite, LibSQL, or Turso Database.

The dialect is reported for information only. It does not select the driver, enable or disable any capability, or affect how a statement is executed; every file is handled by the same driver with the same feature set. A .db file is reported as SQLite because that describes the file's content, and it is executed exactly like a .turso file.

The info panel row labelled Engine shows the dialect value.

Detection

The strongest single signal decides; weights are never summed, so one conclusive marker is enough and a stray hint cannot outvote it.

A Turso version string is tested before the LibSQL one, because the LibSQL pattern also matches turso and would otherwise mislabel it.

When no signal matches, the file is treated as plain SQLite. The verdict is shown in the database info panel together with the evidence that decided it.

Settings

Diagnostics

The extension writes to a dedicated VS Code Output channel named SQLite/LibSQL/Turso P&E.

• Open it via Output → SQLite/LibSQL/Turso P&E.
• Records both sides of the conversation: requests received by the host (-> host received:), responses sent (<- host sending:), webview-side diagnostics ([webview] …), and any unrecognised message.

After installing a new build

Installing or upgrading the extension does not restart an already-open window's extension host. Reload the window (Developer: Reload Window) to finish updating. Until then the editor may report:

Extension updated — reload the window to finish

AI Disclosure

This project uses AI-assisted tools extensively in development, testing, documentation, and maintenance, mainly for code generation and documentation improvement.

All AI-generated or AI-suggested content is human-reviewed, verified, and adjusted as needed.

AI usage does not change this project's open-source license and third-party terms.

Support

Getting help, reporting bugs, and what is out of scope: SUPPORT.md (简体中文).

Reporting a security vulnerability: SECURITY.md (简体中文).

License

SQLite/LibSQL/Turso P&E - VS Code extension for SQLite/LibSQL database preview and editing.  
Copyright (C) 2026  K_PU

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Affero General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License along with this program. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.