Bulkhead
An open-source database client for VS Code, with production safety built in.
A bulkhead is the watertight wall inside a ship's hull: one breach doesn't sink the whole
vessel. Bulkhead the extension does the same for your databases — a production connection is
read-only until you deliberately unlock it, and it never looks like your laptop's dev database.
Status: early preview. PostgreSQL works today. ClickHouse, Redis, RabbitMQ, SSH tunnels
and kubectl port-forward are next — see the roadmap.
Why another database client?
- Free, with no catches. No limit on connections, no "Premium only" features, no account.
MIT-licensed, forever.
- Production safety is the core, not a setting. Mark a connection as production and it
becomes read-only, enforced in three independent layers, and
shown in red everywhere: tree, status bar, results.
- Your editor's sync, not ours. Connections live in your VS Code user settings, so Settings
Sync carries them. Passwords stay in the OS keychain via VS Code SecretStorage.
- Works where you work: VS Code, Cursor, VSCodium and other editors built on VS Code (via
Open VSX).
Features
| Area |
Today |
| Connections |
PostgreSQL and hosted Postgres (Supabase, Neon, RDS, …); paste a connection URL |
| Explorer |
databases → schemas → tables and views (with row estimates) → columns, indexes |
| SQL |
run statement under cursor (⌘/Ctrl+Enter) or script (⌘/Ctrl+Shift+Enter), cancel |
| Results |
virtualised grid for large results, several result sets, copy as TSV/JSON |
| Production safety |
read-only by default, typed confirmation to unlock, relocks on disconnect |
Getting started
- Install Bulkhead from the
VS Code Marketplace or
Open VSX, or search for
bulkhead.bulkhead
in the Extensions view.
- Open the Bulkhead view in the activity bar and choose Add Connection.
- Pick Production for anything you must not break.
- Click the New Query icon on a connection, write SQL, press ⌘/Ctrl+Enter.
Production safety in one paragraph
A production connection opens read-only. Every statement is checked before it is sent and only
plain reads pass; it then runs alone inside BEGIN READ ONLY … ROLLBACK, on a session that
starts with default_transaction_read_only=on. So a DELETE hidden in a script, a
SET default_transaction_read_only = off, or a write hidden inside a function called from a
SELECT are all refused. To write, use Unlock Writes… and type the connection's name; writes
stay unlocked until you disconnect. For the strongest guarantee, also connect production with a
database role that has no write privileges — Bulkhead's layers and the role add up.
Details: docs/read-only-mode.md.
Contributing
Bug reports, ideas and pull requests are welcome — start with CONTRIBUTING.md.
The architecture is described in docs/architecture.md and the key
decisions in docs/adr. Please report security issues privately, see
SECURITY.md.
License
MIT. Bulkhead contains no code from GPL-licensed or proprietary database clients;
see ADR 0005.
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