DB Client

Español

A free, open source (MIT) database client for VS Code and Cursor: PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, Oracle, SQLite, Redis and NATS in one connections tree, with nothing else to install.

Installation

Search for DB Client (cgalvisleon.dbclient) in the Extensions view of Cursor, VSCodium or Windsurf: they install it from Open VSX. In VS Code, download dbclient-<version>.vsix from the GitHub Releases or from the Open VSX page (or build it with npm install && npm run package), then open the Command Palette (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+P), run Extensions: Install from VSIX… and pick the file. It needs VS Code 1.90 or newer; SQLite connections need an editor running Node 22.13 or newer (Cursor, VS Code 1.101+). No native modules or database clients are required.

What it is

A database client inside the editor. PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, Oracle, SQLite, Redis and NATS connections live in one tree, and each kind opens its own editor: a SQL editor modeled on NetBeans, a Redis command editor with a value viewer, and a NATS console.

It is free with no paid tier and MIT licensed. Drivers are pure JavaScript, so no native modules, Oracle Instant Client or database CLI tools are needed. Redis and NATS (with JetStream) sit next to the SQL engines, and the interface is in English and Spanish.

Connections are stored once per user, shared by every window and workspace. Passwords and tokens go to the editor's secret storage, never to the settings file. A Show button next to each password field reveals what you type.

Features

Usage

Add a connection. Open the DB Client view in the activity bar, press +, choose the type, fill in the form, press Test and then Save. Expand the connection to browse it.

Connect securely. In the connection form, the SSL / TLS section sets the mode and the PEM files; verify-full checks the certificate against the CA file (or the system CAs) and the host name. The SSH tunnel section reaches a database that is only visible from a bastion host: fill in the SSH host, user and a password or private key, and keep Host and Port as the database sees them from that server. Paste the server's SHA256: fingerprint (ssh-keygen -lf on its public host key) to refuse any other server.

Host: db.internal   Port: 5432   SSL: verify-full   CA certificate: ~/certs/ca.pem
SSH tunnel: private key   SSH host: bastion.example.com   SSH user: deploy   Private key: ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

Move connections to another machine. In the view's … menu choose Export Connections… (or Export Connections… on a folder for just that folder) and save the .json file; it holds folders, connections and SQL locations, never passwords. On the other machine choose Import Connections…, pick the file and Merge or Replace, then enter passwords with Edit Connection. Restoring a backup on the same machine keeps each connection's id, so its saved password and SQL files work again.

See where your data lives. Press ⚙ Settings and About in the view title. Persistence lists the storage folder, the connections file, the query history and the saved SQL files folder, each with Copy and Open folder; passwords are not there but in the editor's secret storage. Settings shows each dbclient.* value, where it is set and its default (Open in Settings to change them), and About has the version and the author's GitHub profile, repository and issues.

Share one connection or fill a folder. Right-click a connection (or several selected) → Export Connections… to save just those, without folders or passwords. Right-click a folder → Import Connections… to merge a file into that folder: its connections and folders land inside it.

Tell connections apart. In the connection form, Appearance shows the icon shapes and colors as a live preview; pick, for example, the gear database in red for production and the green one for development. Automatic keeps the engine's icon. To color a folder, right-click it → Change Color….

Organize with folders. Press the New Folder button in the view title (or New Folder on a folder for a subfolder). Drag connections or folders onto a folder, or use Move to Folder…; drop them on empty space to return them to the top level. Add Connection on a folder creates the connection inside it, and the form's Folder field changes it later.

Query a SQL database. Click New Query on a connection or database. Write SQL and press Ctrl/Cmd+Enter to run the statement under the cursor (or the selection), or Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Enter to run the whole file:

select id, name from customers where created_at > now() - interval '7 days';
update customers set active = false where id = 42;

Each query opens a tab in DB Client → Results; the Output tab lists every statement with its time and row count. CSV, JSON and Excel in the tab's toolbar export all its rows in the current sort order.

Keep queries per connection. Expand a SQL connection and use New SQL File on its SQL node, or press Save to Connection's SQL Folder in the editor title to keep the current query. The files open already bound to their connection. They live in the extension's storage, one folder per connection; set dbclient.sqlFolder to keep them somewhere else, such as a synced or versioned folder.

Link folders of SQL files. Use Link SQL Folder… on a connection or its SQL node and pick one or more folders. If a folder is inside the open project you can store it as ${workspaceFolder}/…, so the same connection shows the sql/ folder of whichever project is open. Each linked folder appears under SQL with its subfolders (hidden, .git and node_modules folders are skipped). Files opened from a linked folder run against that connection; when two connections link the same folder, the most specific folder wins and a tie is asked once. Set Save Location for SQL Files… chooses where New SQL File and Save to Connection's SQL Folder write. The connection form's SQL files section edits the same settings:

Save new files in:  ${workspaceFolder}/sql
Linked folders:     ${workspaceFolder}/sql
                    ~/projects/reports

Work with a table. Right-click a table in the tree. Open Data runs SELECT * FROM the table; Show Structure lists its columns and indexes in the Results panel; Show DDL and Generate SQL open the statement in a new editor bound to the connection.

Refresh or drop objects. If someone changed the database outside the extension, press the refresh button on the connection, database, schema or folder (or Refresh in its context menu) to read it again. To remove a table, view or schema, right-click it → Drop…: the dialog shows the DROP statement and, on PostgreSQL and Oracle, offers Drop with CASCADE; schemas also ask you to type their name. The tree refreshes after the drop.

Edit data in the grid. In a result that reads one table and includes its primary key, double-click a cell (or press F2), type, and press Enter; Tab moves to the next column and Escape discards. + Row adds a row (untouched cells keep their DEFAULT), Delete marks the selected rows, and NULL clears the focused cell. Commit saves everything in one transaction and reloads the rows; if a row changed meanwhile, nothing is saved. Results from views, joins or without the key show a read-only badge with the reason.

Complete table and column names. With the connection open, type select * from to get its tables, or an alias and a dot to get that table's columns:

select o.id, o.total, c.name
from orders o join customers c on c.id = o.customer_id
where o.   -- suggests the columns of orders

Reuse a past query. Right-click a SQL or Redis connection, or use the editor title's … menu, and pick Query History…. Type to filter, for example orders. Enter inserts the statement into the active editor when it runs on the same connection, and otherwise opens it in a new editor bound to its connection and database; the item buttons open it in a new editor or copy it. Set dbclient.historySize to 0 to turn the history off.

Run a SQL Server batch or an Oracle block. Separate batches with GO and PL/SQL blocks with /:

create or alter procedure dbo.touch as
begin
  update dbo.items set updated_at = sysdatetime();
end
GO
exec dbo.touch;

Work with Redis. Click New Query on a Redis connection or on one of its databases (db0, db1…) and type one command per line; Ctrl/Cmd+Enter runs the current line or the selected lines:

HSET user:1 name "Ana Maria" age 30
HGETALL user:1
EXPIRE user:1 3600

Click a key in the tree to open its value viewer and edit it.

Publish and subscribe with NATS. Click Open NATS Console on a NATS connection. Subscribe to orders.> and publish to orders.created with a JSON payload and headers such as X-Trace: abc; incoming messages appear in the list, and selecting one shows its payload and headers.

Settings

Development

npm install
npm run build        # bundle to dist/
npm test             # unit tests; integration tests run when DBCLIENT_* variables are set
npm run test:smoke   # runs the extension inside a downloaded VS Code
npm run package      # builds the .vsix

To test SSL and SSH, eval "$(scripts/tls-fixture.sh start)" and eval "$(scripts/ssh-fixture.sh start)" start throwaway servers with Docker (fresh certificates and keys) and export their DBCLIENT_TLS_* / DBCLIENT_SSH_* variables; stop removes them. With every server up, run npm run test:integration (test files one at a time). Translations live in l10n/bundle.l10n.es.json and package.nls.es.json; npx tsx test/unit/l10nKeys.ts l10n/bundle.l10n.es.json lists the texts still missing.

To test the NATS authentication modes, eval "$(scripts/nats-auth-fixture.sh start)" starts throwaway servers (user/password, NKey, token and .creds, with Docker) and exports their DBCLIENT_NATS_AUTH_* variables; scripts/nats-auth-fixture.sh stop removes them.

Publishing

Bump version in package.json, add its section to CHANGELOG.md, commit, then push a tag with the same version:

git tag v0.13.1 && git push origin main v0.13.1

The Release workflow (.github/workflows/release.yml) runs the tests, builds the .vsix, attaches it to a GitHub Release with the changelog notes and publishes it to Open VSX and the VS Code Marketplace when the repository secrets OVSX_PAT and VSCE_PAT exist. From this machine: OVSX_PAT=… npm run publish:ovsx and VSCE_PAT=… npm run publish:vsce.

Press F5 in this folder to start an Extension Development Host. Requirements and progress are tracked in spec.md.