CBlite Browser

Inspect Couchbase Lite databases (.cblite2) without leaving VS Code. Browse scopes and collections, read documents as JSON, trace revision history and run N1QL queries.

Features

• Collections sidebar shows every scope and collection with its document count.
• Document browser pages through documents, filters them by ID and shows each one in a collapsible JSON viewer. You can also open a document in an editor tab.
• Revision history shows each document's rev tree or version vectors, with flags (Leaf, Deleted, Conflict, …), sequence numbers and the current revision. It also shows which revision each replication remote (such as Sync Gateway) last acknowledged.
• N1QL query runner shows results as a table or as JSON. You can inspect any row or open all results in an editor.
• Resizable layout lets you drag any divider or column edge (double-click to reset). Your sizes are remembered.
• Read-only: databases are opened read-only, so browsing never modifies them.
• Cross-platform: works on macOS (Apple silicon and Intel), Windows and Linux.

Requirements

CBlite Browser reads databases through Couchbase's cblite command-line tool, which you install separately:

• Download a prebuilt binary from the couchbase-mobile-tools releases, or build it from source.
• Put it on your PATH, or set cbliteBrowser.cblitePath to its location.

Couchbase's prebuilt cblite binaries are linked with Couchbase Lite Enterprise Edition and are covered by Couchbase's license terms, so they are not bundled with this extension.

The extension looks for cblite in this order:

1. The cbliteBrowser.cblitePath setting
2. Your PATH
3. On macOS, also /opt/homebrew/bin and /usr/local/bin. VS Code started from the Dock doesn't see your shell PATH.

If cblite can't be found, you'll see a notification with a Set Path… button.

Getting started

Open a database in any of these ways:

• Right-click a .cblite2 folder in the Explorer and choose Open in CBlite Browser.
• Run CBlite: Open Database… from the Command Palette. You can pick either the .cblite2 folder or the db.sqlite3 file inside it. On macOS the picker starts in the iOS Simulator's data folder.
• Run CBlite: Open Recent Database… to reopen one of your last 10 databases.

Each database opens in its own tab.

Using the browser

Documents. Pick a collection on the left, filter by document ID (case-insensitive) and page with Prev / Next or the ↑ / ↓ keys. The viewer shows the full document ID and current revision, plus these buttons:

• Expand all / Collapse all open or close every nested object.
• Wrap wraps long lines.
• Copy copies the document JSON.
• Open opens the document in an editor tab.

Revisions. Switch the viewer from Body to Revisions to see the document's full history:

• Revision IDs are indented as a tree. Version vectors are listed one version per line.
• Flags, sequence and stored body size are shown for each revision.
• A CURRENT label marks the revision a read returns.
• A Remote #n label marks the revision each replication remote last acknowledged. Hover over it to see the remote's URL.

This is useful when checking whether a change has reached the server. The raw cblite output is available under the table.

Query. Write any N1QL query and run it with ⌘ Enter (macOS) or Ctrl + Enter. Address collections as `scope`.`collection`, for example:

SELECT META().id, type, status, priority
FROM `scope`.`collection`
WHERE type = 'task'
ORDER BY priority DESC
LIMIT 10

Sample inserts a starter query for the selected collection. The last query you ran is remembered for each database.

Settings

Troubleshooting

• "Could not find cblite": run CBlite: Set cblite Executable Path… and select the binary.
• macOS says the binary can't be opened: Gatekeeper is blocking a downloaded binary. Run xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /path/to/cblite once.
• Database is in use by a running app: that's fine. The database is opened read-only, so it can be inspected while the app or simulator is running. Press Refresh to see new changes.
• Anything else: click Diagnostics in the panel, or run CBlite: Show cblite Diagnostics. It shows which cblite was used, its version and the output of the commands the extension relies on. Please include that output when reporting an issue.

Privacy

Everything runs locally. The extension only calls the cblite binary on your machine. It sends no data anywhere and collects no telemetry.

Commands