l8db

A fast, native desktop client for PostgreSQL and other database families — built with Tauri v2, React 19, and Rust.

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Features

Features depend on the selected database family and installed driver. The list below describes the PostgreSQL feature set; see the provider matrix and contributor guide for other products, capabilities and driver requirements.

• Table browser — browse rows with filtering, sorting, and pagination
• Inline row editing — edit, insert, duplicate, and delete rows with transaction support
• Schema inspector — columns, indexes, constraints, foreign keys, and triggers per table
• Query editor — Monaco-based SQL editor with syntax highlighting and formatting
• Query history & saved queries — automatic per-connection history (search, re-run) plus named saved queries
• EXPLAIN visualization — EXPLAIN and EXPLAIN ANALYZE rendered as a collapsible plan tree with costs and timings
• SQL lint — unknown tables in FROM/JOIN get warning markers (CTE-aware)
• ER diagram — visual entity-relationship diagram for a schema
• Views — list and edit view definitions
• Materialized views — list, create, refresh (standard and concurrent), and drop
• Row Level Security — enable/force RLS per table, manage policies (roles, USING / WITH CHECK)
• Partitioning — inspect partitioned tables, attach and detach partitions
• Logical replication — manage publications (per-table or FOR ALL TABLES) and subscriptions
• Sessions & locks — live pg_stat_activity with cancel/terminate, plus lock monitor
• Enums — browse, create, and drop enum types
• Schemas — create and drop (with optional CASCADE)
• Database overview — sizes per database and schema on the home dashboard
• Functions — browse and edit stored functions/procedures
• Triggers — view trigger definitions per table
• Sequences — list and alter sequences (start, min, max, increment, cycle, restart)
• Extensions — list installed extensions; install or drop them via SQL
• Roles & privileges — manage roles and their schema/table privileges
• Data export — export table data or query results as CSV or JSON
• Transaction panel — review and commit/rollback pending changes
• Multiple connections — manage and switch between connections; supports connection strings and individual fields
• SSL / TLS — disable, prefer, require, verify-ca, verify-full per connection (OS certificate store)
• SSH tunnels — reach private databases through a bastion (password, key or SSH agent incl. 1Password, ProxyJump chains, known_hosts verification with optional TOFU on every hop, host import from ~/.ssh/config); database TLS follows the selected SSL mode. See docs/ssh-network.md
• Proxies — SOCKS5 and HTTP CONNECT (optional credentials) to reach the SSH server or, without SSH, the database itself via a local forwarding port
• OS keychain secrets — passwords live in Keychain / Credential Manager / Secret Service, never in localStorage
• AI assistant — ask questions about your data in plain language (⌘J or "KI fragen" in the command palette). Answers come with charts and tables you can export as CSV or Excel or open as SQL, plus suggested follow-up questions. Attach CSV, Excel, JSON or Parquet files and let the AI load them into a new table after your approval. Per-connection knowledge (table descriptions and a glossary) is written by you or generated by the AI and used in every chat. Works with Codex, Claude Code, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, GitHub Copilot, your own OpenAI/Anthropic/Google key, or fully local models via Ollama and LM Studio. See docs/ai-workspace.md
• Dark / light / system theme

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Stack

Layer	Technology
Shell	Tauri v2 (Rust backend)
Frontend	React 19 · TypeScript · Vite
Routing	TanStack Router
Data	TanStack Query
UI	shadcn/ui · Tailwind CSS v4
Editor	Monaco Editor
DB	tokio-postgres · bb8 connection pool

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Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Rust (stable toolchain)
• Bun (version 1.3.10; bun is required — tauri.conf.json hardcodes it)
• Tauri CLI v2: cargo install tauri-cli --version "^2"

Development

bun install
bun run tauri dev

The app opens automatically. The Vite dev server runs on port 1420 (strict).

Production build

bun run tauri build

Outputs an installer / app bundle in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.

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Project Structure

src/
  features/          # Feature modules (one view component per feature)
    shell/           # App chrome: layout, header, sidebar, tab bar, transaction panel
    table/           # Table & view browser (data, columns, indexes, triggers)
    query/           # SQL query editor
    alter-table/     # Column management (add / alter / drop)
    sequences/       # Sequence listing and editing
    extensions/      # Extension management
    functions/       # Function/procedure browser
    triggers/        # Trigger viewer
    er-diagram/      # ER diagram canvas
    users/           # Roles & privileges
    settings/        # App settings
    home/            # Home / overview
  components/ui/     # Shared shadcn primitives
  lib/
    db.ts            # Tauri invoke() bridge (all commands)
    queries.ts       # TanStack Query hooks
    connections.ts   # Zustand connection store (persisted)
    settings.ts      # Zustand settings store (persisted)
    transactions.ts  # Transaction state
  routes/            # TanStack Router file routes (thin wrappers)

src-tauri/src/
  db/
    mod.rs           # DatabaseAdapter trait + shared types
    postgres.rs      # PostgreSQL implementation
    commands.rs      # #[tauri::command] handlers
    pool.rs          # bb8 connection pool management
    transaction.rs   # Transaction state management
  lib.rs             # Tauri builder, plugin init, command registration
  main.rs            # Entry point

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Architecture Notes

• All invoke() calls are centralized in src/lib/db.ts. TypeScript types mirror Rust structs — keep them in sync.
• DatabaseAdapter trait in src-tauri/src/db/mod.rs is the extension point for additional DB engines.
• Routes in src/routes/ are thin: they wire createFileRoute to feature views. Route tree is auto-generated into src/routeTree.gen.ts — do not edit it manually.
• Connections are persisted in localStorage under key l8db.connections.
• PostgreSQL connections use postgres-native-tls (OS certificate store) with per-connection ssl_mode.
• fetch_table_rows uses the configurable page size from settings (default 100). Builder-generated filters are validated server-side; raw SQL filter mode sends allow_raw=true.

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Contributing

1. Fork the repo and create a feature branch.
2. Run cargo check and cargo clippy in src-tauri/ before committing Rust changes.
3. Run npx tsc -p tsconfig.app.json --noEmit to typecheck the frontend.
4. Open a pull request with a clear description of the change.

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Operations

• Data transfer behavior, limits and benchmarks: data-transfer.md.

• Backup, restore and dump tools: backup.md.

• Reproducible database and browser checks: integration-tests.md.

• Performance tests, workload replay and l8db --benchmark: performance.md.

• Production configuration: .github/PRODUCTION.md.

• CHANGELOG.md tracks user-facing changes (Keep a Changelog).

• Releases: every push to main auto-publishes installers for macOS (Universal DMG), Windows (MSI/NSIS), and Linux (deb/AppImage) plus latest.json for the in-app auto-updater — version (<major>.<minor>.<commit-count>) and changelog are generated from Conventional Commits. Full runbook: .github/RELEASING.md.

• OS package managers (Homebrew, winget, AUR, Flatpak): templates in packaging/, guide in packaging/README.md.

• SECURITY.md describes supported versions and how to report vulnerabilities.

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License

l8db is open source under the Apache License 2.0. See NOTICE for attribution.