database-cli

database-cli is a macOS SQL CLI with a background daemon that keeps named database connections open across commands.

This Go branch keeps the outside interface compatible with the original project:

• same subcommands and flags
• same alias + transaction model
• same Unix-socket daemon/client split
• same default TSV / optional JSON / NDJSON batch outputs
• same --jdbc-url flag for connection strings

The implementation is now a single self-contained Go binary. It does not require Java, JDBC drivers, mysql, psql, sqlite3, or any other runtime/client software to be installed. SQLite support is pure Go, and MySQL/PostgreSQL use native Go drivers. The only external commands involved are macOS built-ins for optional launchd install and optional Keychain lookup.

Supported URLs

--jdbc-url is kept for compatibility even though the implementation is no longer JDBC-based.

• MySQL: jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/app
• PostgreSQL: jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/app
• SQLite file: jdbc:sqlite:/tmp/app.db
• SQLite memory: jdbc:sqlite::memory:

Install

./scripts/install.sh

That script builds the binary with CGO_ENABLED=0, installs it to ~/.local/share/database-cli/database-cli, writes a launchd agent, and drops a wrapper at /opt/homebrew/bin/database-cli.

You only need Go to build from source. Once built, the resulting database-cli binary is standalone and can be copied to another compatible macOS machine without installing Java or database client libraries.

Commands

database-cli ping
database-cli open --alias A --jdbc-url URL [--user U] [--password-stdin|--password-keychain S] [--read-only]
database-cli close --alias A
database-cli list
database-cli query --alias A [--json] 'select ...'
database-cli exec --alias A 'update ...'
database-cli schema --alias A
database-cli describe --alias A --table T
database-cli begin --alias A
database-cli commit --alias A
database-cli rollback --alias A
database-cli batch [--alias A]

Examples

database-cli ping
database-cli open --alias pg --jdbc-url jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/app --user app --password-stdin
database-cli query --alias pg 'select now()'
database-cli query --alias pg --json 'select id, email from users order by id limit 10'
database-cli exec --alias pg "update users set active = false where last_login < now() - interval '1 year'"
database-cli schema --alias pg
database-cli describe --alias pg --table users

SQLite:

database-cli open --alias mem --jdbc-url jdbc:sqlite::memory:
database-cli exec --alias mem 'create table t(id integer primary key, name text)'
database-cli exec --alias mem "insert into t(name) values ('Ada')"
database-cli query --alias mem 'select * from t'

Transactions:

database-cli begin --alias pg
database-cli exec --alias pg "insert into audit_log(message) values ('hello')"
database-cli rollback --alias pg

Batch mode

Input is NDJSON on stdin. query returns TSV by default or JSON when the line includes "json":true; exec returns {"rowsAffected":...}, and transaction commands return {"ok":true}.

printf '%s\n' \
  '{"op":"begin"}' \
  '{"op":"exec","sql":"create table if not exists t(id integer)"}' \
  '{"op":"exec","sql":"insert into t(id) values (1)"}' \
  '{"op":"query","sql":"select * from t","json":true}' \
  '{"op":"commit"}' \
  | database-cli batch --alias mem

Passwords

--password-stdin reads the password from stdin.

--password-keychain SERVICE reads it from the macOS Keychain entry stored like this:

security add-generic-password -a database-cli -s SERVICE -w 'secret'

Runtime files

• Socket: ~/.database-cli/sock
• launchd logs: ~/Library/Logs/database-cli/daemon.log
• launchd stderr: ~/Library/Logs/database-cli/daemon.err.log