DBased is a lightweight, native GTK4 & Libadwaita client for
PostgreSQL and MySQL / MariaDB. Zero Electron bloat—just an
async sqlx spreadsheet grid, built-in russh bastion tunneling,
foreign-key quick jumps, and Vim-enabled SQL & JSONB editors.
Click image to enlarge · Press 1–6 to switch tabs
Browse and filter rows at native speed, edit cells inline (including native ENUM dropdown selectors) with transactional batch commits, jump across foreign keys (>), and inspect JSON/JSONB/XML/TEXT columns in a side-by-side GtkSourceView 5 Vim panel.
Designed around GNOME Human Interface Guidelines and keyboard-first workflows, DBased runs queries and SSH tunnels on a dedicated Tokio worker pool so the UI stays locked at native frame rates.
Auto-fitted resizable columns, single-click sorting, inline cell editing with native ENUM dropdowns, and transactional batch commits (Ctrl+S). Click > in any foreign-key cell to jump to the parent row with full Alt+Left / Alt+Right history.
First-class GtkSourceView 5 Vim emulation in both the SQL Query Editor and the side-by-side Multiline Cell Inspector for JSON, JSONB, XML, and TEXT payloads. Use :w, :q, :wq, and :r without leaving the home row.
Connect through encrypted SSH jump hosts directly inside DBased without external terminal wrappers. Powered by pure-Rust russh with support for both Password and Private Key authentication plus JSON bookmark import/export.
Add, modify, or drop columns and indexes (BTREE, GIN, UNIQUE, HASH) via guided dialogs, and drag rows to reorder columns—using native ALTER TABLE on MySQL and a transactional rebuild preserving FKs, indexes, and views on PostgreSQL.
Manage PostgreSQL roles and MySQL/MariaDB accounts from a dedicated workspace view. Create or drop users, rotate passwords, toggle Superuser and Can Login attributes, and grant or revoke per-database READ, READ + WRITE, or ALL PRIVILEGES.
Powered by sqlx with runtime-tokio-rustls. Create new databases with custom encoding/collations, import .sql scripts directly from the sidebar, or export full databases and tables to SQL, CSV, or JSON.
-- Execute full buffer or active VISUAL selection (Ctrl+Enter or :r)
SELECT
c.email,
c.full_name,
COUNT(o.id) AS total_orders,
SUM(o.total_eur) AS lifetime_revenue_eur
FROM customers c
JOIN orders o ON o.customer_id = c.id
WHERE o.status IN ('shipped', 'delivered')
GROUP BY c.id, c.email, c.full_name
ORDER BY lifetime_revenue_eur DESC
LIMIT 6;-- Mode 1: Type any search term to filter across all columns
-- Automatically expands to CAST(col AS TEXT) ILIKE '%Berlin%'
Berlin
-- Mode 2: Prefix with WHERE for custom SQL predicates
WHERE total_eur > 100 AND status = 'shipped'
-- Side-by-Side JSONB Cell Inspector (:wq to stage & close)
{
"carrier": "DHL Express",
"priority": "express_24h",
"insured": true
}Download prebuilt release artifacts from GitHub Releases or build directly from source with Cargo and Make.
Built natively with makepkg against system gtk4, libadwaita, and gtksourceview5.
sudo pacman -U dbased-*-x86_64.pkg.tar.zstgit clone https://github.com/tsndr/dbased.git
cd dbased
make install-arch # or: makepkg -sfiPackaged with cargo-deb on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (GTK 4.14, Libadwaita 1.5) with automatic shared library dependency resolution.
sudo apt install ./dbased_*_amd64.debsudo apt install build-essential cargo rustc pkg-config \
libgtk-4-dev libadwaita-1-dev libgtksourceview-5-devBuilt with rpmbuild on Fedora 41 with full desktop launcher, scalable icon, and AppStream metadata integration.
sudo dnf install ./dbased-*.x86_64.rpmsudo dnf install cargo rust gtk4-devel libadwaita-devel gtksourceview5-develBuilt against org.gnome.Platform//47 with Wayland/X11 sockets, read-only ~/.ssh key access, and org.freedesktop.secrets keyring integration.
flatpak install --user ./dbased-*-x86_64.flatpakflatpak run dev.tsndr.dbasedRun DBased anywhere without package manager installation using the self-contained GTK4 AppImage, or install the stripped release binary tarball directly.
View All Release Assetschmod +x dbased-*-x86_64.AppImage && ./dbased-*-x86_64.AppImagetar -xzf dbased-*-linux-x86_64.tar.gz && cd dbased-* && sudo make install-filesRequires a stable Rust toolchain supporting the Rust 2024 edition (rustc >= 1.85) along with GTK 4.14+, Libadwaita 1.5+, and GtkSourceView 5.10+ headers.
git clone https://github.com/tsndr/dbased.git
cd dbased
make build
sudo make installmake install-user # Uninstall anytime with: make uninstall-userEvery core action in DBased—from staging multiline JSONB edits to jumping across foreign keys and running visual SQL selections—is mapped for fast keyboard navigation.
.sql file
:w/:write
Connection metadata and sensitive credentials are separated cleanly following Linux desktop standards.
Database passwords and SSH passphrases are stored securely in your system keyring via the D-Bus Secret Service API (oo7), compatible out of the box with GNOME Keyring, KeePassXC, and KWallet.
Non-sensitive connection profiles live in ~/.config/dbased/bookmarks.toml. In headless or minimal setups without a D-Bus Secret Service provider, DBased automatically falls back to ~/.config/dbased/.credentials.toml with strict 0600 permissions.
Compiled to a single native binary (~5 MB package size) with Wayland and X11 support via GTK4 and Libadwaita. Control runtime diagnostics anytime via RUST_LOG=dbased=debug.