dbcat

A simple CLI to view database tables. Supports PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQLite.

``sh
bunx dbcat ./data.db
`

Usage

Connect to a database to browse all tables:

`sh


No argument - uses DATABASE_URL environment variable

bunx dbcat

SQLite

bunx dbcat ./database.sqlite
bunx dbcat https://example.com/data.db

PostgreSQL

bunx dbcat postgres://user:pass@localhost:5432/mydb

MySQL

bunx dbcat mysql://user:pass@localhost:3306/mydb
`

Run a query by piping SQL:

`sh
echo "SELECT * FROM users" | bunx dbcat ./data.db
`

$3

| Flag | Description |
|----------------|---------------------------------------------------------------|
| --full, -f | Show all rows & data when browsing tables (default: 100 rows) |
| --json | Output as JSON (indented if TTY) |
| --json=color | Output as normal object console.log |

Piped queries always return all rows.

Example

`sh
$ bunx dbcat ./demo.sqlite
Connected to demo.sqlite

╭─ users ────────────┬───────────────────┬─────────────────────╮
│ id │ name │ email │ created_at │
├────┼───────────────┼───────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
│ 1 │ Alice Johnson │ alice@example.com │ 2025-12-08 05:25:21 │
│ 2 │ Bob Smith │ bob@example.com │ 2025-12-08 05:25:21 │
│ 3 │ Carol White │ carol@example.com │ 2025-12-08 05:25:21 │
│ ... 47 more rows │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
`

$3

Pipe to less -R for scrollable output with colors:

`sh
bunx dbcat ./data.db --full | less -R
`

$3

Do these things to make git use dbcat to diff your sqlite databases:

`sh


.gitattributes


*.sqlite binary diff=dbcat
*.db binary diff=dbcat
`

`sh
git config diff.lockb.textconv "bunx dbcat --full"
git config diff.lockb.binary true
`

And now you should be able to use

`sh
git diff ./data.db
``

Requirements

Bun v1.3+