You're already in a shell. You need to check a table, inspect a schema, or run a quick query. Opening a GUI for that is friction you don't need.

Raw CLI clients like psql or sqlite3 are great for scripts but rough for browsing data. You have no visual navigation, no schema overview, no easy paging.

Stoat sits between those two extremes: a keyboard-driven TUI that gives you real database inspection without leaving your workflow.

Built for anyone who lives in the terminal and wants database access that doesn't interrupt their flow.

Built with Bubbletea by Charmbracelet.

# Open the connection picker (reads from ~/.stoat/config.yaml) stoat # SQLite (one-off, bypasses picker) stoat --db path/to/database.sqlite # PostgreSQL (one-off, bypasses picker) stoat --dsn "postgres://user:password@host:5432/dbname?sslmode=disable" # Print version stoat --version # Write per-call timings to ~/.stoat/debug.log stoat --db path/to/database.sqlite --debug # Open in read-only mode (works with --db, --dsn, or the connection picker) stoat --read-only

Run stoat with no arguments to open the connection picker and choose from your saved connections. Pass --db or --dsn to connect directly, bypassing the picker.

• Schema exploration — browse columns, indexes, constraints, and foreign keys in dedicated tabs without writing PRAGMA or \d
• Inline SQL — run ad-hoc queries from a built-in query box; save snippets you reuse often
• Open in $EDITOR — press Ctrl+E to write multi-line SQL in your editor; saves and runs on close
• Vim-style navigation — hjkl, gg/G, count prefixes (10j), all the muscle memory you already have
• Edit in place — press Enter on any cell to edit its value inline; confirm with Enter, cancel with Esc
• Filter without SQL — narrow down loaded rows without rewriting your query
• Read-only mode — connect safely to production with --read-only or read_only: true per connection in config; enforced at the DB level and in the UI
• SQL syntax highlighting — keywords, strings, numbers, comments, and operators are colored as you type; palette adapts to the active theme
• Themes — 11 built-in themes including dracula, catppuccin, gruvbox, rose-pine, and more

One-liner:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jxdones/stoat/main/install.sh | sh

To install a specific version:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jxdones/stoat/main/install.sh | sh -s -- v0.14.1

Homebrew (macOS):

brew tap jxdones/stoat brew install --cask stoat

Go install:

go install github.com/jxdones/stoat/cmd/stoat@latest

Docker:

docker build -t stoat . docker run --rm -it -v "$(pwd)/data:/data" stoat --db /data/your.db

From the repo root (developers):

make install

To install to a specific prefix (e.g. user-local without sudo):

PREFIX=$HOME/.local make install-prefix

Then add $HOME/.local/bin to your PATH if needed.

SQLite, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MariaDB are supported.

If you use Supabase, Neon, Railway, or Render, paste your connection string and you're in. No browser, no dashboard, no context switch.

# Supabase stoat --dsn "postgres://postgres:[password]@db.[project].supabase.co:[port]/postgres?sslmode=require" # Neon stoat --dsn "postgres://[user]:[password]@[host].neon.tech/[dbname]?sslmode=require" # Railway stoat --dsn "postgres://[user]:[password]@[host].railway.app:[port]/[dbname]?sslmode=require" # Render stoat --dsn "postgres://[user]:[password]@[host].render.com:[port]/[dbname]?sslmode=require"

Any provider that gives you a postgres:// connection string works. Including AWS RDS, GCP Cloud SQL, and Azure Database for PostgreSQL.

The options bar at the bottom shows shortcuts for the currently focused pane. When focus is clear, it shows q to quit.

Available themes: default, dracula, solarized, catppuccin, everforest, gruvbox, one-dark, rose-pine, princess, one-shell, blueish. Set via theme in ~/.stoat/config.yaml.

Stoat reads configuration from ~/.stoat/config.yaml. This file is created automatically on first run.

Example:

# ~/.stoat/config.yaml theme: default connections: - name: local type: sqlite path: /path/to/database.sqlite saved_queries: - name: recent_users query: SELECT * FROM users ORDER BY updated_at DESC LIMIT 10 - name: schema query: SELECT name, sql FROM sqlite_master WHERE type = 'table' - name: my-postgres type: postgres host: localhost port: 5432 # optional, defaults to 5432 user: postgres password: secret database: mydb - name: supabase-prod type: postgres host: db.[project].supabase.co port: 5432 user: postgres password: secret database: postgres read_only: true # blocks writes in the UI and at the DB level - name: local-mysql type: mysql host: 127.0.0.1 port: 3306 # optional, defaults to 3306 user: root password: secret database: mydb # tls_mode: true # set to true for hosted/remote MySQL, skip-verify to skip cert validation 

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

MIT — see LICENSE.