dbVibe

Minimal macOS database client built with Wails, Go, and React. It focuses on fast database debugging without Electron.

Features

• Stored connection dashboard
• PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, and Elasticsearch connection forms
• Execute SQL, MongoDB JSON commands, and Redis commands
• Save and reopen query snippets per connection
• CodeMirror query editor with autocomplete
• Customizable shortcuts stored in local storage
• Table browser with row preview
• First-glance table diagnostics: columns, indexes, create table SQL, sample rows
• EXPLAIN ANALYZE panel
• MySQL binlog trace viewer

The MySQL binlog trace viewer requires the mysqlbinlog client:

brew install mysql-client

Why dbVibe

	dbVibe	DBeaver	MySQL Workbench
Runtime	Native Go binary (Wails), no bundled JVM/Electron	Bundles a JVM	Qt-based, MySQL-only
App size	~21 MB (~15 MB portable zip)	Several hundred MB with JRE	~300 MB
Config storage	Single local store.json file	Embedded workspace metadata DB	Local XML/SQLite workspace
Engines	Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, Elasticsearch	Many (via JDBC plugins)	MySQL only
Query plan	Animated, interactive optimizer with per-step I/O and CPU cost formulas	Static EXPLAIN text/tree	Static EXPLAIN visual (non-interactive)
Binlog trace viewer	Built in (mysqlbinlog)	Not built in	Not built in

dbVibe trades broad feature coverage for a small, fast, native client focused on the debugging loop: connect, run a query, see why it's slow, fix it.

The Query Optimizer Lab walks a real EXPLAIN ANALYZE through parse, rewrite, cost-based optimization, and execution — at the optimize step it shows the exact candidates the planner priced (e.g. Seq Scan vs. Index Scan vs. Bitmap Heap Scan) with their I/O and CPU cost formulas, not just the winning plan.

Install (macOS)

Clone or download this repo, then run:

./install.sh

This unzips build/portable/dbVibe-macos.zip, clears the Gatekeeper quarantine flag (the build is unsigned), installs dbVibe.app to /Applications, and launches it. Re-running it updates an existing install.

If you only have the zip (no repo checkout), pass its path:

./install.sh /path/to/dbVibe-macos.zip

Manual install

Prefer to do it by hand instead of running a script?

1. Download build/portable/dbVibe-macos.zip.
2. Unzip it.
3. Drag dbVibe.app to /Applications.
4. If macOS blocks the app on first launch, clear quarantine:

   xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/dbVibe.app

Develop

Install the Wails CLI if it is not already available:

go install github.com/wailsapp/wails/v2/cmd/[email protected]

Run the app:

cd sql-gui
env -u GOROOT wails dev

Build the macOS app:

cd sql-gui
env -u GOROOT wails build

Build a portable macOS zip (shareable without installation):

cd sql-gui
make build-portable

The zip is created at build/portable/dbVibe-macos.zip. Recipients can unzip and run dbVibe.app.

If your shell has GVM variables loaded, env -u GOROOT avoids mixing Homebrew Go 1.25 with a Go 1.24 GVM root.

Frontend Only

The React UI has demo fallback data when it is opened outside Wails:

cd sql-gui/frontend
pnpm run dev