sqv

sqv is a keyboard-first terminal viewer for SQLite databases. It is built for fast table browsing, in-place editing, filtering, sorting, and foreign-key navigation without leaving the terminal.

Highlights

• Fast virtual scrolling for large tables
• Rich cell editors for text, enums, dates, datetimes, and foreign keys
• Per-column filters, sorting, and alphabet jump navigation
• Export current views to CSV, JSON, or SQL
• Read-only mode for safe inspection

Install

apt (GitHub Pages repository)

The project publishes an amd64 Debian package to a GitHub-hosted apt repository.

echo "deb [trusted=yes arch=amd64] https://mendrik-private.github.io/sqv stable main" \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sqv.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install sqv

trusted=yes is required because the repository is published from GitHub Pages without apt signing.

Release binary

Download the latest Linux binary archive from GitHub Releases and install it into /usr/local/bin:

curl -fsSL -o sqv-linux-x86_64.tar.gz \
  https://github.com/mendrik-private/sqv/releases/latest/download/sqv-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
tar -xzf sqv-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
sudo install -m 0755 sqv /usr/local/bin/sqv

From source

cargo install --path .

Or run directly from the checkout:

cargo run --release -- path/to/database.db

Usage

sqv <DB_PATH> [--readonly]
sqv check-terminal

• DB_PATH: path to a SQLite database, or :memory:
• --readonly: disable writes
• check-terminal: print detected terminal capabilities

Keybindings

Navigation

Key	Action
↑ ↓ ← → / h j k l	Move focused cell
Home / End	First / last column in row
Ctrl-Home / Ctrl-End	First / last cell in table
PgUp / PgDn / Ctrl-↑ / Ctrl-↓	Scroll one viewport
Mouse wheel	Scroll rows
Shift-wheel	Scroll columns
Click cell	Focus cell

Editing

Key	Action
Enter	Open the focused cell picker/editor
Alt-Enter	Insert a newline in the direct text editor
e	Open the focused cell in the direct editor
n	Set the focused cell to NULL when allowed
Esc	Close popup
Ctrl-Enter	Save an inserted row from the staged row editor
i	Insert row in a staged editor, then validate on save
d	Delete row
Ctrl-z	Undo last write

Filtering, sorting, and other actions

Key	Action
s	Cycle sort on focused column
f	Open filter popup for focused column
Shift-F	Clear filters
j	Jump through a foreign key
Backspace	Jump back
Ctrl-b	Toggle sidebar
Ctrl-Shift-P	Command palette
Ctrl-Q	Quit

Configuration

Configuration is read from:

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/sqv/config.toml

Example:

nerd_font = true

Development

Local validation

cargo fmt
cargo clippy -- -D warnings
cargo test

Release pipeline

GitHub Actions provides:

1. CI on pushes and pull requests: format check, clippy, and tests
2. Tagged releases on v* tags:
   • build the release binary
   • build a Debian package
   • publish GitHub Release assets
   • publish an apt repository to GitHub Pages

To cut a release:

git tag v0.1.2
git push origin v0.1.2

Before the first tagged release, enable GitHub Pages for the repository so the apt repository can be deployed from GitHub Actions. Tagged releases now wait for a successful Pages deployment before publishing release assets.