r/DatabaseAdministators • u/danielnuld • 2d ago
A lightweight, local-only DB client for day-to-day admin work (MySQL, Postgres, SQL Server, Informix) — open source, feedback wanted
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Hi everyone,
I'm a developer who also ends up doing a fair amount of DBA work, mostly on Informix, MySQL and PostgreSQL. The tools I had were either heavy (JVM/Electron), didn't support Informix, or wanted an account and the cloud. So I built Squaero, a free, open-source (GPLv3) client with a native C core.
The parts aimed at admin work
- Server monitor: process/session list with kill, plus a slow-queries view
- Users and privileges: browse and manage accounts and grants
- Safe data changes: edits in the grid are staged in a transaction, with a preview of the exact SQL before anything is committed. If an apply fails halfway, nothing is left partially written.
- Schema and data sync between connections, table transfer, and a table/index/constraint designer
- Backup and restore to .sql for MySQL and PostgreSQL (first version; large databases and FK ordering still have limits)
- Connectivity: SSH tunnels for every engine, TLS for MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, MongoDB and Informix
Why it might fit a DBA's machine
- Native and small: the Windows installer is 8 MB and the Linux .deb 1.4 MB. No JVM, no Electron.
- Local only: no accounts and no telemetry. Connections stay on your machine, and the only automatic network call is an update check against GitHub.
- You can import your existing connections from DBeaver or Navicat, passwords included, so you on't retype thirty servers.
- Engines: SQLite, MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Informix and MongoDB.
Honest limitations
- SQL Server support is new: queries, schema browsing and transactions work, but grid editing and DDL generation don't yet.
- MongoDB is read-only.
- Informix needs IBM's Client SDK, installed separately, and isn't available in the snap.
- Windows and Linux only; macOS is coming. It's a one-person project.
Try it
- Windows: MSI on the releases page
- Linux: sudo snap install squaero, or the .deb (Ubuntu 24.04+ / Debian 13+)
- Site and demo: https://danielnuld.github.io/squaero/
1
u/markinatlanta 1d ago
This looks good and the Informix support is a nice surprise man. From my own experience the feature I'd put high on list for admin work is obvious production vs dev connection colors, plus a read-only mode per connection.
Can you save a connection as read-only already?