Postgres Studio
An open-source, cross-platform PostgreSQL client built with Tauri (Rust) and React: a dense, IDE-style desktop app for browsing schemas, editing rows inside transactions, running SQL and reading query plans.
Website: https://pgstudio.nilpointer.tech
Status: early release. The core is in place and in daily use; expect rough edges. See PRODUCT.md for the scope and the roadmap.
Features
- Connections - any number of saved connections (a
postgres:// URI or host/port), TLS (sslmode up to verify-full, custom CA, client certificate), SSH tunnels (password or key, host keys pinned on first use), read-only connections, a pooler mode for PgBouncer/Supabase in transaction mode, folders and an identity color per connection. Export the ones you pick (a whole folder from its menu), folders included; import a Postgres Studio export or pgAdmin's servers.json into the folder you choose, its groups as subfolders.
- Secrets stored securely - passwords and passphrases go to the OS keychain (macOS Keychain / Windows Credential Manager / Linux Secret Service), with an encrypted-file fallback on headless Linux.
- Explorer - connection > database > schema > tables, views, materialized views, functions, sequences and types, plus installed extensions and Apache AGE graphs, with a quick open (Ctrl+K) across every schema.
- Table tabs - Data (WHERE / ORDER BY / LIMIT / OFFSET, a typed virtualized grid, foreign keys you can follow, a row inspector with references both ways), Structure (columns, constraints, indexes with usage, triggers, view definitions, DDL; new index, enable/disable or drop a trigger) and SQL (a console scoped to the table), all in the same tab.
- Edits inside a transaction - edited, added and deleted rows wait as pending changes; review the generated SQL, then Commit (Ctrl+S) or discard.
- SQL console - runs the statement at the caret or the selection, one result tab per statement plus Messages, auto-commit or manual transactions, cancel, saved scripts. Large results read only the rows shown.
- psql (optional) - run a console through
psql instead, per console or by default (Settings › Console), for its meta-commands (\d, \copy, \i, \gexec, \set, \if) and your ~/.psqlrc. Postgres Studio uses the psql it finds on your PATH, in Homebrew's libpq, Postgres.app or PostgreSQL's install folders, or one you pick; it doesn't download one. The connection's password reaches psql through its environment, never its command line. Result sets land in the same grid, psql's output streams into Messages, and Cancel or a time limit stops the run.
- SQL files of any size - run from disk, streamed statement by statement (
COPY ... FROM stdin blocks included), stop or continue on errors, with progress and the failing lines.
- Explain -
EXPLAIN and EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, BUFFERS) (rolled back) as a tree with time per node and estimated against actual rows.
- Schema diagram - a schema's tables and foreign keys, laid out automatically; trace a table's keys, open it, export the diagram as SVG.
- Import and export - query results and whole tables to CSV or JSON; CSV files into a table with a column mapping.
- Backup and restore -
pg_dump (custom, directory, tar, plain) and pg_restore / psql, with the client tools already on the machine.
- Server activity - sessions and locks with cancel and terminate; roles; extensions to install, update or drop; VACUUM, ANALYZE, REINDEX and generated SQL for a table.
- Graphs and vectors - Cypher inside
cypher() calls highlighted and completed for Apache AGE, vertices and edges shown readably; pgvector values shown compactly, with the distance operators and index opclasses in completion.
- Tab groups and split view - tabs grouped by connection, up to four panes side by side. The last session's tabs come back on launch, with their queries and SQL, and connect only when you open them.
- Settings - one dialog (Ctrl/Cmd+,) for the theme (dark, light or the system's), the rows a table tab and a console fetch, the console layout and engine, import/export, the Assistant and the MCP server; changes apply as you make them.
- MCP server (opt-in) - let AI clients on this computer (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, VS Code) work with your saved connections over MCP at
http://127.0.0.1:47432/mcp (the port is yours to change; a port in use is reported, never swapped), with a bearer token kept in the keychain. Off by default and only while the app runs. Each capability - browsing (always on), reading, writing rows, schema changes, any SQL, seeing, editing and deleting connections, saving scripts - is Off, Ask (an approval card in the app with the SQL and, for writes, a dry run that counts the rows it changes and is rolled back) or Allow; each connection is None, Read or Read & write. Reads run in a read-only transaction. "Add to <client>" writes the server's entry, token included, into that client's own config file (~/.claude.json through claude mcp add, ~/.cursor/mcp.json, ~/.codex/config.toml, VS Code's user mcp.json), keeping the rest of the file and a .bak copy. Passwords and full connection strings never reach a client.
- Assistant (opt-in) - ask in plain words, answered by the Claude Code or Codex CLI you already have installed; the agent reads your server only through read-only tools the app serves.
Logs
Postgres Studio keeps a log file, so a failed connection or a crash can be looked into after the fact. To find it, open the command palette (Ctrl/Cmd+K) and choose Open logs folder. The crash screen has the same button. The file is postgres-studio.log in:
| OS | Folder |
|---|
| Windows | %LOCALAPPDATA%\com.edneymesquita.postgres-studio\logs |
| macOS | ~/Library/Logs/com.edneymesquita.postgres-studio |
| Linux | $XDG_DATA_HOME/com.edneymesquita.postgres-studio/logs, usually ~/.local/share/com.edneymesquita.postgres-studio/logs |
When the file reaches 5 MB it is renamed with a timestamp and a new one is started. The five most recent old files are kept.
What's never logged: passwords, passphrases or other secrets; connection strings (only the hosts, with no user or options); SQL text or row values. When a query fails, only the kind of error and the server's SQLSTATE are written, because the server's message can quote your data.
Development
Prerequisites:
npm install
npm run tauri dev
A local server with sample data (a shop database with foreign keys, an enum, jsonb and citext columns):
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up -d
Backend tests:
cd src-tauri
cargo test
Integration tests that talk to a real PostgreSQL are marked #[ignore]. With the dev server up, run them explicitly:
export POSTGRES_STUDIO_TEST_URI="postgres://postgres:postgres@localhost:5433/shop"
cargo test --lib -- --ignored
The TimescaleDB support has its own server in the same compose file (docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up -d timescale, port 5436, database tsdb). Its live tests share that seed, so they run one at a time:
export POSTGRES_STUDIO_TIMESCALE_URI="postgres://postgres:postgres@localhost:5436/tsdb"
cargo test --lib -- --ignored --test-threads=1 timescale
Benchmarks
scripts/bench.mjs times the backend's commands through the dev bridge (the same commands and JSON as the app's IPC), so an optimization can be measured before and after. It needs a bench database with a large table on the dev server:
docker exec postgres-studio-dev psql -U postgres -c "create database bench"
docker exec postgres-studio-dev psql -U postgres -d bench -c "create table big as select g as id, md5(g::text) as hash, (random()*1e6)::int as qty, now() - (g || ' seconds')::interval as created_at, jsonb_build_object('k', g) as meta, (g % 7 = 0) as flag, repeat('x', 40) as filler, gen_random_uuid() as uid, (random()*1000)::numeric(12,2) as price, null::text as empty from generate_series(1, 1000000) g; alter table big add primary key (id); analyze big;"
(cd src-tauri && cargo build --release --features devbridge --bin devbridge) && src-tauri/target/release/devbridge &
node scripts/bench.mjs <connection id> --runs 5
Startup is marked in the page as performance.mark("app-mounted") (the first React commit), next to the navigation timings.
Building
npm run tauri build
Produces a platform-native installer (.dmg/.app on macOS, .msi/.exe on Windows, .deb/.rpm/.AppImage on Linux) under src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.
Regenerating the app icon
The source design is src-tauri/icons/icon-source.svg. After editing it, regenerate every platform variant with:
npx tauri icon src-tauri/icons/icon-source.svg
Releasing
Pushing a tag matching vX.Y.Z triggers .github/workflows/release.yml, which builds installers for macOS (universal binary), Windows, and Linux and attaches them to a draft GitHub release for review before publishing. Builds are unsigned, so first launches will trip Gatekeeper (macOS) or SmartScreen (Windows) warnings until code signing is set up separately.
The Microsoft Store package (MSIX) is built by .github/workflows/microsoft-store.yml; see docs/microsoft-store.md.
License
MIT - see LICENSE.
PostgreSQL is a trademark of the PostgreSQL Community Association; Postgres Studio is an independent project, not affiliated with or endorsed by it.
