PlumeSQL

Turn SQL into tools.

A desktop IDE for PostgreSQL, where a SQL file can become a monitor, a dashboard or a button.

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This SQL file is a lock monitor:

-- @description Backends waiting on a lock, and the backend holding it
-- @refresh 5s
select w.pid as waiter, b.pid as blocker, w.query as "waiting query"
from pg_catalog.pg_stat_activity w
     join lateral pg_catalog.unnest(pg_catalog.pg_blocking_pids(w.pid)) as bp on true
     join pg_catalog.pg_stat_activity b on b.pid = bp;

-- @button terminate blocker
-- @confirm Terminate backend $blocker? Any transaction it holds is rolled back, which is what releases the lock.
select pg_catalog.pg_terminate_backend($blocker);

It refreshes every five seconds and puts a Terminate button on every row, which asks before it acts:

The full version, which also opens everything a blocker holds up, is the blocking-locks extension.

Free, no account, for macOS, Windows and Linux. The app is closed source; the extensions and specifications in this repository are MIT. Made by Vedran Bilopavlović, author of NpgsqlRest, and Kristijan Soldo.

Deep on PostgreSQL

PlumeSQL does not try to be a universal database client. It uses PostgreSQL's own parser, catalogs and sessions, and goes deep where general-purpose clients stay shallow:

• EXPLAIN that points at the problem. The explain-plan extension draws the plan and lists the facts worth a look first: a step taking a fifth of the time or more, row estimates off by ten times or more, a sort or a hash that spilled to disk, a bitmap gone lossy. EXPLAIN ANALYZE of a statement that writes runs inside a rollback.
• PL/pgSQL checked as you type. The statements in a function body are checked by your real server without creating anything, so a missing table shows before the function ever runs. plpgsql_check style warnings (unused variables, unreachable code, a missing RETURN) come without installing the extension.
• A guard on production. A script that declares -- @readonly has PostgreSQL itself refuse any write. An UPDATE or DELETE without WHERE is marked red before it runs, and COMMIT can ask first and show what the transaction changed. On a Production connection, reading runs as ever and a statement that changes data asks first.
• The tree and completion see your session. They read through the editor's own session: a temp table, or a table created in a transaction you have not committed, is right there in the object tree and in completion. Roll back and it is gone.

Who makes it

PlumeSQL is made by Vedran Bilopavlović and Kristijan Soldo.

Vedran has worked with databases for 30 years and wrote NpgsqlRest, which serves PostgreSQL functions, tables and SQL files as a REST API. PlumeSQL's comment annotations are the same idea as NpgsqlRest's (ACTIONSPEC.md §14.1).

Nothing here locks you in: a tool is a plain SQL file you can read and run anywhere, and its format is an MIT specification. Every query extension in this repository runs on PostgreSQL 13 to 18, TimescaleDB and Citus on each push:

Install

Download from Releases:

Platform	Package
macOS, Apple Silicon	.dmg
Windows	.msi or setup .exe
Linux	.deb, .rpm or .AppImage

The app updates itself, and checks each update's signature before installing it. What is new in each release is in changelog/.

The macOS build is not notarized yet: open it once with right click and Open, or run

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

The Windows installer is not signed yet: if SmartScreen stops it, choose More info and Run anyway.

From the command line

The Welcome tab adds a plumesql command to your shell. Then:

plumesql .                         # this folder, in the desktop app
plumesql -browser .                # this folder, in a browser tab
plumesql postgres://user@host/db   # open and connect, like psql
plumesql --help                    # everything else

What else it does

• Connections found in your project. .env, appsettings.json, docker-compose, Django, Prisma, Rails, Spring: nothing to type.
• Completion that understands your query. PostgreSQL's own parser reads the statement, so completion works inside nested subqueries, CTEs and the aliases you just typed.
• Refactors a click away. The lightbulb beside each statement rewrites it for you: join a related table along its foreign key, fix an ambiguous column, preview the rows a DELETE would touch, turn an INSERT into an upsert, query JSON with containment. Extensions add their own, for PostGIS, pgvector and TimescaleDB.
• psql's commands in the editor. \d, \dt, \df, \sf and \conninfo answer right under the line, and the Log's console speaks psql too.
• Results of any size. Millions of rows, kept whole on disk and scrolled smoothly; edit rows in place and follow foreign keys.
• A console over your results. JavaScript under the Log, with the last result, the open tab and the database at hand.
• Your database as files. The object browser is a DDL snapshot on disk, one file per object, to search and compare without a query.
• In the desktop app, or in your browser. The same PlumeSQL runs in a tab of the browser you already have: plumesql -browser .
• Feels like VS Code. Its editor, its shortcuts, its command palette, one title row with the menus on Windows, and Import from VS Code for your settings, theme and connections.

Extensions

Need a tool? Search the extensions first:

• DBAs: lock monitor, slow queries, table bloat, health check, backup and restore
• Developers: visual EXPLAIN, query to CSV, rows as SQL
• Data people: charts, dashboards, PostGIS viewer, pgvector explorer

Install them from the Extensions tab in the app. Extensions are just files: readable before you install them, editable and shareable, with no plugin SDK to learn.

Can't find it? Write one: a SQL file, a command, or a small JavaScript view over a result. A few @ comments add inputs, row buttons, a refresh timer and charts to a query; publish it to the Marketplace and anyone can install it. Start with extensions/README.md; the format is open: ACTIONSPEC.md.

See it in action

• PlumeSQL in 90 seconds
• Refactorings: the lightbulb rewrites SQL for you
• Query extensions: SQL files with annotations
• DBA tools as extensions
• A grid for millions of rows
• EXPLAIN and the plan visualizer
• Charts over your query results

More, about a minute each: Connections and objects · The SQL editor · Data and the grid · Annotations and extensions · PostgreSQL extensions · Workspace

Tech

• Go server: connections over the PostgreSQL wire protocol, DDL rendering, the vault. Localhost only, behind a token minted at launch.
• Svelte 5 interface with Monaco, the editor inside VS Code. PostgreSQL's real parser (libpg_query) and a tree-sitter grammar run in WebAssembly.
• Tauri shell with the system webview: no bundled browser, no Java.
• The object browser is a DDL snapshot on disk, so browsing costs the server nothing. Tested against PostgreSQL 13 to 18.

A 14 MB download (85 MB for the Linux AppImage), 37 MB installed, the server ready about 40 ms after launch (M4 Pro MacBook).

Privacy

No account, no telemetry. Your connections and data stay on your machine. Passwords live in your project files or an encrypted vault, and never reach the interface. PlumeSQL goes online only for updates and release notes, the extension catalog and the video list, and YouTube when you press play. Signing in to GitHub, to comment on extensions, is optional.

Help

• Questions: Q&A in Discussions
• About an extension: its own thread under Extensions, where the comments from its page in the app also go
• Bugs: Issues, or Report a Bug in the app
• Security: SECURITY.md

License

Everything in this repository (extensions, specifications) is MIT. The PlumeSQL app is free to use and closed source; it shows its terms on first run.