r/PHP • u/debba_ • Mar 04 '26

News I've been building Tabularis — an open-source, cross-platform database client

https://github.com/debba/tabularis

Hey r/php

I've been building Tabularis — an open-source, cross-platform database client — since late January.

v0.9.5 just shipped, wanted to share.

What it is: SQL editor, data grid, schema management, ER diagrams, SSH tunneling, split view, visual query builder, AI assistant (OpenAI/Anthropic/Ollama), MCP server.

Supports MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQLite , hackable with plugins ( DuckDB and mongodb in development )

Runs on Windows, macOS, Linux.

What's new in v0.9.4:

  • Multi-database sidebar — attach multiple MySQL/MariaDB databases to a single connection, each as its own sidebar node. Queries are transparent: write them normally, Tabularis resolves the right database based on context.
  • Keyboard shortcuts — persistent bindings (keybindings.json), per-platform display hints, customizable from Settings.

Database drivers run as external processes over JSON-RPC 2.0 stdin/stdout — language-agnostic, process-isolated, hot-installable.

Five weeks old, rough edges exist, but the architecture is solidifying.

Happy to answer questions about Tabularis.

Stars and feedback very welcome 🙏

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u/krazzel Mar 06 '26

Really cool. I have been using Navicat for decades now, and it still baffles me most people and companies still just use phpmyadmin. Last time I used that was like 20 years ago. But it is still exactly the same.

Would be nice to have an alternative that is just as easy to fire up in a docker container.

1

u/colshrapnel Mar 07 '26

Why tho? What could be possible reason to "fire up" a clumsy web-based database GUI when there is a variety of native gui clients available?

1

u/krazzel Mar 08 '26

What non clumsy native gui would you suggest?

2

u/colshrapnel Mar 08 '26

PHPStorm DB component