Why I built a SQLite workbench in bash

Allen McCabe — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 20:03:59 +0000

You SSH into a server. The SQLite database is right there — you can see it in the filesystem.
Every GUI tool you own stops working. TablePlus, DB Browser, Beekeeper — all of them need a local connection. sqlite3 is available, but it's raw SQL with no browsing. litecli is read-biased and still needs installing.
You need to look at some rows, update a field, check an index. You end up writing SELECT statements into a CLI, copying output into a notes file, writing UPDATE statements by hand.
There's a better way.

The build

ShellQL is built on shellframe — a TUI framework I wrote in bash. shellframe handles screen management, keyboard routing, dirty-region rendering, and component lifecycle. Writing a new application on top of it is closer to writing a React app than writing a bash script.

The surprising parts:

Mouse support in bash is real, and it's not that hard once you understand xterm escape sequences
SQLite's .schema output is parseable enough to build a schema browser without any external tools
Tab management (multiple tables open simultaneously) required rethinking shellframe's focus model

The SSH use case

This is the thing that makes ShellQL different from every other SQLite tool.

If the machine has bash and sqlite3, ShellQL runs. That means:

Production servers (read and write, with care)
Docker containers
CI environments for debugging test databases
Remote dev boxes

No GUI install. No port forwarding. No pulling the file to your laptop and pushing it back.

SSH in, run shql /var/app/production.db, browse your data.

Full CRUD

Most TUI database tools are read-only. ShellQL isn't.

The record editor is a schema-aware form overlay. It shows column types and NOT NULL constraints. Tab through fields, edit values, press Enter to submit. Insert new rows the same way.

Table creation uses a SQL query tab preloaded with a CREATE TABLE template — you get full DDL control without a rigid GUI wizard.

Mouse support

This one surprised people in early demos. Most bash tools are keyboard-only by design. ShellQL supports both.

Keyboard navigation is fast once you learn it — the keybindings are shown at the bottom of every screen. Mouse works for everything else: clicking into tables, scrolling rows, selecting records.

This matters for adoption. Not everyone who SSHes into a server is a power user.

Install and try it

brew install fissible/tap/shellql
shql my.db