Dexo

A terminal database workbench with guardrails for AI agents.

brew install kingdaswinx/tap/dexo   # or any install below
dexo --demo                         # a sample shop, nothing to connect to

Dexo is a keyboard-driven workbench for PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB and SQLite, with DuckDB as a plugin: a terminal UI, a command line and an MCP server for AI agents. A DELETE without WHERE on production waits for you to type the connection's name, a read-only connection is read-only on the server too, and an agent writes only with the access you give it, each write waiting for your approval. Everything stays on your machine.

Features

• Workbench: catalog tree, SQL editor with Vim mode and live diagnostics, results grid and a command palette.
• Data: insert and delete rows in the grid with a review before anything is written, filter and sort, import, export, backup and restore.
• Schema: object forms with a DDL preview, and schema diff between databases, snapshots and files.
• Query plans: EXPLAIN drawn as a tree; on Postgres with hypopg, try an index before building it.
• Connections: TLS, SSH tunnels, proxies, password managers, and databases found in Docker.
• AI agents: an MCP server with read-only profiles, allowlists, timed write access per connection and approval for each write.
• Command line: query, export, import, explain and diff from scripts, with the same guardrails.
• Local-first: no telemetry; passwords stay in the operating system's keychain or your password manager.

Screenshots

_{Browse a table: the grid pages on demand.}

_{Enter on a row shows every field.}

_{Ctrl+P reaches every command.}

_{a on a tree node lists what it can do.}

_{TLS, SSH and proxies under advanced options.}

_{F1 lists every key.}

_{The light theme, with the violet accent.}

_{Theme, accent, keymap and more, applied at once.}

Installation

Homebrew (macOS, Linux)

brew install kingdaswinx/tap/dexo

Scoop (Windows)

scoop bucket add dexo https://github.com/KingDasWinx/scoop-bucket
scoop install dexo

Windows installer or portable — from the latest release, dexo-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.msi installs Dexo under Program Files and adds it to PATH; dexo-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.exe runs as is, without installing. Both are unsigned, so Windows SmartScreen may ask for confirmation.

Installer scripts

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/kingdaswinx/Dexo/releases/latest/download/dexo-installer.sh | sh

irm https://github.com/kingdaswinx/Dexo/releases/latest/download/dexo-installer.ps1 | iex

Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora — download the .deb or .rpm from the latest release (requires glibc 2.35 or later):

sudo apt install ./dexo_*_amd64.deb
sudo dnf install ./dexo-*.x86_64.rpm

Arch Linux — the community-maintained dexo-bin package in the AUR:

yay -S dexo-bin    # or paru -S dexo-bin

From source (Rust 1.93 or later)

cargo install --locked --git https://github.com/kingdaswinx/Dexo dexo

Plugins

DuckDB and extra themes are plugins: open Plugins with Ctrl+G p, or run dexo plugin install duckdb. Plugins come from an index signed by the maintainer, and every download is checked against it. See Plugins.

Every release also ships archives for each platform, SHA-256 checksums, and a CycloneDX SBOM. See the install guide for details.

Getting started

dexo                                         # start the workbench
dexo postgres://user@localhost:5432/shop     # open a database from its URL, without saving it
dexo connections add --name local --driver postgres --host 127.0.0.1 --username postgres --database postgres
dexo query --connection local --sql "select version()"

Key	Action
Ctrl+P	Command palette
Ctrl+Enter or Ctrl+J	Run the statement under the cursor (Ctrl+J wherever the terminal sends Ctrl+Enter as Enter, as tmux does)
F1	Every key, for the keymap in use (Default, Vim or Emacs)
Ctrl+Q	Quit

AI agents

dexo mcp profile create --name assistant
dexo mcp profile set --name assistant --connection local --query-mode raw-read
dexo mcp allow --profile assistant --selector 'postgres.public.*'
dexo mcp profile enable --name assistant --confirm
dexo mcp setup --client claude-code --profile assistant   # or codex, cursor, claude-desktop, gemini-cli, windsurf, vscode

The agent reads only what the profile allows. To let it write, give it write access to a connection for a while (w on Agents' Profiles, or dexo mcp grant create); each write then waits for your approval on the Agents screen (Ctrl+G a), unless you let inserts, say, run without asking. See the MCP guide.

Compatibility

Database	Tested versions
PostgreSQL	14.18, 16.9, 17.5
MySQL	8.0.42, 8.4.5, 9.3.0
MariaDB	10.11, 11.4
SQLite	3.53.2, built in
DuckDB	1.5.6, as a plugin (dexo plugin install duckdb)

Linux, macOS and Windows.

Privacy

No telemetry. Passwords live in the operating system's keychain or come from your password manager, never from Dexo's files. Once a day Dexo asks GitHub for the latest release, to tell you about updates; turn it off under Settings → Updates or with DEXO_NO_UPDATE_CHECK=1. Report vulnerabilities as described in SECURITY.md.

Documentation

User guide · Changelog · Contributing · Bug report form

License

MIT or Apache 2.0, at your option.