pgBrain

Pro PostgreSQL for macOS. Native. Mac-fast. No Electron. No subscriptions. No telemetry.

If JetBrains DataGrip and macOS had a kid that actually feels like a Mac app, you'd get pgBrain.

Why

JetBrains tools are powerful but feel like a Java app glued to your menu bar. The Postgres GUIs that do feel Mac-native are either toy projects or stuck circa 2017. pgBrain is the missing middle — DataGrip-density workflows in a SwiftUI/AppKit shell that respects your trackpad, your dark mode, and your battery.

A closer look

Notebook scratchpad — one server session, a live transaction, psql-exact types, inline chart	Go to Table (⌘O) — fuzzy pub.ord, recents first
Staged edits → Preview SQL → Apply in one transaction	PostGIS columns on a real map

More in docs/screenshots (ERD, EXPLAIN plans, structure, connection editor, activity), in light and dark.

What's in the box

Windows, tabs & navigation

• 🪟 One window per database. Switch databases from the title bar; each opens in its own window. Multi-tab workspaces with preview tabs (single-click), pinned tabs, Close Others / to the Right, overflow menu, drag-reorder, rename + colour tags.
• 🗂️ Schema sidebar that stays put. Remembers what you expanded, focuses on the schemas you pick, hides extension clutter, nests partitions, and has Pinned + Recent tables on top. Fuzzy filter (pub.us → public.users) that holds up on 10k+ tables.
• 🧭 Go anywhere fast. ⌘O Go to Table (recents first), ⌘K for everything, ⌘[ / ⌘] back and forward (including FK jumps), and a database ▸ schema ▸ table breadcrumb with sibling menus.
• 🧭 Guided first-run tour. A one-minute spotlight tour of the window and its shortcuts the first time you connect; Help ▸ Show Tour replays it.
• ⌨️ IDE keyboard model. ⌘T new scratchpad in the selected schema, ⌘1–9 tab jump, ⌃1–9 window jump, ⌘B sidebar, ⌘R reload, ⌘F find, Return/Space in the tree — the muscle memory you already have.
• 💾 Saved workspaces + state restoration. Snapshot a tab set, or just quit and relaunch to find every window and tab where you left it.

Reading & editing data

• 📋 Spreadsheet-grade grid. Cell and range selection, ⌘C / ⌘V as TSV, Tab/Return navigation, type to edit, ⌫ for NULL, ⌘Z / ⌘⇧Z. Every change is staged: preview the exact SQL, Apply (⌘S) in one transaction, and pgBrain refuses to overwrite a row someone else changed. Tables without a primary key are editable too.
• 📇 Row form view. Flip any grid to a single-row vertical form with ←/→ stepping — edits share the grid's dirty set.
• 🔎 Filter, sort, paginate. WHERE/ORDER BY strip with autocomplete, sortable headers, keyset-friendly paging, filter-to-cell, distinct-values popover per column, FK ⌘-click navigation.
• 📊 Pivot & chart. Pivot any result (row/col/value + agg) or chart it (bar/line/point) without leaving the result block.
• 🪄 Generate test data. Per-column strategies → one INSERT … SELECT generate_series with a live SQL preview.
• 🧮 Column profiler. Right-click any column → rows / nulls (with a populated bar) / distinct / min·max·avg, scoped to your active filter.
• 🗑️ Delete rows — staged, not instant. Right-click one or a multi-selection → rows get a red wash and commit on Apply, in the same transaction as your edits and inserts (or Discard to undo). Paging, sorting or closing the tab asks before dropping anything.
• 📑 Copy as… Markdown, JSON, TSV (paste into spreadsheets), or CSV — from any result block or the table grid.

The notebook scratchpad

• 📝 Inline results. SQL and result widgets in one flowing document. Cmd+⏎ runs the statement under your caret; the result inlines right after it. Every type renders exactly as psql prints it.
• 🔗 A real session per scratchpad. SET, temp tables and BEGIN persist between runs; a transaction indicator with Commit / Roll Back and an Auto / Manual commit switch.
• 🐘 psql slash commands. \dt, \d table, \df, \du, \l, \dn, \dx … translated to catalog queries inline.
• 🔁 Run-as-transaction. Wrap a multi-statement run in BEGIN/COMMIT — any error rolls the whole batch back.
• ✨ Editor niceties. Syntax highlighting, schema-aware autocomplete + hover, bracket/quote auto-pairing, auto-indent, Format SQL, EXPLAIN/EXPLAIN ANALYZE plan viewer, find/replace, snippets with $cursor$ placeholders, open/save .sql.
• 📜 Query history + result diff. Every statement logged with timing; diff the last two results side-by-side.

DBA & schema management

• 🏗️ Structure pane. Columns, constraints, indexes, triggers (enable/disable/drop), partitions, comments editor — plus a Copy-ready CREATE script.
• 🎛️ Table Designer. One visual editor for creating and restructuring tables — add/rename/retype/drop columns, NOT NULL, primary key, defaults, comments — with a live ALTER TABLE diff that applies atomically in one transaction. ("Edit structure…" on a table, or ⌘K.)
• 🧩 Function Designer + runner. One editor to create and restructure functions/procedures — schema · name · args · returns · language · volatility · strict · security, over a body editor with a live CREATE OR REPLACE preview; signature changes DROP + recreate in one transaction, and functions with attributes the form can't model fall back to full-DDL editing so nothing is lost. Right-click → Run (or Call) any routine to fill its parameters and execute it inline.
• ✏️ Edit objects. View/matview editor, column ALTER (rename/type/drop/add), schema + database CRUD, sequence inspector (setval/nextval/restart).
• 🧹 Maintenance. VACUUM / ANALYZE / REINDEX / TRUNCATE / REFRESH MATERIALIZED VIEW from the sidebar, tracked in the ops popover.
• 🗺️ ERD diagram. Draggable table boxes, FK lines, double-click to open.
• 🔗 Find usages. Locate a table across every function body, view definition, and trigger.
• 🔐 Roles & grants. Browse pg_roles, view per-table grants, GRANT/REVOKE editor.
• 📈 Live activity panels. Sessions, locks, index usage, pg_stat_statements, size dashboard, replication (pubs/subs/slots), foreign tables/FDW.
• 📡 LISTEN/NOTIFY console. Subscribe to a channel, watch payloads stream in, send NOTIFYs back.

Safety, transport & ops

• 🛑 Production guardrails. Mark a connection PROD → red chrome everywhere; unscoped DELETE/UPDATE/TRUNCATE/DDL prompts before it runs.
• 🧷 Read-only connections & timeouts. Per-connection read-only mode, statement and idle-in-transaction timeouts, applied to every session.
• 🔒 SSH tunnels & TLS. Local-forward via the system ssh (agent or key file), supervised and restarted if it drops; custom root CA and client certificates; verify-full works through tunnels.
• 🔄 Survives sleep. Connections notice a dead link after sleep or a network change and reconnect on their own.
• 📥 Bring your connections. Paste a postgres:// URL, import ~/.pg_service.conf, fill passwords from ~/.pgpass.
• ⏯️ Real cancellation. Stop sends the protocol's own cancel request for exactly your statement — the same thing psql does on ^C.
• ↔️ Cross-DB copy. Stream a table between connections via SELECT → COPY FROM STDIN. Flat memory regardless of row count.
• 📤📥 Streaming export/import. CSV/JSON/SQL export at any size; CSV/JSON import with header→column mapping, encoding and delimiter options; pg_dump / pg_restore that pick the right PostgreSQL version (up to 18) automatically.
• 🔔 Long-query notifications. Background queries over 30s ping you when they finish.
• ⚙️ Sparkle auto-update. Signed + notarized; pgBrain checks for new versions daily and on launch, and asks before installing.

Download

→ Latest release (DMG)

1. Open the DMG, drag pgBrain onto Applications.
2. Launch pgBrain.
3. Add your first connection on the Welcome window.

Signed with our Developer ID and notarized by Apple. Auto-updates via Sparkle so you only download once.

Requires

• macOS 15 Sequoia or newer
• Apple Silicon Mac (arm64)

Support the work

pgBrain is built by Lukáš Novotný at Souris.CLOUD — one human, no VC. If pgBrain saves you an hour, buy me a coffee. ☕

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/souriscloud/pgbrain.git
cd pgbrain
./scripts/run.sh                # debug build + bundle + launch
./scripts/bundle.sh release     # release build → build/pgBrain.app
swift test                      # needs a local Postgres db "pgbrain_demo", or PGBRAIN_TEST_DSN

Pure SwiftPM. No Xcode project — though you can open the package in Xcode if you want a graphical debugger. See CLAUDE.md for architecture and conventions, PLAN.md for what's in flight, and CHANGELOG.md for release history.

Releasing

See RELEASE.md. One command (./scripts/release.sh patch) does bump → bundle → codesign → notarize → DMG → sign update → push → publish.

License

AGPL-3.0. If you fork it, fork it loud.

Links

• 🌐 apps.souris.cloud/apps/pgbrain
• 🧑‍💻 github.com/souriscloud/pgbrain
• ☕ ko-fi.com/souriscloud
• 🐦 bio.souris.cloud