Ardoise DB
Database client
All your databases. One slate.
Ardoise DB is a desktop database client: a grid as quick as a spreadsheet, an SQL editor that helps, guardrails for production and an assistant that knows your schema. PostgreSQL first, along with MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite, DuckDB, ClickHouse, Redis and SQL Server.
Engines
- PostgreSQL
- MySQL
- MariaDB
- SQLite
- DuckDB
- ClickHouse
- Redis
- SQL Server
And hosted PostgreSQL: Supabase, Neon, Amazon RDS…
The grid
Like a spreadsheet, only safer.
Tens of thousands of rows
The grid scrolls smoothly, sorts, filters (AND / OR) and keeps TablePlus’s shortcuts: ⌘C, ⌘V, ⌘D, ⌫, Space.
Edit, review, commit
Your changes wait, with a preview of the SQL, then go together in a single transaction. Each must hit exactly one row, or nothing is written.
Charts and dashboard
A result becomes a chart in one click; the queries you pin make up a dashboard.
The SQL editor
It knows your tables.
Completion, underlined errors
Tables, columns and keywords suggested as you type; an error is underlined right where it is.
Saved queries, history
Find what you ran yesterday, keep what you use often.
Query plans
The plan as a readable tree, and “Why is it slow?” when the assistant is on.
Guardrails
Production gets a padlock.
A padlock per connection
Confirm writes, Touch ID to write, or read-only: the app’s core enforces it, not just the interface.
Environment tags
Production, staging, local: the colour shows everywhere, and a production connection is protected by default.
Safe connections
Verified TLS, SSH tunnels, passwords in the keychain. Supabase, Neon or Amazon RDS: paste the address and Ardoise fills in the form.
And the rest
The everyday tools.
Import, export, backups
CSV, JSON and SQL dumps; backup and restore with pg_dump and pg_restore, shipped with the app.
Diagram and structure
The schema as a diagram; tables, views, functions and schemas created from the sidebar.
Server processes
Who blocks whom, and the means to cancel a query or end a session.
Coming from TablePlus
Import your connections, passwords and queries; your shortcuts are already there.
Several windows
One database per window, or all of them in the rail: the way you work.
Dictation
Dictate your question to the assistant: Apple’s recogniser, Whisper offline or the system’s dictation, and “Automatic” picks for you.
The assistant
An assistant that knows your schema.
More than “SQL from a sentence”: the assistant sees the schema, the keys, the indexes, and the query and error in front of you. It writes, fixes and explains; every line goes through you before it counts.
⌘K in the editor
Write or change a query from an instruction; the answer arrives as a diff to accept or reject.
Fix, explain
An error? A fix, proposed. A slow plan? The missing index.
Agent mode
It reads your data without changing anything and shows its queries; a change becomes a pending edit for you to commit.
Health check
Unused or duplicate indexes, foreign keys without an index, bloated tables, blocking sessions, explained plainly.
Docs, test data
Schema comments proposed, test rows as pending edits.
You decide what leaves
An AI access level per connection: nothing, the schema only (production’s default) or the data; sensitive columns are masked.
Models you can use
- Claude, with your API key
- Ollama and LM Studio, on your computer
- Apple’s on-device model
- Claude Code, with your plan (experimental)
MCP server
Open to agents.
Ardoise DB is also an MCP server. Claude Code and other agents explore your databases without ever seeing a password, and only read; their changes become proposals you commit from the grid. An access level per connection, and one switch to pause them all.
Privacy
What it sends, and to whom
Everything that leaves the app, and nothing else.
- Your databases and SSH servers
- Your queries, directly, with no middleman
- When you connect
- Anthropic (Claude API)
- Your message, and what the connection’s AI access allows (schema, results)
- If you turn the assistant on with Claude and your key
- Your computer only
- Ollama, LM Studio and Apple’s model answer without anything leaving
- With a local model
- Claude Code
- The claude installed on your machine, with its own sign-in
- If you turn this experimental engine on
- Hugging Face
- The download of a Whisper model; nothing about you or your databases
- On your click, once
- Apple
- The dictated audio, with the “online” variant of Apple’s recogniser
- Only if you choose it
- No one else
- No telemetry, no account, no background updates
- Never
Where it stands
In daily use
Ardoise DB is used every day by its author. Downloads will come with signed and notarized builds.
Systems
macOS · Windows · Linux
macOS first; Windows and Linux from the same code.
The family
