databow

A command-line tool for querying databases via ADBC.

Highlights

• Multi-database support - Connect to any database with a compatible ADBC driver
• Interactive SQL shell - Execute SQL queries with command history and intuitive navigation
• Syntax highlighting - SQL queries highlighted for improved readability
• Formatted output - Results displayed in clean, aligned tables with dynamic column width
• File export - Export query results to JSON, JSON lines, CSV, Arrow IPC, or Parquet files
• Fast and lightweight - Built in Rust for high performance and minimal resource usage

Installation

Install with uv:

uv tool install databow

Install with Cargo:

cargo install databow

Install with Homebrew:

brew install columnar-tech/tap/databow

Getting Started

Install the DuckDB ADBC driver with dbc:

dbc install duckdb

Interactive Usage

Connect to DuckDB (in-memory):

databow --driver duckdb

Execute SQL queries:

> CREATE TABLE penguins AS FROM 'https://blobs.duckdb.org/data/penguins.csv';
┌───────┐
│ Count │
├───────┤
│ 344   │
└───────┘
> SELECT *
. FROM penguins
. LIMIT 5;
┌─────────┬───────────┬────────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────────┬─────────────┬────────┬──────┐
│ species │ island    │ bill_length_mm │ bill_depth_mm │ flipper_length_mm │ body_mass_g │ sex    │ year │
├─────────┼───────────┼────────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────────┼─────────────┼────────┼──────┤
│ Adelie  │ Torgersen │ 39.1           │ 18.7          │ 181               │ 3750        │ male   │ 2007 │
│ Adelie  │ Torgersen │ 39.5           │ 17.4          │ 186               │ 3800        │ female │ 2007 │
│ Adelie  │ Torgersen │ 40.3           │ 18            │ 195               │ 3250        │ female │ 2007 │
│ Adelie  │ Torgersen │ NA             │ NA            │ NA                │ NA          │ NA     │ 2007 │
│ Adelie  │ Torgersen │ 36.7           │ 19.3          │ 193               │ 3450        │ female │ 2007 │
└─────────┴───────────┴────────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────────┴─────────────┴────────┴──────┘

Non-interactive Usage

Execute a query directly and exit:

databow --driver duckdb --query "SELECT 42 AS the_answer"

Execute a query from stdin and exit:

echo "SELECT 42 AS the_answer" | databow --driver duckdb

Execute a query from a file and exit:

databow --driver duckdb --file select_example.sql

Execute a query and output the result to a file:

databow --driver duckdb --query "SELECT 42 AS the_answer" --output result.json
databow --driver duckdb --query "SELECT 42 AS the_answer" --output result.jsonl
databow --driver duckdb --query "SELECT 42 AS the_answer" --output result.csv
databow --driver duckdb --query "SELECT 42 AS the_answer" --output result.arrow
databow --driver duckdb --query "SELECT 42 AS the_answer" --output result.arrows
databow --driver duckdb --query "SELECT 42 AS the_answer" --output result.parquet

Reference

$ databow --help
Query databases via ADBC

Usage: databow [OPTIONS]

Options:
      --profile <profile>             Connection profile name or path
      --driver <driver>               Driver name (inferred from --uri scheme or profile if not specified)
      --uri <uri>                     Database uniform resource identifier
      --username <username>           Database user username
      --password <password>           Database user password
      --option <key=value>            Driver-specific database option
      --statement-option <key=value>  Driver-specific statement option
      --mode <mode>                   Table display style [default: utf8-compact]
      --query <query>                 Execute query and exit
      --file <file>                   Read and execute file and exit
      --output <file>                 Write result to file
  -h, --help                          Print help
  -V, --version                       Print version

License

This project is licensed under Apache-2.0.