sqlens

A terminal UI for exploring SQLite databases.

uv install
uv run sqlens path/to/database.sqlite

sqlens opens databases in read-only mode.

Interface

The screen is split into two panes:

• Left — table/view list. Navigate with ↑/↓, press Enter to focus the data table.
• Right — schema, data table, row detail, and query bar.

Data table hotkeys

Key	Action
s / S	Sort focused column ASC / DESC (press again to clear)
f	LIKE filter on focused column (%text%)
C	Reset all filters and sort
c	Copy focused cell value to clipboard
1–9, 0	Toggle visibility of columns 1–10
+	Add a custom SQL SELECT expression as an extra column
a–z	Remove custom expression (when expressions exist)
Enter	Open full cell detail view
PgDn / PgUp	Next / previous page (50 rows per page)
Esc / Backspace	Return focus to table list
Ctrl+Q / Ctrl+C	Quit

Column indicators

• ● — visible column
• ○ — hidden column
• ⊘ — active LIKE filter on this column
• ▲ / ▼ — current sort column and direction

Cell detail view

Press Enter on any cell to open a full-screen detail view. JSON values are automatically detected and rendered with syntax highlighting.

Key	Action
Ctrl+← / Ctrl+→	Previous / next column (same row)
Ctrl+↑ / Ctrl+↓	Previous / next row (same column)
c	Copy value to clipboard
Esc / Backspace	Back to table

LIKE filter

Press f on a focused cell to open a filter input for that column. Entering text filters rows where column LIKE '%text%'. Submit empty to clear the filter for that column. Active filters are AND-ed together.

Custom expressions

Press + to add a SQL SELECT expression as an extra column (e.g. UPPER(name) AS upper_name, json_extract(data, '$.id') AS id). Press the assigned letter key (a, b, …) to remove it.

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• Textual 8.2.7+