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Show HN: SnapQL – Desktop app to query Postgres with AI

76 nicktikhonov 45 6/20/2025, 11:08:18 AM github.com ↗

SnapQL is an open-source desktop app (built with Electron) that lets you query your Postgres database using natural language. It’s schema-aware, so you don’t need to copy-paste your schema or write complex SQL by hand.

Everything runs locally — your OpenAI API key, your data, and your queries — so it's secure and private. Just connect your DB, describe what you want, and SnapQL writes and runs the SQL for you.

Comments (45)

iJohnDoe · 3m ago

Which MCP is the recommended or “official” for SQLite and PostgreSQl for use with Cursor?

anshumankmr · 5h ago

Would love to contribute. I have made a fork, will try and raise a PR if contributions are welcome.

Question, how are you testing this? Like doing it on dummy data is a bit too easy. These models, even 4o, falter when it comes to something really specific to a domain (like I work with supply chain data and other column names specific to the work that I do, that only makes sense to me and my team, but wouldn't make any sense to an LLM unless it somehow knows what those columns are)

nicktikhonov · 5h ago

I'm using my own production databases at the moment. But it might be quite nice to be able to generate complex databases with dummy data in order to test the prompts at the higher levels of complexity!

And thank you for offering to contribute. I'll be very active on GitHub!

jasonthorsness · 7h ago

Looks useful! And the system prompt didn't require too much finessing. I wonder how it would work with some later models than gpt-4o as in my own dabbling around gpt-4o wasn't quite there yet and the latest models are getting really good.

For analytical purposes, this text-to-SQL is the future; it's already huge with Snowflake (https://www.snowflake.com/en/engineering-blog/cortex-analyst...).

nicktikhonov · 6h ago

Appreciate the input! I'd love to be able to support more models. That's one of the issues in the repo right now. And I'd be more than happy to welcome contributions to add this and other features

gabrielruttner · 5h ago

This is nice -- we're heavy users of postgresql and haven't found the right tool here yet.

I could see this being incredible if it had a set of performance related queries or ran explain analyze and offered some interpreted results.

Can this be run fully locally with a local llm?

stephancill · 5h ago

just opened a PR for local llm support https://github.com/NickTikhonov/snap-ql/pull/11

nicktikhonov · 5h ago

Merged! Thanks Stephan

nicktikhonov · 5h ago

Thank you for the feedback. Please feel free to raise some issues on the repo and we can jam this out there

jpb0104 · 6h ago

I like this a lot. I am looking forward to having something similar built into Metabase.

sirjaz · 6h ago

Looks like a good idea. Any reason you didn't use React native?

nicktikhonov · 6h ago

Not really - I had some previous experience with electron and wanted to finish the core feature set in a few hours, so just went with what I already know.

s1mplicissimus · 6h ago

Are there plans to support other LLM sources, in particular ollama?

nicktikhonov · 6h ago

Yes! https://github.com/NickTikhonov/snap-ql/issues/1

s1mplicissimus · 5h ago

awesome, looking forward to try it with a self hosted model

thedudeabides5 · 2h ago

data engineering about to be eaten by llms

kebsup · 7h ago

I was looking for something like this that supports graphs.

nicktikhonov · 7h ago

Graph generation is next on the list.

JofArnold · 5h ago

Neo4j?

throwmeaway9876 · 5h ago

Great tool!

Pardon my technical ignorance, but what exactly is OpenAI's API being used for in this?

nicktikhonov · 5h ago

OpenAI LLM is used to generate SQL based on a combination of a user prompt and the database schema.

No comments yet

zicon35 · 10h ago

congrats on the launch! This looks very interesting

revskill · 6h ago

What's the underlying model to enable this ?

nicktikhonov · 6h ago

Currently OpenAI 4o

revskill · 6h ago

So u already train all knowledgebase or fine tune? Would love to know how can u evaluate correctness.

ramoz · 4h ago

they don't it's simple a zero-shot text to sql interface. the app development started 2days ago.

https://github.com/NickTikhonov/snap-ql/blob/main/src/main/l...

GarrickDrgn · 7h ago

Am I misunderstanding something? How is this "Everything runs locally" if it's talking to OpenAI's APIs?

whilenot-dev · 6h ago

This app is using OpenAI via the ai package[0][1], so "Everything runs locally" is definitely misleading.

[0]: https://github.com/NickTikhonov/snap-ql/blob/409e937fa330deb...

[1]: https://github.com/vercel/ai

piskov · 6h ago

I guess he means there is no proxy between you and openai. API key won’t leak, etc.

nicktikhonov · 6h ago

What I meant was that it isn't a web app and I don't store your connection strings or query results. I'll make this more clear

kokanee · 5h ago

It is a web app, though. You just aren't running the server, OpenAI is. And you're packaging the front end in electron instead of chrome to make it feel as if it all runs locally, even though it doesn't.

Side note: I don't see a license anywhere, so technically it isn't open source.

omega3 · 6h ago

You might not but openai does.

nicktikhonov · 6h ago

That makes no sense. OpenAI doesn't know the secret database connection string or any query results. Perhaps you should have read the code before making baseless claims.

nessbot · 5h ago

But it knows what you're querying, which depending on what you're doing may also give away a good bit about whats in the DB.

doctorpangloss · 6h ago

API gateways could accept public keys instead of generating bearer tokens. Then the private key could reside in an HSM, and apps like this could give HSMs requests to sign. IMO even though this could be done in an afternoon, everyone - Apple and Google, the CDN / WAF provider, the service provider - is too addicted to the telemetry.

esafak · 7h ago

If you can do this, can't you create a read-only user and use it with a database MCP like https://github.com/executeautomation/mcp-database-server ? Am I missing something?

nicktikhonov · 7h ago

You can set up an MCP and use it in your existing AI app, but is afaiu the first open source standalone app that gives you a familiar interface to other SQL workspace tools. I built it to be a familiar but much more powerful experience for both technical and nontechnical people.

esafak · 7h ago

There are competitors with a GUI too, such as https://www.sqlchat.ai/ and https://www.jetbrains.com/datagrip/features/ai/

I wish you luck in refining your differentiation.

BenderV · 6h ago

Selfless plug, our own tool => https://www.myriade.ai

> I wish you luck in refining your differentiation. Can't agree more with you. It's about distribution (which Snowflake/Databricks/... have) or differentiation.

Still, chatting with your data is already working and useful for lots.

nicktikhonov · 6h ago

The first doesn't have good UX and the second isn't open source. SnapQL is both :) But I'll find new ways to differentiate for sure, it's part of the fun of building.

un1970ix · 5h ago

Your project is source-available, not open-source. Consider adding a license.

ramoz · 4h ago

https://dbeaver.com/docs/dbeaver/AI-Smart-Assistance/

jaimin888patel · 10h ago

awesome work nick, literally been asking for a vibe coding SQL interface for months

nicktikhonov · 6h ago

thanks Jaimin. happy you finally found what you were looking for :D

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Show HN: SnapQL – Desktop app to query Postgres with AI

Comments (45)