Show HN: Base, an SQLite database editor for macOS
306 __bb 93 8/25/2025, 2:17:38 PM menial.co.uk ↗
I recently released v3 of Base, my SQLite editor for macOS.
The goal of this app is to provide a comfortable native GUI for SQLite, without it turning into a massive IDE-style app.
The coolest features are
- That it can handle full altering of tables, which is quite finicky to do manually with SQLite.
- It has a more detailed display of column constraints than most editors. Each constraint is shown as an icon if active, with full details available on clicking the icon.
This update also adds support for attaching databases, which is a bit fiddly with macOS sandboxing.
I'd love to hear any feedback or answer any questions.
Jetbrains products realize that these binary values are UUIDs and let me edit them easily.
Too bad this is mac only. I mean, im a mac user (among other things) but i don't want to depend on platform specific tooling.
This is a bit of a shift, but the numbers aren't really stable yet so it's hard to tell if it'll stay there.
A binary blob of 7-bit-clean ASCII still fits within a binary blob.
I'm trying to understand who your target audience is? Normally, I think of SQLite as something that only a programmer would use. (And thus these kind of statements happen within an application.)
What kind of use cases are you handling where someone is manually creating / changing a schema?
> Import data from CSV and SQL dump files. Export your results to SQL, delimited text, JSON, and Excel formats.
IE, who's using SQLite in this way, and what are they using it for?
> Create and modify tables with ease using Base's visual table editor. No need to write complex CREATE or ALTER statements.
As to importing/exporting data (csv, etc), You can't exactly run queries against a CSV generally (I mean you can with JET/ODBC, but still)... it's a chore.
To another point, I often feel that sqlite is a great backup format for data, it's portable, you can query directly, etc. I kind of wished that Azure Data Studio (now discontinued) had directly supported loading CSV/TXT etc into an in-memory or temp db for queries and portability similar to mentioned between various data sources (sqlite, mssql, pgsql, etc).
I have regularly used sqlitebrowser. You can even get create table statements corresponding to tables you have drafted with it, and you can copy-paste these statements in your code. Or build and test a sql statement incrementally, and paste it in your code when you are happy.
Or even to plain browse data, explore database from other tools, etc. There are a lot of occasions where such a tool can be convenient.
I’ve got quite a few scientists using it for data analysis, a whole bunch of people importing sales data for querying.
A good number of folks never write any SQL and just use the GUI to sort/filter data.
I’ve also heard from people who use Base to design a schema and then export the SQL into their codebase.
EDIT: I should add that Base does nothing that that the command line tool can't. But it does offer more convenience, particularly for those who might be less comfortable writing SQL.
Additionally, while I know my way around and even enjoy the command-line, on occasion I bump into some app’s SQLite database that I want to explore. I can see myself using a GUI for those instances to help me find the data I’m looking for faster.
I've been using TablePlus a lot, but there are some SQLite-specific features I'd really like to have in an app:
- Foreign keys enabled by default, so I don't have to remember to enable that in every session.
- Support for loading extensions automatically. I'm using sqlite-vec for example. Right now, browsing virtual tables for that just doesn't show that much, and executing a query just results in "no such module: vec0"
I'll keep an eye on the project. :-)
Auto-enabling foreign keys absolutely should be an option. I'll make a note of it.
I don't know about auto-loading extensions though. Will have a look. That might not mix well with the App Store rules and I'm reluctant to let the direct/app store versions drift apart in terms of features.
- It fits with the system better and behaves more like other macOS apps
- I believe Base has better create/alter table support
However Base doesn’t (currently) have support for SQLCipher.
As much as visually fitting in is important, behavior is perhaps bigger. Anybody who’s working on the Mac port of a cross platform toolkit would do well to replicate those little bits.
People who care about their tools. If I have to stare at it all day, being pleasant on the eyes is a feature. If every time I grab my tool I think “urk, this is so ugly”, it affects my flow.
I don't think Base is at all and only supports macOS
Since Tahoe is likely to be released in the next month or so, I judged it better to start with Sequoia and keep it supported rather than start with Sonoma and risk needing to drop it shortly after launch.
Of course, there’s a balance to be struck to support users, but macOS update uptake is usually pretty fast.
https://sidequery.dev
Is that another way of saying you don't want to make MS Access?
I still use Access quite a bit and I think it's pretty great. It's too bad that nothing like that exists for modern databases.
It's unlikely that I'll add a form builder or report generator to the app. I don't want it to grow until it can send email.
I like these kinds of things though. Minimal purpose built tools.
The “thick” tool will always be more efficient than a browser-based tool. It will always be more native and integrate with the OS better. It will perform better (though that may not always be visible).
Yes I am seriously asking. The web is the worst application platform ever created, despite being maybe the only true cross-platform platform.
> The web is the worst application platform ever created
That's an extreme position. Today no one is making native Windows apps because the web has defeated native apps on Windows.
the web has defeated native apps on windows because native apps on windows are dead all on their own. not because browser applications are better, because they aren't, but because Microsoft drove those applications into the ground with clear intent.
I don't think people realize this, but browsers are SLOW. Not just a little, A LOT. Native code will always be faster, will help extend battery life, and are far simpler to write, to understand, and to support. On top of that, there are entire classes of security vulnerabilities that simply don't apply if you aren't a browser application.
Browser applications ARE convenient, though. But we previously solved that on the desktop and people forgot about it, so now it apparently is IMPOSSIBLE to click a single link and have a running application locally, despite it being easily done in the recent past. That can never happen again, apparently.
I don't expect the HN crowd to understand this. I expect the HN crowd to NOT understand this, as getting your silly startup funded requires that you not understand this simple concept. There aren't any startups making desktop applications.
I do expect technical people to understand why browser applications are bad compared to equivalently-featured native applications. But it's a faux-pas to say so anyway, because it might impact how many people give you money in the future or how much they give. People gladly trade money in exchange for ignoring inconvenient problems all day long, and without a second thought, too. Somehow, I find that anathema, despite being in the position to accept such offers several times throughout my career.
I am really starting to come around to the idea that everyone that works at Meta, Google, or at any startup writing a web application knowing that it is easier to write despite all of the horrible tradeoffs has weak moral fiber. I think those people are sellouts. I think those people know that they are creating tools that die when the company dies, require a continuous internet connection despite knowing that a constant internet connection is not feasible for a large portion of people, and create software that uses far more energy than it should despite knowing that native code is far more efficient.
Being an engineer means you face the problems you have, and you do not make up problems in order to create a business opportunity. But people forget all about their scruples when money stares them in the face.
The desktop environments that we have are constructs, and as such they can be made better. They can be remade. There can be a good cross platform environment that is easy to develop for, is relatively efficient, performant, consistent, and which allows for offline use if we just want to create that. But the money is too good if you want to ignore that problem, I guess.
In my opinion, native macOS apps used to be awesome, but when Apple switched to flat UI they removed one of the chief attractions of native apps: better look & feel.
you are pointing at a web application that is slower than a native one, and which uses more energy than a native application.
My main complaint is that everyone is avoiding the real problems because they fear that they may be too large to tackle. so, they make up other problems and solve those because they guess that solving those problems is easier. So they write web applications and mobile applications which are larger than entire operating systems like Windows XP or Windows 2000.
https://menial.co.uk/base/buy/
Think like MySql Workbench but for multiple users, that would be incredible
For those who’ve not seen it already, there’s a good guide on when to use SQLite here: https://sqlite.org/whentouse.html
https://sidequery.dev
As an aside, feature bloat is a massive problem with macOS database tools.
I'd happily pay for something basic, native, and pretty like Sequel Ace†, but all of the other options are Swiss Army knives for power users who need to tweak every little thing. I just want to do some queries.
† I'd pay for Sequel Ace, too, if it didn't crash every time I close a tab.
EDIT: Very minor nitpick but noticed I changed my icon to dark, but not taking effect. Still using light icon.
I'd say the main benefit is that it's tailored only to SQLite's features.
You don't have to tweak a UI tailored for remote connections to work with local files. You don't need to have extra sections dedicated to user management or stored procedures which are inactive. I guess I'm saying that in this case less is more!
This makes for a much nicer app for mac users, even if it does cut your potential audience.
While the database stuff works on Linux and Windows, building UIs for the 3 platforms is very different, unless you use some cross platform wrapper layer. Which isn't the purpose of this one. You might want sqlitebrowser[1] if you're looking for something like that.
[1]:https://sqlitebrowser.org