Connections & Command Line (CLI)

TablePlus connects directly from your computer to your database server without making any interferences. It's end-to-end encrypted.

TablePlus never sends or stores any of your data to our server. Only you get access to your data, all database credentials are safely stored on your device's Keychain.

You need to prepare your database credentials including database driver, host, port, username, and password to get connected.

Create a connection

Using connection form

1. Launch TablePlus

2. From the welcome screen, click Create a new connection near the bottom

3. Choose the database driver and click Create

4. Configure your connection using standard properties such as like host, port, user credentials, etc.

Importing Connection URL

You can choose to import from URL, copy and paste your URL. You can find and copy the URL from your server configuration.

For example, the URL for PostgreSQL will have this structure: postgres://user:password@host:port/database

SSH Tunneling

Besides standard properties, you can configure over SSH by entering your credentials or importing an SHH private key. TablePlus has a built-in native SSH.

When you use SSH config, you need to tick on Use SSH key. TablePlus will use the ~/.ssh/config when you leave the private key empty.

If you have a problem connecting via SSH, enable the SSH debug log (navigate to the menu Help > Enable SSH Debug Log) then send the log to [e-mail]. It will help us troubleshoot faster.

Connection colors

When you create a new connection, you can assign a color to the connection. This will help differentiate the connections, production vs staging for example.

You can change the color by clicking on the connection status when you are connecting to it, or edit the connection form on the welcome screen.

Connection tags

You need to assign a tag to each connection during the creation. There are 5 current tags to use:

Tag	Description
	Local
	Testing
	Development
	Staging
	Production

Saved Connections

On startup

Normally, when you start TablePlus, it shows the welcome screen with a list of saved connections. After connecting to a database, the connection will be saved into your favorite list on the right side of the welcome screen. Double-click on a saved connection to open it.

Welcome screen with saved connections

Please be noted that TablePlus doesn't sync connection credentials to the cloud, but saves it securely in your computer's Keychain. See our Privacy Policy.

Edit a saved connection

To edit a saved connection in TablePlus, right-click on the connection and choose Edit...

Restore the last session

You can config TablePlus to reopen the workspaces you were working on from the last session. To do this:

• Go to TablePlus Preferences Setting (⌘ + ,)

• From General Preferences tab, tick on the option Reopen closed workspaces at startup at the Application section.

Command Line (CLI or deeplink)

Open connection from Terminal

You have to prepare the connection URL, you can get this by right-clicking on a connection in TablePlus and choose Copy as URL.

• All values must be URL encoded

• Supported parameteres:

statusColor: color of the status bar. Ex: statusColor=007F3D

env: enviroment tag name. Ex: env=production

name: name of the connection. Ex: name=test

windowMode: the window mode (tabbed or standalone window). Ex: windowMode=tabbed, windowMode=isolated

tLSMode: TLS mode. Ex: tLSMode=0

usePrivateKey: use SSH private key. Ex: usePrivateKey=true

safeModeLevel: Safe mode level. Ex: safeModeLevel=0

advancedSafeModeLevel: advanced safe mode level. Ex advancedSafeModeLevel=0

driverVersion: the version of driver. Ex: driverVersion=0

lazyload: enable lazy load items in all schema. Ex: lazyload=true

schema: schema name. Ex: schema=public

table or view: item name. Ex: table=comments

operation (or operator): the operation for the filter. Ex: operation=Contains

column: the column name for the filter: Ex: column=id

value: the value of the column for the filter. Ex value=Love

condition (or raw or query): if you want to filte with multiple columns or with raw query. Ex: condition=id%3D29%20OR%20id%20%3D%2028 Again all values must be URL encoded

Examples:

From the Terminal, run: open -a TablePlus "url" and hit return. open -a TablePlus "postgresql://postgres@127.0.0.1/tools"

Open connection from Terminal with a query or filter (row level) :

• With operation

open -a TablePlus "postgresql://postgres@127.0.0.1/tool?schema=public&name=comments&column=content&operation=contains&value=test"

• With raw query

open -a TablePlus "postgresql://postgres@127.0.0.1/tool?schema=public&name=comments&raw=id%3D29%20OR%20id%20%3D%2028"

Connection Group

You can organize database connections into groups. For example, Project A, Project B, or Production Group, Staging group, etc.

Create a new group

• From the welcome screen, right-click and choose New group...

• Set the group name and icon and save it.

To add a connection to a connection group, drag and drop it into the group.

To remove a connection from the group, drag the connection out of the group.

Edit & delete group

• To edit the connection group: Right click on the group and choose Edit...

• To delete the connection group: Right click on the group and choose Delete

Export & Import Connections

In TablePlus, you can quickly export and import one or multiple connections using a TablePlus connection file. This can be incredibly helpful when you need to quickly share the connections between multiple devices.

Export connection

You can export group name, image, and connection's information into a local file:

• Right-click on the group and choose Export Connections

  • Choose Export all... to export all saved connections, or

  • Choose Export this group... to export all connections within the selected connection group, or

  • Choose Export this connections... to export one selected connection only.

• Choose to include/exclude database passwords and server passwords in the export file.

• Set a password for the export file and hit Export.

TablePlus will export the connection information into a dump file with .tableplusconnection extension.

Import connection

You can import group name, image, and connection's information from a local file:

• Right-click on the welcome screen, choose Import Connections...

• Choose the connection file, enter the password (if required)

• Hit Import

If you need to sync connections between devices, it's not supported yet but we will add syncing via the private cloud (iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive) soon.

For now, you can export connections from one device, send the connection file to the other device, and import connections.

Switch Connection

When connected to a database, to show the list of connections and make a switch, click on the Connections button on the top left panel, or use the shortcut key ⌘ + ⇧ + K.

Keep connection alive

By default, TablePlus will ping the servers every 30 seconds to keep the connection active and avoid being disconnected. If you want to turn this off:

• In the Settings/Preferences dialog (⌘ + ,), go to General tab

• Untick the Keep connection alive to disable it.