dadbod-vertica.nvim

Vertica adapter for vim-dadbod, wired through the official vsql client.

Lets you connect to Vertica with the same URL-driven workflow you already use for PostgreSQL/MySQL in dadbod and dadbod-ui — schema browsing, query buffers, result splits, completion.

Requirements

• vim-dadbod
• vsql client on $PATH (see vsql install)
• Neovim 0.7+ (works on Vim too — Lua entry is optional)

Install

lazy.nvim

{
  "clang-engineer/dadbod-vertica.nvim",
  dependencies = { "tpope/vim-dadbod" },
  -- plugin/dadbod-vertica.vim registers dadbod-ui table helpers and patches
  -- the schema tree, so it must source on every DBUI entry point — not just
  -- the first SQL buffer.
  cmd = { "DB", "DBUI", "DBUIToggle", "DBUIAddConnection", "DBUIFindBuffer" },
  -- optional: only needed if vsql is not on PATH
  opts = { vsql = "/opt/vertica/bin/vsql" },
}

packer.nvim

use {
  "clang-engineer/dadbod-vertica.nvim",
  requires = "tpope/vim-dadbod",
  config = function()
    require("dadbod-vertica").setup({})
  end,
}

vim-plug

Plug 'tpope/vim-dadbod'
Plug 'clang-engineer/dadbod-vertica.nvim'

No setup() call needed if vsql is on $PATH.

Usage

URL scheme is vertica://:

vertica://user@host:5433/database
vertica://user:password@host:5433/database

Add to vim.g.dbs (for dadbod-ui):

vim.g.dbs = {
  { name = "vertica local", url = "vertica://dbadmin@localhost:5433/VMart" },
  { name = "vertica prod",  url = "vertica://reporter@warehouse.corp:5433/ANALYTICS" },
}

Then :DBUIToggle and the entry shows up alongside your other databases.

For one-off queries:

:DB vertica://dbadmin@localhost:5433/VMart SELECT current_user();

Table helpers

Expanding a table in the dadbod-ui tree exposes the same helper menu you get for PostgreSQL — List, Columns, Primary Keys, Indexes, References, Foreign Keys — but wired to Vertica's catalog. Since Vertica has no traditional indexes, Indexes surfaces v_catalog.projections instead:

Configuration

require("dadbod-vertica").setup({
  vsql = "vsql",  -- absolute path if vsql is not on $PATH
})

Or set it directly via vimscript:

let g:dadbod_vertica_vsql = '/opt/vertica/bin/vsql'

Authentication

Pick one of:

Method	Notes
vertica://user:password@host/db URL	Simplest. Password ends up in ps output — fine for local/throwaway, avoid for shared machines
VSQL_PASSWORD env var	Set in your shell rc. Single password for all connections
vsql interactive prompt	Works for :DB <url> interactive mode; will hang on non-interactive query buffers

URL credentials win over env vars.

Installing vsql

vsql is not on Homebrew. Download from the official Vertica Client Drivers page (no signup required) and pick the right package for your OS:

• macOS: vsql-*.mac.dmg — universal binary (x86_64 + arm64). Mount it and copy opt/vertica/bin/vsql onto your $PATH. /usr/local/bin/ is safest because it ships on the default macOS PATH; ~/bin/ works too, but only if your shell rc actually puts ~/bin on $PATH (default zsh does not)
• Linux: install the Client Drivers .rpm or extract the .tar — vsql lands in /opt/vertica/bin/vsql
• Windows: run the Client Drivers installer; vsql.exe is placed under %PROGRAMFILES%\Vertica Systems\VSQL\bin

Skip $PATH entirely by pointing the plugin straight at the binary:

opts = { vsql = "/opt/vertica/bin/vsql" }   -- or wherever you put it

Troubleshooting

Query result buffer is empty / SELECT shows nothing. By default we wrap vsql so its server-side license NOTICE on stderr is discarded — but this also swallows real query errors. Flip the suppressor off to see what vsql is actually saying:

let g:dadbod_vertica_suppress_notice = 0

Re-run the query and the stderr message will land in the result buffer alongside the data.

Neovim freezes when the host is unreachable. vim-dadbod runs vsql synchronously via system(), so a network-unreachable host blocks the UI thread until the TCP connect times out (~75s on macOS by default). vsql has no command-line connect-timeout flag, but you can shorten the wait in your shell rc:

export VSQL_LOGIN_TIMEOUT=5

(Honored by recent vsql builds; behavior is version-dependent.)

Limitations

• Tab completion of database names is not implemented (Vertica clusters typically expose one database, so listing is rarely useful)
• Schema introspection always hides the v_catalog, v_monitor, v_internal, v_func, v_txtindex system schemas. Override the list via let g:dadbod_vertica_system_schemas = [...] if you need a different exclude set (set it to [] to show everything)
• Password handling mirrors vim-dadbod's PostgreSQL adapter — passing on the command line is visible via ps
• dadbod-ui schema-tree integration is a monkey-patch. vim-dadbod-ui's s:schemas dict is script-local with no public hook, so we override db_ui#schemas#get after snapshotting the existing entries. If vim-dadbod-ui adds a new scheme in a later release, this plugin won't expose it until updated — open an issue. Disable the monkey-patch with let g:dadbod_vertica_disable_schema_tree = 1 (tables fall back to a flat list under the DB node)
• Windows NOTICE banner: the stderr-suppression wrap only kicks in on Unix (has('unix')). On Windows the Vertica license NOTICE may surface inside result buffers

Tested against

• vsql 24.02.x on macOS (universal binary, arm64)
• vim-dadbod master (post-2024)

If you're using this against a different Vertica version, please open an issue with the version + any errors you see.

License

MIT