dbvr Community, CLI from DBeaver

June 10, 2026 ยท View on GitHub

Build License

dbvr Community, a universal CLI for database querying, is a command-line interface for working with databases. It can act as a standalone CLI application or in conjunction with DBeaver and CloudBeaver. It provides a scriptable way to manage database projects and data sources, inspect metadata, and execute SQL from the terminal.

Why dbvr Community is useful

  • Automate database workflows with a terminal-first interface built on top of the DBeaver platform
  • Manage projects and data sources without opening a GUI
  • Run SQL scripts and ad-hoc queries against supported databases
  • Inspect database metadata such as databases, schemas, tables, and DDL
  • Integrate with CI/CD and shell scripts using standard command output and files
  • Reuse DBeaver ecosystem support for drivers and data-source handling

Features

  • project commands for creating, listing, renaming, deleting, and selecting default projects
  • datasource commands for creating, viewing, listing, updating, moving, and deleting data sources
  • sql command to execute SQL from a literal query, a file, or standard input
  • meta commands for working with database, schema, and table information

Getting started

Prerequisites

To build this repository locally, you need:

  • Java
  • Maven
  • Local sibling checkouts of dependencies referenced by project.deps:
    • dbeaver-common
    • dbeaver

The root Maven build inherits from ../dbeaver, and the product aggregate also includes sibling modules from ../../../dbeaver-common and ../../../dbeaver.

Repository layout

dbvr is built together with sibling repositories. Clone all of them into the same parent directory, so the relative paths in the Maven/Tycho build resolve correctly

git clone https://github.com/dbeaver/dbeaver-common.git
git clone https://github.com/dbeaver/dbeaver.git
git clone https://github.com/dbeaver/dbvr.git
git clone https://github.com/dbeaver/idea-rcp-launch-config-generator.git
git clone https://github.com/dbeaver/dbeaver-osgi-common.git

Build product

mvn -f product/aggregate/pom.xml \
-Dheadless-platform \
-Pproduct-dbvr-ce \
-Dbuild.all-environments \
package

Develop in IDEA

To generate IntelliJ IDEA project files and RCP launch configurations, run from the dbvr repository root:

./generate_workspace.sh

On Windows, use generate_workspace.cmd.

Then run

cd ../dbeaver

mvn generate-sources

Run the CLI

The packaged product creates a dbvr executable for Linux and Windows, and a dbvr.app bundle for macOS.

After building or downloading a packaged distribution, add the executable to your PATH and run:

dbvr --help

Usage examples

Show top-level help

dbvr --help

Work with projects

Create a project:

dbvr project create --name MyProject --description "This is my project"

List projects:

dbvr project list

Set the default project:

dbvr project default MyProject

Inspect available drivers

dbvr driver list

Show driver properties:

dbvr driver list --show-properties

Execute SQL

Run an inline query using an existing datasource:

dbvr sql -ds my-datasource-id -format csv "select * from my_table"

Read SQL from a file or standard input:

dbvr sql -ds my-datasource-id -format json --input-file query.sql
cat query.sql | dbvr sql -ds my-datasource -format json

Write results to a file:

dbvr sql -ds my-datasource-id -format csv -output-file result.csv "select * from my_table"

Explore metadata

Examples of supported metadata operations include listing databases, listing tables, and getting DDL for database objects.

dbvr meta database list -ds my-datasource-id 
# or
# dbvr meta schema list -ds my-datasource-id ...
# dbvr meta table ddl -ds my-datasource-id -sn=public -tn=orders ...

Exact options and available subcommands may vary by command. Use dbvr <command> --help to inspect the current CLI surface.

Where to get help

Maintainers

This project is maintained by the DBeaver team and contributors.

License

Licensed under the Apache License 2.0.