WhoDB

A lightweight, self-hosted workspace for your databases

Available on

Quick start · Documentation · Live demo · Community

WhoDB gives you one place to explore your databases, edit data, run queries, and understand how a schema fits together. It runs in the browser, is easy to self-host, and is available as a desktop app or terminal CLI too.

Use it when you want to inspect a local database, help a teammate explore unfamiliar data, or work without installing a heavyweight database client. AI features are optional: connect Ollama, OpenAI, Anthropic, LM Studio, or another OpenAI-compatible provider if you want to ask questions in plain English.

Quick start

Run WhoDB with Docker:

docker run --rm -it -p 8080:8080 clidey/whodb

Then open http://localhost:8080 and enter your database connection details.

Want to look around first? Try the live demo or watch the video walkthrough.

What you can do

• Browse and edit data in a spreadsheet-style grid with sorting, filtering, pagination, and inline editing.
• Understand a schema visually with an interactive graph of tables and relationships.
• Work through queries in a scratchpad with multiple cells, autocomplete, history, and results kept alongside each query.
• Move data in and out with imports, exports, and mock-data generation for development and testing.
• Ask questions in plain English using a local or hosted AI provider that you choose.
• Work from your terminal through the WhoDB CLI and its MCP server.

Supported databases

WhoDB Community supports:

• PostgreSQL, CockroachDB, YugabyteDB, and QuestDB
• MySQL, MariaDB, and TiDB
• SQLite and DuckDB
• MongoDB and FerretDB
• Redis, Valkey, and Dragonfly
• Elasticsearch and OpenSearch
• ClickHouse and Memcached

Support varies by database because not every system has the same concepts or capabilities. The connection screen shows the options available for each source.

Installation options

Docker with persistent sessions

The one-line Docker command is ideal for trying WhoDB. To keep encrypted login sessions when the container is replaced, first generate a key and save it somewhere secure:

openssl rand -hex 32

Then mount /data and reuse that key whenever you start the container:

docker run -it -p 8080:8080 \
  -v whodb-data:/data \
  -e WHODB_ENCRYPTION_KEY=your_saved_64_character_hex_key \
  clidey/whodb

Keep that key somewhere safe. Changing it invalidates existing sessions. If WhoDB is served through an HTTPS reverse proxy, also set WHODB_SECURE=true so browsers only send the session cookie over HTTPS.

See the documentation for Docker Compose, connection profiles, SSL, AI providers, and other configuration options.

Desktop

• macOS
• Windows
• Snap

CLI and MCP server