Mid mresanto

mid

mid is a terminal database client written in Rust for managing connections, running queries, and quickly exploring results.

> mid is currently under active development.

Version 0.1.3 adds secure password storage and remote credential management.

Features

• PostgreSQL and MySQL connections.
• Interactive and $EDITOR-based connection setup.
• Optional OS secret-manager password storage with --is-secure.
• Secure password updates, connection-string retrieval, and config editing.
• TUI-based interactive query-result table.
• Column filtering and ascending/descending sorting.
• Multi-cell selection and generated multi-row updates.
• Query editing through $EDITOR.
• Per-remote query history and replay.

All commands, options, examples, TUI controls, and detailed feature explanations are documented in FEATURES.md.

Status

Capability	PostgreSQL	MySQL	SQLite
Connect and run queries	Working	Working	Planned
Interactive table output	Working	Working	Planned
JSON output	Working	Working	Planned
SQL INSERT export	Working	Working	Planned
List and select tables	Working	Working	Planned
Sort and filter results	Working	Working	Planned
Multi-cell selection	Working	Working	Planned
Update selected values	Experimental	Experimental	Planned

Requirements

• Rust and Cargo.
• PostgreSQL or MySQL access credentials.
• $EDITOR for editor-based connection setup and query editing (optional for other workflows).
• An available, unlocked OS secret manager when using secure remotes.

Secure connections (0.1.3)

mid remote add 'postgres://user:pass%23word@localhost/app' --name app --is-secure
mid remote switch app
mid remote password app 'new#password'

Only the decoded password is saved in the OS secret manager. The config URL contains {pass}, and mid restores the password when connecting. Encode reserved password characters in connection URLs (# as %23); pass a raw password to remote password. That command updates only secure remotes and does not change the password on the database server.

Use mid remote edit to open config in $EDITOR, or mid remote retrieve app to print the complete connection URL, including its password. Treat that output as sensitive. Without --is-secure, passwords remain in the config file; command-line credentials may also appear in shell history.

Installation

Build the project:

cargo build --release

Install mid into Cargo's binary directory:

cargo install --path .

If you're testing a local build, replace mid in the documentation examples with cargo run --:

cargo run -- --help

Shell completion

Generate and install dynamic Fish completions in Fish's user completion directory:

mid generator --shell fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/mid.fish

Probably can work with other shells as well.

try

mid generator --shell {bash,zsh,fish} > ~/.config/{bash,zsh,fish}/completions/mid.{bash,zsh,fish}

after add the completions directory to your shell's config:

echo 'source ~/.config/{bash,zsh,fish}/completions/mid.{bash,zsh,fish}'

Roadmap

Safe mutation workflow

A dedicated mutate command is planned but is not implemented yet. The intended workflow is to run mutations inside a transaction, report the affected row count, and require explicit confirmation before committing:

# Planned syntax — not currently available
mid mutate 'DELETE FROM sessions WHERE expires_at < NOW()'

The goal is to provide guardrails for UPDATE, DELETE, TRUNCATE, and other potentially destructive operations.

Other planned work includes:

• SQLite support.
• Durable history storage with SQLite.
• Safer and more general selected-cell updates.
• Local/project-specific remotes.

For the full command reference, see FEATURES.md.

Credits

MID was originally created with the goal of taking existing TUIs and improving upon them by providing better performance, a faster experience, and a more efficient workspace.

The original idea and project were created by dossancto, who later passed the project on to me and is no longer actively involved in its development.