Command Line

The dbcode command runs queries against the connections you already saved in DBCode. It reads the same settings files your editor does, so there is nothing to configure twice.

Install

1. Run DBCode: Install CLI from the command palette. It links dbcode into a folder on your PATH (/usr/local/bin, ~/.local/bin or ~/bin on macOS and Linux; %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\dbcode on Windows, which is added to your user PATH).
2. Open a new terminal and run dbcode --version.

The CLI runs under the Node.js on your PATH and needs Node 22.14 or newer. Extension updates keep the link pointing at the current version.

First query

dbcode connections
dbcode query -c "My Postgres" "select now()"

-c takes a connection name, or its id when two connections share a name. SQL comes from the argument, from --file, or from stdin:

cat report.sql | dbcode query -c warehouse --format csv > report.csv

SQL that starts with a -- comment must follow a literal -- so the argument parser does not read it as a flag:

dbcode query -c prod -- "-- daily count
select count(*) from orders"

Output formats

Format	When
table	Default on a terminal
json	Default when piped. One array of row objects per result set
jsonl	One object per line
csv, tsv	Byte-identical to the grid’s Export
markdown	For pasting into docs and chat

Only data goes to stdout. Status lines (INSERT 2), the row-limit notice and errors go to stderr.

Options

Flag	Meaning
--database, --schema	Override the connection’s defaults for this run
--limit N, --no-limit	Row cap. Defaults to the dbcode.queryRowLimit setting
--timeout S	Request timeout in seconds
-y, --yes	Approve statements your environment role marks as “ask”
--app, --profile, --workspace	Which editor, profile and workspace folder supply the settings

Exit codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success, including truncated results
1	The database returned an error
2	Usage error, unknown connection, unsupported connection
3	Could not connect or authenticate
4	Refused by your environment role, or you answered no
130	Interrupted