DataTray

A cross-platform, multilingual SQL explorer built in .NET. Database drivers ship as plugins, result sets are editable with a reviewable save flow, and connections are managed with OS-keychain credential storage.

Desktop (Windows / Linux / macOS) is the current focus; mobile heads (Android / iOS / iPadOS) are intentionally parked.

Screenshots

Browsing a table with the editable result grid — all data shown is synthetic:

Every database engine ships as a plugin; the Plugin Store manages them:

Screenshots are rendered headlessly from the real app (no display, no real database) by DataTray.Screenshots — regenerate with tools/screenshots.sh.

Project layout

Project	Role
src/DataTray.Sdk	Public contract: IDbProvider, ISqlDialect, ISqlFormatter, schema/query DTOs. Interfaces and DTOs only — no host internals. This is the only assembly external plugins reference. MIT-licensed (see below).
src/DataTray.Core	Host domain: formatter baseline, i18n seam, provider registry, edit models, sessions. No UI, no driver dependencies. References DataTray.Sdk.
src/DataTray.Infrastructure	Host plumbing: persistence, secret stores, plugin extensibility, the Plugin Store client and the app/plugin updaters.
src/DataTray.Providers.*	Bundled IDbProvider plugins: PostgreSQL (Npgsql), SQLite, MySQL/MariaDB, SQL Server. They reference only DataTray.Sdk — proof that a provider builds independently of the host.
src/DataTray.Tools.MsSqlAdmin	Bundled tool plugin: the SQL Server admin dialogs.
src/DataTray.Mcp.Hosting	Host-side MCP server and the seam that exposes plugin-contributed tools to an AI client.
src/DataTray.Mcp.Server	Bundled first-party MCP tools plugin (datatray-mcp).
src/DataTray.App	Avalonia UI (MVVM, CommunityToolkit.Mvvm): views, view models, resx localization, DI. Platform-agnostic.
src/DataTray.Desktop	Desktop head (Windows / Linux / macOS) — the runnable project.
src/DataTray.Screenshots	Headless renderer for the README screenshots.
plugins/	Store-only plugins, installed from the Plugin Store rather than bundled: ClickHouse, DuckDB, MongoDB, Redis, DragonflyDB, Elasticsearch, the Local Containers (Docker) backend, the Schema Diff / Copy Table / Generate Scripts / ER Diagram / Universal Backup / BACPAC tools, and a provider template.

A new database = a new provider plugin that references only DataTray.Sdk. No UI change, no Core dependency — see docs/PLUGINS.md.

Build & run (desktop)

dotnet build
dotnet run --project src/DataTray.Desktop

A Debug build also stages the plugins/ tree, so the store-only plugins are present while developing; a Release build ships only the bundled ones.

Features

Everything is a plugin

• Providers as ALC plugins, loaded from plugins/<id>/ — the host binaries carry no driver dependencies. Bundled: PostgreSQL, SQLite, MySQL/MariaDB, SQL Server. From the Plugin Store: ClickHouse, DuckDB, MongoDB, Redis, DragonflyDB, Elasticsearch.
• Plugin Store with an Updates section, proactive update notifications and staged updates that apply on restart. Tool and panel plugins extend the UI (own dialogs, own toggle icons) through the same seam.
• Store-only tools: Schema Diff, Copy Table (across connections), Generate Scripts, ER Diagram, Universal Backup & Restore, SQL Server BACPAC/DACPAC. A tool plugin can open as a dialog or as its own tab beside your queries.
• Local Containers (Docker): start a local database container from a provider-declared recipe and get a connection for it.

Working with data

• Connect and browse a lazy schema tree (server → database → schema → tables/views → columns, DBeaver-style).
• Tabs: multiple query and browse panes open at once; the session restores the tabs you left on.
• Query tab: SQL pane (AvaloniaEdit, syntax highlighting) with scope-aware completion, formatting options, paged results, and open/save as .sql.
• Browse tab (double-click a table): page through rows without writing SQL — paging (previous/next), a WHERE filter and column-header sort (server-side ORDER BY). Editable, with the same save flow.
• Editable result set + save flow: edit cells, add or delete rows; Save shows the generated INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE for review and runs them in a single transaction. Enabled only when the result traces back to a single table with a primary key (otherwise read-only, with the reason shown). Cell editors follow the column's type; a cell value opens in its own window on double-click.
• Query history and logging, starred queries and starred connections.
• SQL Server Agent jobs, managed rather than just listed: start, stop, enable and disable from the tree, and a Properties dialog with SSMS' six pages — general, steps (add, edit, reorder), schedules with a recurrence editor, alerts, notifications, targets — plus run history as a seventh, in the dialog rather than a separate window.

Around it

• Connection management with secure credential storage (OS keychain via ISecretStore), plus import/export.
• SSH tunnelling to reach a database behind a bastion: host-side, so every provider gets it without knowing about it. Optional host-key pinning.
• MCP server owned by the host: an AI client can query, browse and create connections, per-connection AI access is opt-in, and an AI-activity panel shows what it did.
• In-app updater with release channels, a Restart-app command, an About/diagnostics dialog, and configurable keyboard shortcuts.
• Runtime language switch NL ⇄ EN (resx + ILocalizer).

Not yet (roadmap)

• Mobile heads (Android / iOS / iPadOS): separate head projects requiring dotnet workload install android / ios plus a macOS runner for iOS signing.
• Per-dialect SQL formatting beyond SQL Server: the ISqlFormatter seam is there, but other providers still fall back to the generic baseline.

Conventions

C#: file-scoped namespaces, nullable enabled, Allman braces, primary constructors, Async suffix, ct as the last parameter.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome, but the bar is high for a one-person project. Read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a pull request — it covers the PR policy, coding conventions, the plugin boundary for adding a database, commit style and the changelog flow.

• Bugs or feature requests: open an issue.
• Adding a database or tool: it's a plugin, not a host change — see docs/PLUGINS.md.
• What changed between releases: CHANGELOG.md.

By participating you agree to the Code of Conduct.

License

This project is source-available, split across two licenses:

• src/DataTray.Sdk — MIT. The public plugin contract is permissively licensed so anyone can build and distribute their own database providers freely.
• Everything else (App, Core, Infrastructure, Desktop, Providers.*) — Apache-2.0 with the Commons Clause. You may use, modify, and share it freely, including for internal business use. You may not sell it — the Commons Clause removes the right to sell the software or to offer a paid product or service (including paid hosting or support) whose value derives substantially from it. To sell or redistribute commercially, contact rick@bonkestoter.com for a separate license.

The bundled open-source dependencies keep their own licenses; the attribution they require lives in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md, which ships alongside the binaries. It is generated from the NuGet dependency closure by tools/generate-third-party-notices.py — re-run that after changing dependencies (--check verifies the committed file is current).