🦫 Castor — Interactive CLI for Database Blocks

Castor is a free, open-source, dev-focused database management tool written in Node.js with TypeScript designed for the command line. Think of it as a minimal, scriptable SQL client — built from the ground up for developers who live in the terminal.

It supports a wide range of databases — like MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQLite — but the current prototype focuses on Cloudflare D1 support.

Warning

⚗️ Experimental — This project is in early stages and under active development. Expect rough edges, missing features, and possibly fast iteration.

Goals

• 📜 Make database querying scriptable and trackable via source code
• 🔒 Provide type-safe and schema-aware query "blocks" (powered by zod and typescript)
• ⚡ Load automatically structured query "blocks" from js/ts files
• 💬 Generate automatically and type-aware prompts in the terminal for input
• 🗂️ Allow the developer to organize queries in folders, version them, track changes with git
• 💾 Provide first-class support for Cloudflare D1 (but with support for providing custom adapters)

Scope

Castor enables you to:

• 🔌 Connect to your database directly from the terminal
• ✍️ Provide query block definition utilities in .ts/.js files
• 🧠 Run blocks interactively in the terminal, with input prompts

Out of scope:

• ❌ GUI or Web UI
• ❌ Query editors or ER diagram tools
• ❌ Export/import utilities
• ❌ Block versioning or saving queries outside source code (use git for that)
• ❌ Agnostic data validation (use zod for now)

Features

• ✅ Block discovery from file system
• ✅ Typed CLI prompts using zod schemas
• ✅ Cloudflare D1 + drizzle-orm integration
• ⚠️ Danger mode prompts
• 📄 Custom configs
• 📝 Run with saved or new input

Installing

Warning

Castor requires tsx to run TypeScript files smoothly in your CLI.
Install it globally or as a dev dependency:

npm install -g tsx
# or
npm install -D tsx

To install Castor, use NPM:

npm install -D @9aia/castor

Or with other package managers like PNPM or Yarn!

Warning

zod and drizzle are peer dependencies and must be up to date with the version used by this package.

Adding the database type to Castor

Castor needs to know the type of your database. You can do this by adding a types.d.ts file to your project:

// types.d.ts
import { Database } from '~/lib/db'

declare module '@9aia/castor' {
  interface Register {
    database: Database
  }
}

export {}

Adding the Script to your package.json (Recommended)

Add the db:client script to your package.json:

// package.json
{
  "scripts": {
    "db:client": "castor --config path/to/config.ts"
  }
}

Documentation

Configuring

You can define your own config file using defineConfig():

// castor.config.ts
import type { Database } from '~/'
import { defineConfig } from '@9aia/castor'

export default defineConfig({
  rootDir: './db-client', // the directory Castor will explore
  source: defaultSource => [...defaultSource, '!**.md'], // exclude MD files
  drizzle: { // DrizzleOptions
    logger: true,
  },
  dbProvider: 'd1',
  d1: {
    binding: 'DB',
  },
  wrangler: { // GetPlatformProxyOptions
    persist: true,
  },
})

Supports:

• d1 binding from Wrangler
• Custom dbProvider function
• File filters using fast-glob patterns

Defining Sessions

Create files in db-client/, like user.ts, and export your query blocks there.

Defining Blocks

Blocks are typed and named operations. They can query or mutate your database:

// ./db-client/user.ts
import { block } from '@9aia/castor'
import { eq } from 'drizzle-orm'
import { z } from 'zod'
import { users } from '~/db/schema'

block('List all users', {
  query: db => db.select().from(users)
})

block('Get user by id', {
  schema: z.object({ id: z.string() }),
  query: (db, input) => (
    db.select().from(users).where(eq(users.id, input.id))
  ),
})

block('Delete all users', {
  danger: true, // will ask for confirmation
  query: (db, input) => (
    db.delete(users)
  ),
})

Block config signature:

interface BlockConfig<S extends Schema | undefined = undefined> {
  // Mark block as destructive (will ask for confirmation)
  danger?: boolean
  // Zod schema for validating input
  schema?: S
  // Async function to return or mutate data
  query?: (db: ProvidedDatabase, input: InferBlockFnInput<S>) => Promise<any> | any
  // Async function for operations with side-effects
  run?: (db: ProvidedDatabase, input: InferBlockFnInput<S>) => Promise<any> | any
}

Running Castor

Just run it:

castor

# or with config
castor --config path/to/config.ts

# or with a script (recommended)
pnpm db:client

You'll see a menu to select and run blocks.

Sample output:

🦫  Castor DB Client

Config file not found at `castor.config.ts`. Using default config.
6 blocks loaded. 2 namespaces loaded. 🔗

✔ Select a namespace to open · user
Opening namespace: user (5 blocks)

✔ Select a block to run · List all users
Page 1 of 30
Showing rows 1-5 of 150
┌─────────┬───────────────┬──────────┐
│ (index) │ id            │ name     │
├─────────┼───────────────┼──────────┤
│ 0       │ 'dj2bh08yf2s' │ 'User 1' │
│ 1       │ 'xizda46r5m8' │ 'User 2' │
│ 2       │ 'il6qpw38j6'  │ 'User 3' │
│ 3       │ 'l3uoalp72o8' │ 'User 4' │
│ 4       │ 'eprfnwls63g' │ 'User 5' │
└─────────┴───────────────┴──────────┘
? Navigation: …
▸ [>]
  [30]
  Go to specific page
  Query menu

How It Works

Castor scans your codebase for "blocks" — reusable JS/TS query definitions — and lets you execute them through a guided CLI interface.

Each block can:

• Define a schema (input form, type-validated)
• Contain a query() and/or run() function using drizzle-orm
• Be marked as danger (destructive and will ask for confirmation)

It connects to a database (D1 or custom), prompts the user for any necessary input, runs the logic and prints the result.

FAQ

Q: What databases are supported? A: Currently Cloudflare D1 (via wrangler). You can plug in any db via a dbProvider().

Q: Can I organize blocks in folders? A: Yep. Just drop them anywhere inside rootDir, unless excluded via glob.

Q: What happens when I run a block? A: You're prompted for inputs (based on its schema), then Castor runs the logic and prints a table.

Contribute

Got feedback, ideas, or just want to help shape Castor? Open an issue or send a PR. Contributions are welcome at any stage.

Check out the contributing guide for details.

Roadmap

If you're curious about Castor's upcoming features or brainstorming sessions, take a look at the comments in the source code.