Show HN: DataRamen, a Fast SQL Explorer with Automatic Joins and Data Navigation

40•oleksandr_dem•6h ago

I built DataRamen, a local-first SQL explorer that helps you get the data you need fast, without writing repetitive queries every time.

You run it locally from the CLI (no cloud version yet), connect your databases, and you're ready to go. The goal is to let you explore and query data like you would in a spreadsheet: intuitive, fast, and without friction.

Key features:

- Automatic joins & related data navigation: Right-click any row to instantly see related records in other tables (based on foreign keys or references).

- Keyboard-driven UI: Hit N to jump to a table, F to filter, and so on, it’s optimized for speed so you can go from question to insight in seconds (this point is still in progress, I find it confortable, but the goal is to make it even better).

- Named tabs with saved queries: Keep multiple tabs open with different queries, useful for comparing or cross-checking data. Tabs are saved, so you can get back to your queries at any time.

- Instant edit & insert: One click to edit or add rows, no need to write full queries.

- Multi-DB support: Connect several databases and search across all of them.

- Search across all columns: Find what you need even if you don't know the exact column.

If you've ever felt slowed down by writing the same SQL over and over just to explore your data, this might save you a ton of time. I’d love feedback or suggestions, especially from folks who wrangle data often.

Find more information on https://dataramen.xyz

PS. don't be harsh on the logo, I did my best :)

Comments

mousetree•6h ago

Screenshots on the website would be very helpful. This sounds interesting, but would like to see what the actual UI is before setting anything up. It would also be good to link to the Github repo for the CLI part - I'm skeptical of giving an unknown tool access to my database without understanding what it's actually doing.

oleksandr_dem•5h ago

Totally understandable, your concerns are valid. I will have to figure out the CLI part, I would prefer to keep it private (at least for now), but I get it that people don't want to provide DB access to a completelly new tool.

And yes, you're absolutely right about the lack of screenshots. I realize now how important that is for trust and clarity. I’m working on improving the landing page with proper visuals, and I’m also exploring the idea of a live demo using an in-browser SQLite DB — that should let people try it instantly without setup. It’ll take a bit of time, but it’s now high on the priority list. Appreciate the feedback!

socks•5h ago

is this chatgpt? your comments read like chatgpt output

yunohn•5h ago

Honestly, that comment really does not seem very chatGPT-like.

socks•5h ago

it screams it to me - wording such as "your concerns are valid", "yes, you're absolutely right..." and "I realize now how important...", and then usage of em-dash

oleksandr_dem•4h ago

As mentioned in another comment, I used ChatGPT to improve grammar and rewrite a bit my messages. I stopped using it since.

snickerdoodle12•4h ago

It's okay to be authentically you

zeroq•42m ago

Last time I was trying to be authentically me my response triggered a whole sub-thread about me using the word "subvention" and how funny Europeans sounds to Americans.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

oleksandr_dem•5h ago

I do ask chatgpt to improve my messages, but the content is mine.

runlaszlorun•3h ago

I'd second the screenshot recommendation.

But def looks very interesting and i like the simple minimal design on mobile. Logo's great too. Congrats on getting it out there!

brap•6h ago

>GUI

Not a single screenshot on the page

tiku•5h ago

Yeah I hate lacking screenshots but now I'm going to try it, so probably a good thing haha

oleksandr_dem•5h ago

You're absolutely right, I really dropped the ball on that. This is my first time launching a product like this, and I focused so much on building and writing the post that I overlooked the importance of visuals. The lack of screenshots is definitely hurting the presentation (and I can see it in the bounce rate).

I'll prioritize getting some clear screenshots and maybe even a short demo video up soon. Thanks for pointing it out, appreciate the feedback.

scoot•4h ago

"Soon" being tomorrow, next week, next month? Just stating the obvious, but taking 30 minutes to do it now while you have traction on HN seems like a no-brainer.

oleksandr_dem•4h ago

I did a lot of things wrong this time (I should've seen coming all the negative feedback I got). The lesson I learned is not rushing things. I will likely have to get a step back and to rethink some stuff (including landing page).

sunshine-o•5h ago

What a cool name !

oleksandr_dem•5h ago

Thanks! I was aiming for something fun and a little memorable — glad it landed well

koolba•5h ago

Where's the code? The NPM page says it is MIT licensed but I do not see any links to a source repo.

I think most people would be wary of running random npm modules to which they will be giving database credentials and passing through their actual data.

oleksandr_dem•5h ago

You're right, and you're not the only one who's raised this, totally fair concern. As a developer myself, I get why running a CLI tool that touches your databases without access to the source is a hard sell.

I hadn’t initially planned to open source it, but this feedback is making me seriously reconsider. At the very least, more transparency is clearly needed, and I’m thinking through the best way to approach that.

Curious though, would you feel any more comfortable if it were a packaged desktop app (with no source) instead of a CLI? Or is open code the baseline no matter the form?

koolba•5h ago

There's a big difference between a precompiled app from a company you've possibly heard of (which exists as an entity and could be sued for creating something malicous) v.s. some random guy on the internet.

I personally would not run an arbitrary binary from somebody I've never heard of on my local machine. And definitely not give it database credentials or access. I also think anybody that is willing to do so is insane. There's so much garbage and malware on npm, that something that is installed via the @latest on npm is arguably even worse. Even if it's fine now, there's no telling when one of its deps could be compromised too.

oleksandr_dem•5h ago

I see your point. Since it's unlikely that I'll become a trusted entity anytime soon, open-sourcing it is probably the right thing to do to build some credibility.

giancarlostoro•10m ago

Companies have to start somewhere though, lots of software exists that never was open source. I think he needs to get his tool in the hands of people who review dev tools.

keysdev•3h ago

Didnt realize one can submit nmp without source? Is this really the case?

koolba•2h ago

You mean npm? Of course. There's no requirement the software being published have source or even be open source. It doesn't even have to be javascript. You can publish anything you'd like as long as it has a package.json.

oleksandr_dem•2h ago

Yes, you can publish an NPM package without having a repository linked to it. Technically you can inspect the source code using "Code" feature on NPM, but in this case it is minified. You can see a lot of stuff tho (ex: query used to inspect database, endpoints, etc...), but obviously it is not as easy to read as not bundled source code (not to mention you can use WASM, which is unreadable).

gavinray•5h ago

I'd like to know what it looks like before investing my time in using a GUI tool.

Neat idea on paper though!

oleksandr_dem•5h ago

Yes, a lot of people have complained about this, and I totally get it, I messed up the presentation part. Improving the landing page will likely be my top priority following this post.

kigiri•5h ago

You can find screenshots here: https://dev.to/9zemian5/tired-of-writing-sql-just-to-explore... (might be outdated, didn't test the tool)

On my part, I would like to see sqlite support and screenshots on the mainpage, also not a big fan of running an unknown command on my data.

Since you run locally, any value of having the frontend loaded from a website instead of just opening it in localhost ?

oleksandr_dem•4h ago

Hi, yes, the dev.to post is a bit outdated.

> I would like to see sqlite support Indeed, it is something I'm planing to add, but following all the feedback I got so far this will have to wait (landing page needs some work, plus a lot of people are having concerns regarding CLI tool not being open sourced)

> any value of having the frontend loaded from a website instead of just opening it in localhost ? I want the CLI package to be as small as possible, and including 600kb React bundle in it is the exact oposite of small. Moreover, the idea in the future is for you to be able to connect to any host (be it cloud, localhost or selfhosted) from the same page (for example I have company self hosted server and a local server for my local databases).

cuuupid•3h ago

Sounds very nice but doesn't seem to support Node v22 :/

``` Error [ERR_REQUIRE_ESM]: require() of ES Module /Users/cupid/.bun/install/global/node_modules/yargs/index.mjs not supported. ```

Is there a GitHub or similar where issues can be reported?

oleksandr_dem•3h ago

Not yet, but following the comments on this post I will likely open source the codebase. It will help to both improve trust in the product and provide a place to report issues publicly.

This seems like a yargs compatibility issue (I kind of expected it to be problematic), I will probably switch to commander to handle CLI.

akoculu•3h ago

nice work + cool name, congrats!

747-8F•2h ago

Saving this; may prove its utility in enterprise BU analysis.

googoloid•2h ago

So this uses the local cli tool to allow your hosted code to connect to the db? Sounds a bit sketchy to me

oleksandr_dem•1h ago

It uses the CLI to connect to the database. When you start the tool, it creates a server on your localhost (localhost:4466), and acts as:

- Local database: it stores some stuff locally, like saved queries or DB configurations

- Query runner: when you run a query in the webapp it will call your localhost server, which will connect to the database and execute the SQL statement

It is technically possible to host it elsewhere, but I wouldn't recommend it (there is no documentation).

nikita2206•2h ago

A similar and bigger product I am aware of is Directus: https://directus.io/docs/getting-started/overview

oleksandr_dem•1h ago

This looks closer to something like Retool (an internal tooling builder), but yes, there is an overlap on some features

oleksandr_dem•1h ago

Hi guys, thanks for all the feedback.

After reading all the comments, I can see there are two big issues here:

- The code is not open-sourced, and some people don't trust running it locally

- The landing page does not clearly show/explain what DataRamen is and how it works

I should've seen it coming. I will take the following actions to tackle these problems:

1) Open-source the CLI code. There are no super sophisticated algorithms behind it, so no need to keep it private.

2) Improve the landing page with screens and videos to showcase its features.

In addition to this, I will keep working on new features. I saw multiple comments mentioning SQLite support. Since it is possible to run SQLite directly in the browser, I might as well use it as a live demo where you can try the tool with a dummy DB without installing it locally (can't promise it, I have to see the feasibility of this project).

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Show HN: DataRamen, a Fast SQL Explorer with Automatic Joins and Data Navigation

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