Why build a clickhouse client?

Need a free desktop client for clickhouse. Was using DBeaver till now, but a recent update broke clickhouse connection. There was no other desktop client which was free.

Features

• Click on file + connection settings to add a connection. The credentials stay on your device with password encrypted.

• Click on a connecttion name to connect.

• Click on a table to open explorer view.

• Close explorer view to get query view.

• Explorer view also has additional toggle to see a selected row as column. Useful if you have a large number of columns.

• Click on a column header to sort by the column.

• Explorer view is read only.

Installation

Homebrew (macOS)

brew tap SegwiseHQ/tap
brew install --cask clicky

Local Setup

Prerequisites

• Python 3.13+
• uv

Install dependencies

uv sync

Install pre-commit hooks

uv run pre-commit install

This runs ruff (linter + formatter) and a few standard checks (trailing whitespace, YAML/JSON/TOML validation, large file guard) on every commit.

Run the app

uv run python main.py

Run tests

uv run pytest

Run linter / formatter manually

uv run ruff check --fix .
uv run ruff format .

Creating a binary

pyinstaller --onefile --windowed main.py --icon=./assets/icons/app.icns --add-data "assets:assets" --name=clicky

Note

• This has only been tested on a mac device so far but theoretically should work for any linux device.

Future enhancements

• Make the UI pretty :)

• Over the air update

• Typing suggestions