Sequel Ace for Omarchy

A native Linux port of Sequel Ace, the MySQL and MariaDB database management application for macOS.

The original is written in Objective-C, Swift and SwiftUI on top of AppKit, which has no Linux implementation. This repository re-implements the application in C++20 on Qt 6 Widgets and libmariadb, keeping the original's behaviour, workflows and file formats. The platform-neutral pieces of the original are reused verbatim: the SQL editor lexer (SPEditorTokens.l), the editor colour themes, the content filter definitions and the Favorites.plist format.

It runs on any Linux desktop. On Omarchy it also follows the desktop theme: the window colours and the SQL syntax colours are read from the active Omarchy theme and change live when you switch themes.

Omarchy theme integration

Sequel Ace paints itself in the colours of the active Omarchy theme, read from ~/.local/state/omarchy/current/theme/colors.toml — the file Omarchy repoints on every omarchy-theme-set. Window and panel backgrounds, buttons, selection, scrollbars, tabs and the SQL editor's syntax colours all derive from it, and switching themes updates the running application immediately, no restart needed.

On a non-Omarchy desktop it falls back to a built-in dark palette; everything else works the same.

• SA_OMARCHY_THEME_DIR=/usr/share/omarchy/themes/tokyo-night sequel-ace previews another theme without changing the desktop's own.
• The SQL editor's colour scheme preference defaults to System (Omarchy). Pick one of the bundled macOS themes (Dark Ace, Monokai, Nord, Nemo, Blue Dark, Pixely Night, The Pixel) in Preferences to keep it fixed regardless of the desktop theme.

Building

Requirements: CMake 3.21+, a C++20 compiler, Qt 6.4+ (Core, Gui, Widgets, Network, Concurrent, Svg, Test), libmariadb (MariaDB Connector/C), and optionally libsecret (keyring passwords) and flex (regenerating the lexer).

# Arch / Omarchy: sudo pacman -S cmake qt6-base qt6-svg mariadb-libs libsecret flex
# Debian/Ubuntu:  sudo apt install cmake qt6-base-dev libqt6svg6-dev libmariadb-dev libsecret-1-dev flex
# Fedora:         sudo dnf install cmake qt6-qtbase-devel qt6-qtsvg-devel mariadb-connector-c-devel libsecret-devel flex

git clone https://github.com/mateusmetzker/sequel-ace-omarchy.git
cd sequel-ace-omarchy
cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build -j"$(nproc)"
./build/sequel-ace

./build.sh runs the two CMake commands above.

Installing

Arch Linux / Omarchy

scripts/make-package.sh            # writes dist/sequel-ace-<version>-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst
scripts/make-package.sh --install  # same, then sudo pacman -U

The script tars the working copy (uncommitted changes included), runs makepkg with packaging/arch/PKGBUILD and names the package <version>.r<commit count>.g<hash>, so every rebuild upgrades the previous install. Dependencies: qt6-base, qt6-svg, mariadb-libs, libsecret, hicolor-icon-theme; openssh is optional (SSH tunnels) and gnome-keyring optional (persistent passwords). Remove it with sudo pacman -R sequel-ace.

Any other distribution

sudo cmake --install build          # or: DESTDIR=/tmp/pkg cmake --install build

This installs the binary, the desktop entry, the AppStream metadata and the icons under CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX (/usr/local by default).

What works

Area	State
Connections: TCP/IP, UNIX socket, SSH tunnel (system OpenSSH; password, key or agent), SSL	working
Favorites: groups, drag and drop, colours, import/export, compatible with the macOS Favorites.plist	working
Passwords in the desktop keyring (libsecret / Secret Service)	working
Tables list with filter; add, rename, duplicate, truncate, delete; maintenance commands	working
Table content: paging, sorting, multi-rule AND/OR filters (every Sequel Ace operator, custom WHERE, filter by cell value), in-place editing, add/duplicate/delete rows, NULL handling, field editor with hex and image view	working
Table structure: column editor with ALTER TABLE generation, indexes	working
Relations (foreign keys), triggers, table info with editable options and CREATE syntax	working
Query editor: syntax highlighting, current-query highlight, completion (keywords, functions, tables, columns), run current/selection/all, explain current query, history, query favorites, error continuation prompts, destructive-SQL confirmation gate	working
Console window, server variables, process list with kill	working
Export: CSV per table, SQL dump (structure and/or content), and the same two formats for the current query result or the filtered table content	working
User Manager: accounts, global and per-schema privileges, resource limits	working
Local MCP server: 19 tools over the open connections, read-only by default behind a quote- and comment-aware SQL guard	working
Omarchy theme sync, live on theme switch	working
.spf connection files and .sql scripts on the command line	basic

Not ported (yet)

• Import: CSV and SQL.
• Export to XML, HTML, PDF and Dot (CSV and SQL dumps are available).
• Bundles and user-defined actions.
• Printing.
• AWS IAM and HashiCorp Vault authentication.
• Localisation — the interface is English only.
• Flatpak and AppImage packaging (an Arch package is provided).

Known gaps inside the ported areas

• The User Manager always changes MariaDB passwords through the legacy SET PASSWORD path; ALTER USER ... IDENTIFIED VIA is not implemented. Only MySQL 5.7.6 and later take the modern ALTER USER route.
• Query history is one global JSON file, not the per-favorite SQLite store the macOS app keeps.
• The content view holds one page in memory, so a filtered export re-runs its SELECT in batches instead of dumping the loaded page. Choose "Only the rows currently loaded" in the export dialog for the latter.

MCP server

Preferences → MCP Server exposes the open connections to an AI assistant over a loopback-bound HTTP server (default port 8765) that speaks both MCP transports: Streamable HTTP (POST /mcp) and the legacy SSE transport (GET /sse + POST /message). It is read-only by default: writes are rejected by a SQL guard that parses quotes and comments before classifying a statement, so SELECT /* UPDATE */ 1 passes and a disguised write does not. Turn the guard off explicitly if you want an assistant to be able to write.

Files and settings

Purpose	Location
Favorites	~/.local/share/sequel-ace/Favorites.plist (same format as macOS — copy the file from ~/Library/Application Support/Sequel Ace/Data/ to migrate)
Preferences	~/.config/sequel-ace/sequel-ace.conf
Query history	~/.local/share/sequel-ace/QueryHistory.json
Passwords	desktop keyring, schema com.sequel-ace.SequelAce.Password

SSH tunnels use the ssh binary found in PATH (or the one set in Preferences); prompts for passwords, passphrases and host keys are answered by the application itself through SSH_ASKPASS.

Tests

cd build
ctest --output-on-failure                       # unit tests only

SA_TEST_MYSQL=1 SA_TEST_MYSQL_HOST=127.0.0.1 SA_TEST_MYSQL_PORT=3306 \
SA_TEST_MYSQL_USER=root SA_TEST_MYSQL_PASSWORD=secret ctest --output-on-failure

With SA_TEST_MYSQL=1 the integration tests (tst_integration) and the widget tests (tst_ui) run against the given server, creating and dropping their own databases. scripts/test-server.sh start && scripts/test-server.sh seed brings up a throw-away MariaDB on port 33306 (root/root) for this, without root privileges, and eval "$(scripts/test-server.sh env)" exports the variables.

sequel-ace --smoke-test <dir> connects with the same variables and writes a screenshot of every view to <dir>, useful with QT_QPA_PLATFORM=offscreen.

Layout

├── CMakeLists.txt
├── src/core/        connection, session, schema queries, favorites, prefs (no Qt Widgets)
├── src/ui/          Qt Widgets application
├── src/lexers/      SPEditorTokens.l from the macOS app (+ generated C)
├── resources/       themes, ContentFilters.plist, CompletionTokens.json, icons
├── packaging/       desktop entry, AppStream metadata, icons, arch/PKGBUILD
├── scripts/         test-server.sh (unprivileged MariaDB), make-package.sh (Arch package)
└── tests/           tst_core, tst_integration, tst_ui, fixtures/seed.sql

Licence and credits

MIT, the same licence as the upstream project — see LICENSE. Sequel Ace is © Sequel Ace and Moballo, LLC; this is an unofficial Linux port and is not affiliated with the upstream project.