Special commands

Special commands run as soon as you press Enter, with no ; needed. Most start with \. On SQLite the dot commands (.tables, .schema, …) work too, and a few MySQL-style words (use, source, status, …) are also understood.

\? lists the commands available on the current database. \? word filters that list.

Reading this page

• Aliases are other names for the same command. Any of them works.
• [+] means you can add + for more detail: \dt+.
• [pattern] narrows the list:
  • * and ? are wildcards: \dt user*.
  • schema.name limits it to one schema, and schema.* lists everything in it.
  • Quote a name to match it exactly: \d "MixedCase".
  • On PostgreSQL, unquoted names are folded to lower case.
  • Without a schema, only objects on your search path (PostgreSQL) or in the current database (MySQL) are listed.
• Databases says where a command is listed in \?. Elsewhere, it prints a short note saying the database doesn't support it.

General

Command	Aliases	Does
\? [command]	help, \h, \help, .help	List commands, or filter the list
\q	quit, exit, \quit, .quit, .exit	Quit
\! command	system	Run a shell command
\echo text		Print text
\e [file] or query \e	\edit	Edit the last query, a given query, or a file in $VISUAL / $EDITOR. The text comes back to the prompt.
\i file	source, \ir, \., .read, \include	Run a file, like -f: SQL, plus special commands on their own lines. Stops at the first error, and a \q in the file quits.
\history [n]		Show the last n statements (default 20)
\llm question	\ai	Ask the configured model to write SQL. See Asking a model for SQL.
\theme [name]		List themes, or switch to one
\R [format]	prompt, \prompt	Set the prompt format. With no format, go back to auto.
\refresh	rehash, \#, \rehash	Reload the table and column names used for completion
\tui		Open the TUI on this connection

Describing the database

Command	Aliases	Databases	Does
\l[+] [pattern]	\list, .databases	all	List databases. + adds size and more.
\d[+] [pattern]	describe, desc, \describe	all	Without a pattern, list all tables and views. With one, describe each match: columns, indexes, constraints, foreign keys, referencing tables and triggers. + adds sizes, comments and view definitions.
\dt[+] [pattern]	.tables	all	List tables. (.tables includes views.)
\dv[+] [pattern]	.views	all	List views
\dm[+] [pattern]		PostgreSQL	List materialized views
\dE[+] [pattern]		PostgreSQL	List foreign tables
\di[+] [pattern]	.indexes, .indices	all	List indexes; the pattern matches the index or table name
\ds [pattern]		PostgreSQL, MySQL	List sequences (on MariaDB, sequence tables)
\df[+] [pattern]		all	List functions and procedures
\dn [pattern]		all	List schemas. On SQLite, attached databases.
\du [pattern]	\dg	PostgreSQL, MySQL	List roles or users
\dT [pattern]		PostgreSQL	List data types
\dx [pattern]		PostgreSQL, MySQL	List extensions (MySQL: plugins)
\dp [pattern]	\z	PostgreSQL, MySQL	List access privileges
\sf[+] function		PostgreSQL, MySQL	Show a function's definition
\sv[+] view		all	Show a view's definition
.schema [pattern]	\schema	all	Show CREATE statements
\s	status, .status, \status	all	Connection and server status: version, user, uptime, encodings, transaction, read-only, TLS
\conninfo		all	Where and how you're connected

describe t and desc t describe a table. DESCRIBE SELECT … and DESC t column go to the server as SQL, as MySQL users expect.

Output

Command	Aliases	Does
\x [on|off|auto]	\expanded	Vertical output. Without an argument, cycles off → on → auto.
\timing [on|off]	\t	Show or hide statement timing. On SQLite, .timer on also works.
\T [format]	\tableformat, .mode	Show or set the output format
\pager [command]	pager, \P	Turn the pager on, optionally with a command
\nopager	nopager	Turn the pager off
tee [-o] file	\tee, .output	Also write every result to a file, appending (-o overwrites; .output always overwrites). .output alone or .output stdout stops.
notee	\notee	Stop tee
\o [-o] file	\once, .once	Write the next result to a file instead of the screen
\| command	\pipe_once	Pipe the next result to a shell command
query \clip		Copy the query (or the last one) to the clipboard
\export format file query		Write a query's complete result to a file in any format

Running queries

Command	Aliases	Databases	Does
\watch [sec] [-c] [query] or query \watch [sec]	watch	all	Re-run a query every sec seconds (default 2) until Ctrl+C. -c clears the screen each time. Without a query, watches the last one.
\format [query]		all	Pretty-print a query (or the last one) and put it back at the prompt
\explain [analyze] query		all	Show the plan as a tree with costs, rows and, with analyze, actual times
delimiter string	\delimiter	MySQL	Change the statement terminator, e.g. delimiter //. delimiter ; restores it.
\readonly [on|off]		all	Toggle read-only mode
.load path	\load	SQLite	Load a SQLite extension

Favourites

Command	Aliases	Does
\f [name [args…]]	\n	List favourites, or run one
\fs name query	\ns	Save a favourite. $1…$9, $* and ${name} are placeholders.
\fd name	\nd	Delete a favourite

See Favourite queries.

Connection

Command	Aliases	Does
\c [name | database | url]	\connect, use, \u, .open	Switch to a saved connection, another database, or another server. Without an argument, show the current connection.

• \c prod opens the saved connection prod, with its password command, tunnel and start-up SQL. A saved name wins over a database with the same name.
• \c other_db switches database on the same server (PostgreSQL reconnects; MySQL runs USE).
• \c postgres://… connects to a different server.
• On SQLite, \c file.db or .open file.db opens another file (creating it if needed).
• use db is not a command on SQLite; there it goes to the server as SQL.

Statement terminators

These aren't commands, but they end a statement:

Ending	Effect
;	Run the statement
\G	Run it and show the result vertically
\g	Run it (like ;)