Based — Git-Friendly Database Client

Based is a local-first desktop database client written in Rust. Connection configs and saved queries live in a committed .based/ folder — no backend service, data stays on your machine.

Website: based.pavi2410.com

Features

• Native GPUI desktop app (apps/desktop)
• Git-friendly project format: project.toml, connections/, and queries/ under .based/
• PostgreSQL, SQLite, and MongoDB workflows
• In-app updates on release builds (signed updater manifests)
• No backend service — connections and queries run locally

See The .based project format for the full specification.

Project structure

based/
├── apps/
│   ├── desktop/   # Main native app (Rust + GPUI)
│   └── web/       # Marketing site (Astro + Cloudflare)
├── crates/        # Shared libraries (project format, engines, query layer)
├── docs/          # Project format spec
├── .based/        # Example project config for this repo
├── Cargo.toml
└── mise.toml      # Task runner

For architecture details, see ARCHITECTURE.md.

Quick start

Prerequisites

• Rust (latest stable)
• mise task runner

On Linux, run Zed's script/linux once for GPUI build dependencies.

Optional — local databases for development:

docker compose up -d   # Postgres → localhost:15432, MongoDB → localhost:37017

Tasks

Task	Command
Run (dev)	mise run dev
Release build	mise run build
Fast check	mise run check
Lint	mise run lint
Format	mise run format
Test	mise run test
Clean	mise run clean
Package installers	mise run package

Installing

Download the latest stable release from GitHub Releases. Stable builds are the latest non-prerelease; release candidates are tagged with -rc.N and marked as prereleases.

Platform	Artifact	Package manager
macOS (Apple Silicon)	.dmg	brew tap pavi2410/tap && brew install --cask based
Linux	.deb or .AppImage	—
Windows	.exe NSIS installer	winget install pavi2410.Based

Each release asset shows a SHA-256 digest on the GitHub Releases page (and in the API as assets[].digest). After downloading an installer, compare your local hash:

shasum -a 256 Based_2026.5.0_aarch64.dmg

macOS builds are ad-hoc signed (not Apple Developer ID). First launch may show an unverified-developer prompt — right-click the app and choose Open, or use System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. Windows SmartScreen may warn on first run — choose More info → Run anyway.

Homebrew and winget install the same GitHub Release binaries — see packaging/README.md for maintainer details.

Support

If Based is useful to you, consider sponsoring development on GitHub.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup, local packaging, and the release workflow.