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Quickstart: Connect Your Database

Quickstart: Connect Your Database

Section titled “Quickstart: Connect Your Database”

Connect dbward to your existing database and run a query. Dev mode auto-approves everything — perfect for a quick smoke test.

Prerequisites: PostgreSQL or MySQL running and accessible.

1. Install

Section titled “1. Install”
Terminal window
curl -fsSL https://dbward.dev/install.sh | sh

2. Start dev mode

Section titled “2. Start dev mode”
Terminal window
dbward dev --database-url "postgres://user:password@localhost:5432/mydb"

For MySQL:

Terminal window
dbward dev --database-url "mysql://user:password@localhost:3306/mydb"

Expected output:

dbward dev starting...
  Server: http://127.0.0.1:3000
  Database: postgres://user:***@localhost:5432/mydb


  Admin token:     dbw_a1b2c3...
  Developer token: dbw_d4e5f6...


  Config: ~/.dbward/dev/client.toml
  Try: dbward --config ~/.dbward/dev/client.toml --database app execute "SELECT 1"


Press Ctrl-C to stop.

This starts a local server + agent in one process. All queries are auto-approved.

3. Run a query

Section titled “3. Run a query”

In another terminal:

Terminal window
dbward --config ~/.dbward/dev/client.toml --database app execute "SELECT version()"

Expected output:

 version
──────────────────────────
 PostgreSQL 17.2 ...
(1 row)


Completed in 45ms

If you see the result, dbward is correctly connected to your database.

4. Try the CLI

Section titled “4. Try the CLI”
Terminal window
# List requests
dbward --config ~/.dbward/dev/client.toml request list


# View audit trail
dbward --config ~/.dbward/dev/client.toml audit

Adding approval to your setup

Section titled “Adding approval to your setup”

Dev mode auto-approves everything. To require approval for production queries, create a config file (dbward-server.toml):

state_dir = "./data"


[[databases]]
name = "app"
environments = ["development", "production"]


# Development: auto-approve
[[workflows]]
environment = "development"
steps = []


# Production: require admin approval
[[workflows]]
environment = "production"


[[workflows.steps]]
type = "approval"


[[workflows.steps.approvers]]
role = "admin"
min = 1

Then run the server and agent separately instead of dbward dev. See the Deployment Overview for production options.

About dbward dev

Section titled “About dbward dev”

dbward dev is a convenience shortcut that:

  1. Writes a minimal server config to ~/.dbward/dev/server.toml
  2. Starts dbward-server with auto-approve for all environments
  3. Waits for bootstrap tokens
  4. Starts dbward-agent connected to your database
  5. Prints a client.toml path for the CLI

In production, you run the server and agent as separate processes (or containers). See the Deployment Overview for details.

See also

Section titled “See also”