pgcli

pgcli is a command-line interface for PostgreSQL with auto-completion and syntax highlighting. Developed by Amjith Ramanujam (dbcli organization), pgcli has over 12,000 stars as of 2026 and is designed as a modern replacement for the psql command-line client, providing a much more user-friendly interactive experience. Written in Python using the prompt_toolkit library, pgcli offers features that psql lacks, making PostgreSQL administration and querying significantly more pleasant. Key features include: smart auto-completion (context-aware suggestions for SQL keywords, table names, column names, functions, and aliases as you type, powered by a SQL parser that understands the query structure), syntax highlighting (colorizing SQL keywords, strings, numbers, operators, and comments for improved readability), multi-line query editing with proper indentation, query history with reverse search (Ctrl+R), favorite queries (saving frequently used queries with names), tabular output with aligned columns and column type-aware formatting, expanded display mode (\x for vertical output of wide tables), automatic connection to default PostgreSQL instance, connection string support (pgcli postgresql://user:pass@host:port/dbname), SSL/TLS connection support, pager integration (using less for large result sets), meta-commands (similar to psql: \d for describe, \dt for tables, \l for databases, \i for file execution, \c for connecting, \q for quit), auto-detection of connection parameters from environment variables, and vi and emacs keybinding modes.