Studio

Studio

Axel Studio is a browser-based database viewer and editor in the style of Neon / Prisma Studio. It reads your schema as ASL types, browses table data through a typed grid, and edits rows — inserts, updates, deletes, and links — by applying AQL under the hood. It ships with the axel binary (assets are embedded, so it runs from any directory).

axel studio
# → Axel Studio listening on http://localhost:4530

Connection & schema

Studio needs a PostgreSQL connection and, for its schema-aware features, an .asl file. Both are resolved the same way the other commands resolve them:

Value	Resolution order
Database URL	--url → axel.yaml database-url → AXEL_DATABASE_URL / DATABASE_URL
Schema path	--schema-path → axel.yaml schema-path → AXEL_SCHEMA_PATH → auto-discovered default.asl

# Explicit
axel studio --url 'postgres://user:pass@localhost:5432/app?sslmode=disable' \
            --schema-path ./schema.asl

# Or from a project's axel.yaml
axel studio -d ./my-project

Flag	Default	Description
--addr	:4530	Listen address
--url / -u	—	PostgreSQL connection URL
--schema-path	—	Path to an .asl schema
--dir / -d	—	Project directory (auto-discovers axel.yaml)

What lights up when

Studio degrades gracefully so the UI always renders:

• Live database + schema — the full experience: the sidebar lists your ASL types, data reads run as AQL, the AQL console executes, and editing is enabled.
• Live database, no schema — falls back to PostgreSQL introspection: tables come from information_schema and the AQL console is disabled (raw SQL still works).
• No database reachable — serves representative sample data so you can see the interface; the consoles show connect-a-database guidance.

The workspace

A schema sidebar (with a live filter) on the left; the selected table opens with four tabs:

• Data — a typed grid with sticky headers, click-to-sort columns, and pagination. NULLs, booleans, timestamps, JSON, and links are rendered distinctly; primary keys and foreign keys are badged.
• Structure — columns with their ASL and SQL types, nullability, defaults, and keys (PK / FK / multi-link).
• AQL — a console that runs read & write AQL against the connected database and shows the compiled SQL. Without a live database it compiles-only (validates and lowers to SQL without executing).
• SQL — a raw SQL console for read-only queries.

Editing data

On a live, schema-backed table the grid is editable — changes stage locally and apply together, so you review before anything hits the database:

• Edit — double-click a scalar cell and type. Edited cells are highlighted.
• Insert — Insert row adds a draft row to fill in.
• Delete — hover a row’s index and click ×.
• Save / Discard — a review bar shows the pending count (e.g. 2 updates · 1 delete). Save applies everything as AQL insert / update / delete; Discard reloads the page.

Links

Relationships are editable too:

• Single links render as a picker — a dropdown of candidate rows from the target type (labeled by name/title/email). Saving resolves the choice with link := (select Target filter .id = $id).
• Multi links render as tag chips — add from a dropdown, remove with ×. Saving reconciles the selection against the link’s junction table.

Row-level security

Studio connects with the URL you give it, so it runs as that role. If the role is subject to RLS policies, the data grid and AQL reads honor them — e.g. a hide_expired policy keeps TTL-expired rows out of the grid. Connect with a non-owner application role to see policies applied (the table owner bypasses RLS). This makes Studio a faithful view of what your application actually sees.

Development

From the repo, task dev runs templ, Tailwind, and the server together with hot reload — use it instead of a bare go run so styles stay fresh.