Schema

The schema tree is the SCHEMA panel on the left. It shows every database on the active connection, and everything in them. Show or hide it with Ctrl+Shift+E. Most of what you can do to a database object starts with a right-click on its row here.

What's in the tree

Each database opens to its tables and views, and each table opens to its columns, then its keys and indexes. Objects that aren't tables — Functions, Procedures, Sequences and the like — sit in folders after the tables. A folder only appears if it has something in it.

What you see depends on the engine:

• Schemas appear as their own level on PostgreSQL and SQL Server, but only when there's more than one, or the only one isn't the default (public, dbo). MySQL, MariaDB and SQLite have no schema level.
• Folders follow what the engine has: Events on MySQL; Sequences on PostgreSQL, SQL Server and MariaDB; Types, Domains and Extensions on PostgreSQL; Alias types, XML schema collections and Synonyms on SQL Server. SQLite has only tables and views.
• Partitions nest under their table on PostgreSQL. On MySQL and SQL Server they're listed after the table's keys.
• Triggers have no row of their own. Reach them from their table's Triggers entry, or by searching their body with Find anywhere.

A database marked Single-user — not read is in a state where reading it would take the only connection it allows. Press Read if you mean to.

Opening things

Opening a table that already has a tab switches to that tab instead of opening a second one; Open in new tab on the right-click menu forces a new one.

The tree is fully keyboard-driven: ↑/↓ move, → expands or steps into a row, ← collapses or steps out to the parent.

Finding things

There are two searches, and they answer different questions.

• The tree's filter box (Search…, at the top of the panel) narrows the tree to names that contain what you type. A table whose column matches stays visible with that column revealed. A database or schema whose own name matches shows everything inside it.
• Find anywhere (Ctrl+P) searches across every database at once: object and column names first, then the bodies of views, routines, triggers and events — so it finds the procedure that writes to a table, not just the table — then your snippets, open tabs and query history. Databases you've hidden are left out.

Right-click menus

Each kind of row has its own menu. The ones you'll use most:

• Database — ER diagram, Compare with, Generate DDL, Import, Export, Back up, Create (a table, view, routine…), and housekeeping: Favourite, Colour, Hide.
• Table — Open, Properties, Used by, Live monitor, ER diagram, Compare with, Generate (ready-made CREATE, INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE statements), Export, Copy to another database, Edit table, Triggers, Truncate, Drop.
• View — much the same, with Edit view in place of Edit table.
• Column, key and index rows — Copy name, Used by, and the matching Edit column, Edit index or Edit foreign key.

Every menu ends with AI explain, which asks the AI assistant to describe the object.

Two rules hold across all of them. Drop is always last and in red, and it never runs straight away: you see the SQL first. An entry that's missing means the engine can't do it; an entry that's greyed out means the connection is marked read-only.

The panel's gear menu (and a right-click on empty space) holds what isn't about one object: Refresh, Collapse all, Users and privileges, Server variables, Create database, and Show table sizes, which adds each table's size on disk to its row.

Keeping a big server tidy

• Favourite pins a database to the top of the tree with a star.
• Colour marks a database or table with a coloured dot. A database's colour also tints its query tabs — handy for telling production from staging at a glance — and a table's colour carries into the ER diagram.
• Hide takes a database out of the tree and out of Find anywhere. Bring it back from the eye button at the top of the panel.
• Refresh re-reads the whole database, even when you pick it on a single table. The tree doesn't notice changes made outside Schemaic until you do.

In this section

• Designing a table — create a table or change one, and review the SQL first.
• ER diagram — see how tables relate, and export the picture.
• Live monitor — watch rows change in a table as it happens.
• Comparing schemas — find what differs between two databases, and bring one in line.