Keys

Search with ⌘K

⌘K finds a table, a query you ran, a saved connection or any command, and opens or runs it from the keyboard. It is also where a pasted connection string or SQLite path goes.

Open it

Press ⌘K anywhere in the window, or choose it from the menu bar. The search opens in the middle of the window, over the window blurred and dimmed, with its field already focused, and it always starts empty. Press ⌘K again, Esc or click outside it to close it.

The footer shows the keys for the highlighted row and, on the right, the name of the window's connection.

What it finds

When a window is connected to more than one database, each table also shows the database it belongs to. With no connection open, the field reads Search commands and connections… and there are no tables or recent queries to find.

Columns, databases and environments aren't items of their own. To change database, use Switch database… (⇧⌘D); to change the environment tag, use the Set environment commands below.

Before you type

The empty search lists Recent queries, Commands and Connections, up to eight of each. The commands you pick most often from ⌘K come first, so the list soon matches what you use. If there's nothing to show, it says Type to search.

How matching works

Type any part of a name. Matching ignores case.

• A run of letters found together beats letters spread out: ord finds public.orders before a name that only has an o, an r and a d somewhere.
• A match at the start of a word ranks higher. Words are split at ., _, -, / and spaces, so items finds public.order_items.
• Matching a whole last segment ranks highest: users puts public.users above public.users_old.
• Letters in order also match when they aren't next to each other: fj finds failed_jobs.
• Earlier and shorter matches rank above later and longer ones.

The matched letters are highlighted in each row. Each group shows its best eight matches, and the groups are ordered by their best match, so new tab puts Commands first and orders puts Tables first. When two groups tie, Tables lead, then Commands and Connections, then Recent queries.

Words commands also answer to

Many commands match words that aren't in their title, so you can type what you have in mind. For example:

A word like this matches only as written (its letters can't be spread out), and it counts as strongly as the title. When several commands score about the same, the ones you've picked most from ⌘K come first.

Search one group

Start with a prefix to search only one group. Each group's heading shows its prefix on the right.

Connections have no prefix. Press ⇥ instead to step through the groups: All, Tables, Recent queries, Connections, Commands, and back to All (⇧⇥ goes the other way). The group you picked shows as a label in the field. ⌫ in an empty field, or Esc, goes back to All.

A search limited to one group shows up to 60 matches.

Keys in the search

The highlighted row shows the keys that apply to it, and so does the footer. A click works like ↵, and ⌥-click and ⌘-click work like ⌥↵ and ⌘↵.

What ↵ does

On a table tab, ⌥↵ opens the filter editor and inserts the name there, because a table tab has no SQL editor. When you close ⌘K, the focus goes back to the editor unless the command moved it somewhere else.

Paste a connection string or a file path

Paste (or type) into the search field and ⌘K recognises two kinds of text. The row it makes sits above every group, so ↵ takes it straight away.

Quotes around the text are ignored. Text that starts with a prefix (t:, q:, >) is always searched as text.

Setting up a connection lists every form a connection string can take.

Commands without a key

Most commands also have a key, a place in the menu bar or both. These have neither, so ⌘K is the quickest way to them. Each one appears only while it can run.

Every command

Every command ⌘K can list, with its key on a Mac. Remember that each one shows only while it can run: Cancel query while a query runs, Commit changes while edits are staged, and so on.