ChartDB @ johnnyfish @lemmy.world

https://chartdb.io/

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9 mo. ago

Awesome, glad to hear it's working for you now! 🎉 We realized native SQL generation was the right move for reliability and consistency. Appreciate you sticking with it - let us know if you run into anything else!

It just merged. Take a look in the readme how to set it up :)

I really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts so candidly. No worries at all - your feedback isn’t rude! If anything, it’s incredibly helpful in understanding how the messaging comes across to users, and that’s exactly the kind of insight we need to improve.

I totally get where you’re coming from with the SSO concern. Even if it’s more of a personal preference, it’s still a valid point, and I respect that. We’ll definitely consider adding a simple email-based sign-up option to give users more choice.

As for the Mac-only part, I hear you loud and clear. It’s frustrating when you’re excited about something, only to find out it’s not available on your platform. That’s on us for not making it clearer upfront, and we’ll be adjusting how we communicate this in the future to avoid any confusion.

On the ‘ChartDB 2.0’ vs. ‘Buckle’ transition - I get why this felt misleading, and I appreciate you calling it out. Our intention wasn’t to do a bait-and-switch, but I can see how it might have come across that way. The goal was to show continuity between ChartDB and what we’re building next, but we’ll rethink how we present this so it’s clearer from the start.

I really appreciate you sharing your perspective, and I hope you’ll keep giving us this kind of honest feedback. It helps us make things better for everyone. Thanks again!

Cheers, Jonathan

Thanks for your detailed feedback! I really appreciate you taking the time to share both your concerns and what you like about ChartDB. Let me address each of your points:

ChartDB v2.0 & Mac-Only Availability - I completely understand your frustration. We should have made it clearer upfront that the initial release of ChartDB v2.0 (Buckle) would be Mac-only. The reason behind this decision is that we’re prioritizing a solid foundation on one platform before expanding to Windows and Linux. That said, we’re actively working on cross-platform support, and I’ll make sure we communicate this more transparently moving forward.

Clarity & Messaging Around ChartDB v2.0 - You're absolutely right that the messaging around ChartDB v2.0 could be clearer and less intrusive. We’ve received similar feedback and are actively working to improve this experience. You can track the updates and contribute to the discussion here: GitHub Issue #541. We want to ensure that users get the right information upfront without feeling pressured or misled.

The Name ‘Buckle’ & Product Direction - Buckle is our next-gen database tool, built on the foundations of ChartDB but designed to be much more interactive and powerful. The reason for the new name is that it’s not just an update—it’s a complete reimagination of how database tools should work. But we should definitely make that distinction clearer so users know what to expect before signing up. And yes, we’re exploring a freemium model to keep the core experience free while offering advanced features for those who need them.

Third-Party Sign-Up - I hear you on this! The reason we ask for sign-in via Google/GitHub is to prevent spam and ensure a smooth experience when we roll out access. We also only request the minimal permissions—just your email and name via SSO. It’s not full access to your Google or GitHub account, and we don’t retrieve any additional data. That said, I understand that some users may prefer a simple email-only sign-up, and we’ll consider adding that option in the future.

Feature Requests (Adding Views & VARCHAR Length) - I love that you’re thinking about these details! Right now, ChartDB shows existing views but doesn’t support adding new ones directly. We definitely want to include this in the future, as it would make the tool much more useful for database design. As for setting VARCHAR length - great catch!

We currently don’t expose that option, but it’s something we’ll look into adding. I truly appreciate your honest feedback. It helps us improve and make ChartDB/Buckle a better experience for everyone. If you have any more suggestions or need clarifications, I’d love to hear them! 😊

Lol, love that! Even one person can change the world! 😄🌍

Regarding OpenAI - yes, it’s going to stay OpenAI-compatible, but I’m actually about to add a PR that will allow you to choose the LLM host, so local models will be an option soon! Stay tuned. 🚀

Give ours a try! I’d love to hear your feedback - hopefully, it’ll be an even better experience lol

Thanks for the kind words and great feedback! Query capabilities are on our radar, and your input reinforces its importance. The mouse wheel suggestion for zooming is a great idea - I’ll note it for future updates. Glad to hear you'll give ChartDB a try alongside DBeaver - let us know if you have more ideas or feedback! (give a look to our next innovation - https://buckle.dev/ Would love to chat. feel free to DM me somehow :)

Thank you! 😊 Really appreciate it! We’re excited to keep improving and adding new features. If you have any feedback or ideas, feel free to share!

Thanks for your interest! I appreciate the curiosity about ChartDB's growth. We’ve been fortunate to receive a lot of positive engagement from the open-source community since launch, especially after being featured on the front page of Hacker News twice, which brought significant visibility. Our goal has always been to build an open-source tool that resonates with developers, and we’re humbled by the interest so far.

Happy to share more about our journey, the challenges, and how the community has driven our development if you’re interested. Transparency and genuine community engagement have always been important to us!

Thanks for the thoughtful feedback, Daniel! You bring up a great point about the complexity of the current approach with the SQL script and the reliance on pbcopy. We’ll definitely consider simplifying it by providing just the raw SQL query, so users can run it in whatever way works best for them. As for the cloud version, we’re leaning towards using LocalStorage for data storage on the client side to keep everything local to the user’s machine, ensuring privacy and control. We’ll make this clearer in the UI and documentation. Appreciate the suggestions - they’re super helpful as we continue refining ChartDB!

Thanks a ton! Glad you like the design - keeping it and user-friendly is what we’re all about. We’ll be here whenever you’re ready to give it a spin!

Great question! You don’t have to send anything to a third party - exporting SQL scripts tailored to a specific dialect is optional. By default, we offer a generic SQL export, and only when you need precise, dialect-specific scripts does AI come into play. In the self-hosted version, you’d provide your own OpenAI token, so data stays entirely in your control. Hope that clears it up!

That’s awesome to hear! Thanks for giving ChartDB a shot! We’d love to know how it stacks up for you and if there are any features you think would make it even better. Feel free to reach out here or join our Discord if you have questions or feedback along the way.

Hey! I get the AI hesitation - it’s everywhere, and I totally understand if you’re wary of buzzwords! With ChartDB, our focus is on making database diagramming simpler, faster, and visually intuitive without the bloat you sometimes find in other tools. The AI component is there mainly to speed up migrations and adapt the tool to specific SQL dialects, so it’s helpful but not in your face.

As for why it might work better for you than DBeaver, ChartDB shines if you’re looking for a minimal, open-source way to visualize schemas quickly without needing a full database management suite. It’s lightweight, community-driven, and designed to do one thing really well: diagram and share schemas with simplicity. Plus, we’re always open to feedback and building features that our community finds valuable!

Lmk how was it pls :) Thank you!

So happy to read that! Hope you will enjoy and find it as useful as you imagine! Thanks for sharing :)