Connection Management

Create a connection

⌘N / Ctrl+N or the "New connection" button in the top-left → form pops up.

Common fields (all dialects)

Field	Description
Name	Display label, anything goes
Dialect	Database type (MySQL / PG / Oracle / ...)
Host	Hostname or IP
Port	Auto-filled per dialect (MySQL 3306 / PG 5432 / Oracle 1521 ...)
User	Username
Password	Leave blank to be asked on first connect
Database	Default database / schema, optional
Group	Folder at the tree root, useful for managing multiple environments
Environment	dev / test / prod — prod triggers production safeguards

Dialect-specific fields

Oracle / OB Oracle tenant

Field	Description
Service Name	Default XEPDB1; container gvenzl/oracle-free uses FREEPDB1
privilege	SYSDBA / SYSOPER / SYSASM / SYSBACKUP / SYSDG / SYSKM / SYSRAC; leave blank for normal

SYSDBA login on Oracle typically targets the CDB root (FREE rather than FREEPDB1).

Snowflake

Field	Description
Account	Snowflake identifier such as xy12345.us-east-1
Warehouse	Compute warehouse
Role	Default role
Schema	Default schema
Authenticator	password by default, or snowflake_jwt for private-key auth
Private Key Path	PEM file (shown in JWT mode)
Private Key Passphrase	Optional passphrase

MongoDB

Optional URI mode: mongodb://user:pass@host:27017/db?replicaSet=rs0 — overrides host/port/user/password when set.

SQLite / DuckDB

No host/port/user — just a database file path:

• "Browse…" opens the system file picker
• Non-existent file names are accepted (a new DB is created)
• Empty path → in-memory mode :memory: (lost when the app closes)

ClickHouse

Field	Description
URL	Full URL (https://user:pass@host:8443/...); overrides host/port when set
Show System Databases	The system / information_schema databases are hidden by default

Redis

Just host/port/password/dbIndex. SkylerX automatically expands the 16 logical databases (db0..db15).

H2

Only PG-server mode is supported. Start H2 with -pg:

java -cp h2-2.x.x.jar org.h2.tools.Server \
  -pg -pgPort 5435 -ifNotExists -baseDir ./data

Then connect: Host=localhost, Port=5435, User=sa, Password=empty.

SSH tunneling

Database behind a bastion host? Switch to the SSH tab → enable SSH tunneling:

• SSH host / port / user
• Auth: password or private key (e.g. ~/.ssh/id_rsa) — pick one
• Key passphrase (if encrypted)

SkylerX opens an SSH tunnel and routes the database connection through it.

SSL / TLS

Switch to the SSL tab → enable SSL:

• Whether to verify the server certificate
• CA / cert / key (paste PEM text or pick a file)

Manual commit mode

Settings → Default commit mode (global) or per-connection → Advanced → Commit mode:

• auto (default): each statement commits immediately
• manual: the user must explicitly press "Commit / Rollback"; SkylerX pins a long-lived connection to hold the transaction

Great for data fixes / critical migrations. Strongly recommended for production connections.

Test connection

The "Test connection" button at the bottom of the form gives real-time feedback:

• ✅ Success + server version + round-trip latency
• ❌ Failure + error code + auto-classification ("refused" / "DNS" / "timeout" / "auth" / "SSL" etc.) + remediation steps

On a failed test, click "✨ Ask AI" to dump the error + connection metadata straight into the chat panel.

Production safeguards (env=prod)

Connections tagged prod get extra protection:

• A red [prod] badge appears at the tree root
• Running DROP TABLE / DATABASE / INDEX, TRUNCATE, or UPDATE/DELETE without WHERE requires typing the connection name to proceed
• AI answers are more conservative on prod (default SELECT-only style)

The environment tag is purely local config — it doesn't touch the database itself.

Encrypted password storage

Passwords are encrypted via the OS keychain:

• macOS: Keychain Access
• Windows: DPAPI (tied to the current logged-in user)
• Linux: Secret Service (GNOME Keyring / KWallet)

If the keychain is unavailable, SkylerX falls back to base64 encoding (clearly tagged with a plain: prefix and a not-secure warning). In production, make sure the keychain is available.

Grouping

Each connection can sit under a group (optional). The tree collapses by group:

📁 Development
   ├── Local MySQL
   └── Local PostgreSQL
📁 Testing
   └── Test OceanBase
📁 Production  ⚠
   └── prod-mysql [prod]

When creating a connection, type a name into the "Group" field (Enter to confirm).

Multiple windows (run queries in parallel)

⌘⇧N / Ctrl+Shift+N opens a fresh SPA window that loads the same config store. Each window has its own connections and doesn't interfere with the other.

Great for the "prod on the left, staging on the right" comparison workflow.

Delete a connection

Right-click the connection → Delete → confirm → removes the entry from SQLite and clears the matching keychain item.

The database itself is unaffected — only the SkylerX-side connection config disappears.