Hi everyone! đź‘‹
Back again with a fresh update on ChartDB - a self-hosted, open-source tool for visualizing and designing your database schemas.
Since our last post, we’ve shipped v1.16 and v1.17, focusing on better canvas interactions, smarter imports, and improved database coverage. Here’s what’s new 👇
Why ChartDB?
âś… Self-hosted - Full control, deploy via Docker
âś… Open-source - Community-driven and actively maintained
âś… No AI/API required - Deterministic SQL export, no external calls
âś… Modern & Fast - Built with React + Monaco Editor
âś… Multi-DB Support - PostgreSQL, MySQL, MSSQL, SQLite, ClickHouse, Oracle, Cloudflare D1
🔥 New in v1.16 & v1.17
- Canvas Editing Upgrades - Create tables, open table editors, and define relationships directly on the canvas
- Array Support - Full support for array fields across import/export and DBML
- Views Support - Import and visualize database views
- Quick Edit Mode - One-click edit for tables without switching modes
- DBML Diff Preview - Preview changes to field types and relationships before applying
- Smarter Imports - Detect auto-increment fields, parse more SQL variants
- Improved PostgreSQL & SQL Server Support - Includes default values, new types, and
ALTER TABLEhandling - Canvas Filters 2.0 - Improved tree state, toggle logic, and filter behaviors
- UI Polish & Fixes - 50+ fixes including performance, layout, field handling, and DDL exports
🔮 What’s Next
- Version control - Git-backed diagram history
- Sticky notes - Annotate diagrams visually
- Docker improvements - Support for sub-route deployments
đź”— Live Demo / Cloud
đź”— GitHub
đź”— Docs
We're continuing to build based on community feedback, feel free to open issues, suggest features, or share how you’re using it!
Thanks again to everyone in selfhosted who’s supported ChartDB so far 🙌

9 Comments
QueenMidna@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 286d
Support for Big Data types (maps, hash sets ,structs) would be wonderful
johnnyfish@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 286d
Hey! We actually support some of these already, for example, in PostgreSQL we handle jsonb and array-like types pretty well. Curious, which database are you referring to?
QueenMidna@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 286d
Hadoop and other big data sources such as Spark
Tangent5280@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 286d
Looks great! I'll give it a try. Do you have a forum or discussions board?
johnnyfish@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 284d
Thanks! Glad you like it 🙌 We don’t have a forum yet, but we do have a Discord where users share feedback and ask questionsl, you’re more than welcome to join: https://discord.com/invite/QeFwyWSKwC
igorette@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 287d
Support for DuckDB would be nice and appreciated
johnnyfish@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 286d
Thanks! DuckDB is definitely on our radar, a few others have asked for it too in this GitHub issue: #865. I’d suggest dropping a 👍 there so we can keep track of interest!
recklessengagement@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 287d
I like the UI. I'll give it a test run when I find some time
johnnyfish@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 286d
Awesome, thanks! Hope you’ll like it, would love to hear what you think once you’ve played with it a bit.