sqlfmt-cli

A fast, dependency-free SQL formatter and minifier for the command line. Same formatting engine as the web version — pretty-prints SELECT/FROM/WHERE/JOIN clauses, subqueries, CTEs, CASE expressions, and multi-statement scripts, with configurable indentation, keyword case, and comma style.

No dependencies. No network calls. Works on .sql files, directories, or piped stdin.

Install

npm install -g sqlfmt-cli

Or run it without installing:

npx sqlfmt-cli query.sql

Usage

sqlfmt [options] [file|dir ...]
cat query.sql | sqlfmt [options]

Options

| Flag | Description | Default | |-------------------|------------------------------------------------------------|---------| | --indent <n> | Indent width in spaces | 4 | | --case <mode> | Keyword case: upper | lower | capitalize | preserve | upper | | --fn-case <mode>| Function case: upper | lower | preserve | upper | | --comma <pos> | Comma position: after | before | after | | --minify | Minify instead of pretty-print | | | -w, --write | Overwrite files in place instead of printing to stdout | | | --check | Exit 1 if any file isn't already formatted (CI mode) | | | -v, --version | Print version | | | -h, --help | Show help | |

Examples

# print formatted query to stdout
sqlfmt query.sql

# format every .sql file under a directory, in place
sqlfmt -w src/queries/

# CI check — fails the build if anything needs formatting
sqlfmt --check src/queries/

# pipe SQL in, lowercase keywords out
cat query.sql | sqlfmt --case lower

# minify a query for embedding in application code
sqlfmt --minify query.sql

Use it in CI

# .github/workflows/sql-lint.yml
- run: npx sqlfmt-cli --check src/queries/

Use it as a pre-commit hook

npx sqlfmt-cli -w $(git diff --cached --name-only --diff-filter=ACM -- '*.sql')
git add -u

Use it as a library

const { formatSql, minifySql } = require('sqlfmt-cli');

formatSql('select id,name from users where active=1;', {
  keywordCase: 'upper',
  indentSize: 4,
  commaPosition: 'after',
});

What it handles

• SELECT / FROM / WHERE / JOIN (all variants) / GROUP BY / HAVING / ORDER BY / LIMIT
• INSERT INTO ... VALUES, UPDATE ... SET, DELETE FROM
• WITH common table expressions, including multiple chained CTEs
• Subqueries, recursively indented
• CASE WHEN ... THEN ... ELSE END
• AND / OR chains
• Line comments (--) and block comments (/* */)
• String literals, quoted identifiers (`, ", [ ] — MySQL/Postgres/SQL Server), bind variables
• Multi-statement scripts (semicolon-separated)

Development

npm test

License

MIT