tp-connect

tp-connect opens database connection URLs from your .env file in TablePlus.

It is meant for people who already keep database credentials as connection strings and want a quick way to choose one or more connections from the terminal.

Requirements

• macOS
• TablePlus installed
• Node.js 20+

Install

Install it globally:

npm install -g tp-connect

Then run:

tp-connect

How It Works

1. Put a .env file in the directory where you want to run tp-connect.
2. Add one or more database connection URLs to that file.
3. Run tp-connect.
4. Select the connections you want with the checkbox prompt.
5. Press Enter to open them in TablePlus.

Selected connections are opened in TablePlus tabbed mode.

Example .env

You can use any variable names. tp-connect looks for values that are valid database URLs.

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://postgres:postgres@localhost:5432/app
ANALYTICS_URL=mysql://analytics:analytics@localhost:3306/warehouse
REPORTING_URL=mongodb://reporter:reporter@localhost:27017/reporting

Variable Expansion

You can build one connection string from smaller variables in the same .env file:

PG_USER=postgres
PG_PASSWORD=postgres
PG_HOST=localhost
PG_PORT=5432
PG_DB=app
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://${PG_USER}:${PG_PASSWORD}@${PG_HOST}:${PG_PORT}/${PG_DB}

Supported expansion syntax:

• $VAR
• ${VAR}

Rules:

• Expansion only uses variables from the same .env file.
• Missing variables expand to an empty string.
• Cyclic references fail with a clear error.

What Gets Shown In The Prompt

The selection list shows:

• the environment variable name
• a sanitized summary of the target connection

Credentials are never shown in the prompt labels or normal success output.

Notes

• Run tp-connect from the same directory as your .env file.
• If no valid database URLs are found, nothing will be shown to select.
• The current version supports macOS because it launches TablePlus with the macOS open command.