Zero-Config Detection

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DevDb reads the configuration of your project and connects to the database. You do not write a connection. Detected databases show under Local Databases in the DevDb panel.

DevDb looks in the root folder of the workspace. To use a different folder, set Devdb.customBasePath.

If DevDb does not find your database, use a config file.

Summary

Source	SQLite	MySQL / MariaDB	PostgreSQL	Other
Laravel	Yes	Yes	Yes	SQL Server, Redis, MongoDB
Laravel Sail	—	Yes	—	—
Ruby on Rails	Yes	Yes	Yes	—
Django	Yes	Yes	Yes	—
AdonisJS	—	Yes	Yes	—
DDEV	—	Yes	Yes	—
Supabase (local)	—	—	Yes	—
Neon Pro	—	—	Yes	—
Connection URL, Prisma, Drizzle, docker-compose	Yes	Yes	Yes	SQL Server, MongoDB, Redis, ClickHouse
Cloudflare D1 (local)	Yes	—	—	—
Turso Pro	—	—	—	libSQL
DynamoDB Local Pro	—	—	—	DynamoDB

Laravel

DevDb uses Laravel detection when the workspace has a composer.json file.

SQLite

DevDb connects when DB_CONNECTION=sqlite is in .env and config/database.php uses the default SQLite path. DevDb uses the file in DB_DATABASE. If DB_DATABASE is not set, it uses database/database.sqlite.

MySQL, MariaDB and PostgreSQL

DevDb reads these keys from .env:

DB_CONNECTION=mysql   # or mariadb, pgsql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=my_app
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=secret

If DB_HOST is not set, DevDb uses 127.0.0.1. If DB_PORT is not set, DevDb uses 3306 for MySQL and 5432 for PostgreSQL.

Laravel Sail

If the project has a Sail docker-compose.yml, DevDb connects to 127.0.0.1 on the forwarded port (for example ${FORWARD_DB_PORT:-3306}:3306). If that connection fails, DevDb uses DB_PORT from .env.

This also works in dev containers.

DDEV projects

In a Laravel project that runs in DDEV, DevDb ignores .env and uses DDEV detection.

Ruby on Rails

DevDb runs bin/rails runner (or bundle exec rails runner) to read the database configuration from config/database.yml. It supports SQLite, MySQL and PostgreSQL.

Requirements:

• Ruby and the gems of the project are installed.
• bin/rails runner works in the workspace root.

Django

DevDb runs python manage.py shell to read DATABASES from settings.py. It supports SQLite, MySQL and PostgreSQL.

Requirements:

• manage.py is in the workspace root.
• A virtual environment is in venv/ in the workspace root (venv/bin/python, or venv\Scripts\python.exe on Windows).
• Django and the database driver are installed in that virtual environment.

AdonisJS

DevDb reads the Lucid configuration (config/database.ts or config/database.js) and these keys from .env:

DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=5432
DB_USER=postgres
DB_PASSWORD=secret
DB_DATABASE=my_app

It supports MySQL and PostgreSQL.

DDEV

For a project that runs in DDEV, DevDb runs ddev describe -j and connects to the MySQL, MariaDB or PostgreSQL database of the project.

Requirements:

• The ddev command is installed.
• The DDEV project is running (ddev start).

DevDb is listed in the DDEV documentation.

Supabase (local)

DevDb detects a local Supabase project from supabase/config.toml. It runs supabase status to get the connection details. The default database port is 54322.

Requirements:

• The Supabase CLI is installed.
• The local stack is running (supabase start).

For a Supabase cloud project, use a direct remote connection.

Neon

Pro

DevDb looks for a Neon connection string (a host that ends with .neon.tech) in .env and .env.local, then offers to connect. See Neon.

More sources

DevDb 4 reads more files in each workspace folder. It reads these files only. It never runs them.

Each database gets its own row, named after its source, for example Postgres (Prisma) or Redis (docker-compose: cache). When more than one source points to the same database, DevDb shows one row and lists the other sources under it.

Source	Files	Engines
Connection URL	.env, .env.local, .env.development	PostgreSQL, MySQL/MariaDB, SQL Server, MongoDB, Redis/Valkey, ClickHouse, SQLite
Prisma	prisma/schema.prisma, schema.prisma, prisma/schema/*.prisma, prisma.config.ts	PostgreSQL, CockroachDB, MySQL, SQL Server, MongoDB, SQLite
Drizzle	drizzle.config.ts, .js, .mjs	PostgreSQL, MySQL, SingleStore, SQLite
docker-compose	compose.yaml/.yml, docker-compose.yaml/.yml and the .override file	PostgreSQL, MySQL/MariaDB, SQL Server, MongoDB, Redis/Valkey, ClickHouse
Laravel	.env	SQL Server, Redis, MongoDB

Redis and ClickHouse need DevDb Pro. Without a license, DevDb shows them as locked rows and does not connect to them.

Connection URL

DevDb reads these variables: DATABASE_URL, POSTGRES_URL, MYSQL_URL, MONGODB_URI, MONGO_URL, REDIS_URL, CLICKHOUSE_URL. It looks in .env, .env.local and .env.development. The first file that sets a variable wins.

DATABASE_URL=postgres://app:secret@localhost:5432/app
REDIS_URL=redis://localhost:6379/0

• SQL Server: a URL or a Server=...; connection string.
• ClickHouse: only an http:// or https:// URL in CLICKHOUSE_URL.
• SQLite: a file: URL.

Prisma

DevDb reads the datasource of the Prisma schema. It also reads prisma.config.ts (Prisma 7). A SQLite path is relative to the schema file.

Drizzle

DevDb reads dbCredentials in drizzle.config.ts, .js or .mjs: a url, or host, port, user, password and database. The values can be literals or process.env.X.

A config with dialect: 'turso' goes to Turso.

docker-compose

DevDb reads services that publish a port. It gets credentials from environment, and ${VAR:-default} values from .env.

Images	Engine
postgres, pgvector, postgis, timescaledb	PostgreSQL
mysql, mariadb, percona	MySQL / MariaDB
SQL Server	SQL Server
mongo	MongoDB
redis, valkey, redis-stack, keydb, dragonfly	Redis / Valkey
clickhouse	ClickHouse

DevDb also finds DynamoDB Local services.

MySQL and PostgreSQL services of a Laravel project stay with the Laravel source.

Laravel: SQL Server, Redis and MongoDB

DevDb reads more Laravel connections from .env:

• SQL Server: DB_CONNECTION=sqlsrv.
• Redis: REDIS_* values, when a cache, session, queue or broadcast driver is redis (CACHE_STORE, CACHE_DRIVER, SESSION_DRIVER, QUEUE_CONNECTION, BROADCAST_CONNECTION or BROADCAST_DRIVER). Redis needs DevDb Pro.
• MongoDB: the mongodb/laravel-mongodb package, with DB_CONNECTION=mongodb or MONGODB_URI.

TLS

• sslmode=require turns on TLS without a certificate check, as in libpq.
• sslmode=verify-full turns on TLS and checks the certificate.

Not in these sources

• Neon (*.neon.tech) and Supabase (*.supabase.co) hosts stay with their own providers.
• libSQL/Turso and Cloudflare D1 have their own providers. See Turso and Cloudflare D1.

Cloudflare D1 (local)

DevDb finds the d1_databases bindings in wrangler.json, wrangler.jsonc or wrangler.toml and opens the local SQLite file of each binding. Local D1 is free. See Cloudflare D1.

Turso

Pro

DevDb finds TURSO_DATABASE_URL and TURSO_AUTH_TOKEN in .env, or a drizzle.config with dialect: 'turso'. See Turso.

Detection order and conflicts

DevDb lists every source that it detects. If more than one source is available, select one in the panel.

To see why a source is not detected, open the DevDb output channel. See Troubleshooting.