Postico

User Guide

Getting Started

• Get started with Postgres.app
• Connecting to a local PostgreSQL server

Using Postico

• Working with Favorites
• Using Connection URLs
• Importing and Exporting data
• Using the table DDL view
• Autosaving Queries
• Keyboard Shortcuts

Troubleshooting

• Common Connection Problems
• Reporting Bugs

More Information

• Changelist
• Security Features
• Automatic Update Checking
• Automatic Crash Reporting
• Acknowledgements
• License Terms

Connection URLs

Postico supports using connection URLs for connecting to PostgreSQL servers.

A typical connection URL might look like this:

postgresql://jakob@localhost/marketing

This URL would connect to a server running locally (localhost), with user name "jakob", and connect to the database "marketing"

What you can do with connection URLs

• connect to a PostgreSQL server by clicking a link on a website (eg. an internal dashboard)
• open Postico from the command line with the open command
• create and update favorites from the command line

URL Schemes supported by Postico

Postico opens URLs with any of the following schemes:

• postgres:
• postgresql:
• redshift:
• postico:
• postgres+ssh:
• postgresql+ssh:
• postico+ssh:

postgres and postgresql can both be used for direct connections to PostgreSQL servers.

redshift is provided as an alternative for connecting to Amazon Redshift clusters. Postico treats it the same as postgres:

postico: is an alternative url scheme that you can use if you have multiple apps that support postgres: URLs, but want to open Postico specifically

postgres+ssh: can be used to connect to a PostgreSQL server via an SSH tunnel (see examples)

Example URLs

• postgres://user:password@host:port/database
• postgres+ssh://sshuser:sshpassword@sshhost:sshport/user:password@host/database
• postgres://user:password@host/database?ssh_user=sshuser&ssh_host=sshhost

Supported Query Parameters

nickname

A nick name for the connection. Can be used when creating a new favorite, or when updating an existing favorite.

uuid

A UUID in standard format for the favorite. If none is provided, a random UUID will be generated. This is useful if you want to update the favorite later, but want to allow changing the nickname manually. Example: e6ad04c5-9ebb-4e5c-95d0-9c634f373c83

dbname

The database name to connect to.

host

The host name of the dataase server.

user

The user name for the dataase server

password

The password for the dataase server

port

The port number that the database is running on. Default is 5432

ssh_enabled

Can be 'true' or 'false'. Wheter to connect via SSH tunnel or not.

ssh_host

The host name of the SSH server.

ssh_port

The port of the SSH server. Default is 22

ssh_user

The username for authenticating with the SSH server.

ssh_password

The password for the SSH server.

ssh_private_key_path

Provide the path to a private key file for authenticating to an SSH server.

create_favorite

Can be 'true' or 'false'. Default 'true'. Whether to automatically create a favorite when no matching favorite was found. If you set this to 'false', Postico will connect to the URL without creating a favorite. This avoids cluttering the Favorites window if you use many different connections, but it also disables some features that rely on favorites, like query history.

connect_favorite

Can be 'true' or 'false'. Default 'true'. When this is true, Postico immediately connects to the favorite corresponding to the URL. When it is false, Postico only shows the favorite in the favorite window, but does not connect.