gossms

README

goSSMS

SQL Server Management Studio clone for MacOS, Linux and Windows.

goSSMS is a cross-platform, terminal-based SQL Server Management Studio clone written in Go. No GUI, no X11, no CGO, no installation — a single executable that runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows with no SQL client tools or drivers required.

Features

• Object Explorer — browse servers, databases, tables, views, procedures, functions, triggers, sequences, synonyms, and security objects in a tree matching SSMS's layout, including system databases/objects grouped separately. Drag a node into a query editor to insert its (schema-qualified) name. Right-click for context actions, or take a database offline/online.
• Multiple query panels — open as many T-SQL editor + results tabs as you need. Scripts split on GO batches sharing one connection, each result set gets its own tab, and a Messages tab collects PRINT output, row counts, and errors. Results are never row-capped — every row a query returns is shown, so a large enough result set is limited only by available memory. The toolbar's Meta toggle (also Query > Output Column Metadata) adds each result set's columns and their declared types to the Messages tab.
• SQL editor — syntax highlighting, word-wrap, line duplicate/move/ indent/comment, undo/redo, and smart statement selection for running just the statement under the cursor.
• IntelliSense — autocompletes schemas, tables, views, and columns as you type, understands table aliases and multi-statement scripts, and can be toggled off in Options.
• Execution Plan Viewer — view estimated or actual execution plans as a cost-weighted operator graph, an expandable tree, or syntax-highlighted raw XML.
• Cell values worth reading get a real view — "Show Value" on an XML or JSON result cell opens it in its own syntax-highlighted panel instead of a narrow popup.
• Properties dialogs — multi-page, editable SSMS-style Properties for Server, Database, Login, Table, Schema, Server Role, Database Role, Database User, Index/Statistics, Key, and Foreign Key, plus New Database / New Login dialogs for creating objects from scratch.
• SQL Server Agent — browse and manage Jobs, Schedules, Alerts, and Operators; multi-page Job Properties (steps, schedules, alerts, notifications, history), run/stop a job, and view its run history.
• Backup & Restore — full option dialogs (destination, type, media, compression, point-in-time restore) running as cancellable background tasks with live progress.
• Full authentication support via gosmo: SQL Server Authentication, Windows Integrated Authentication, and Azure Entra ID (Default, Password, MSI, Service Principal, Interactive, Device Code, Azure CLI).
• Script objects — script any table/view/procedure/function as CREATE or DROP into a new query window.
• Object Dependencies — see what an object depends on and what depends on it.
• Configurable tree icon style (Emoji/Symbols/Portable/None), resizable panes, background task manager, status history log, and a Check for Updates dialog.

Future Plans

• Activity Monitor — SSMS's live view of current sessions, blocking chains, and resource waits
• Reports — a handful of the most useful built-in SSMS reports
• Always On Availability Groups (AAG) — viewing and managing availability group topology and health

Known Issues

• Some terminals (e.g. xfce4-terminal) eat some key shortcuts
• Entra authentication not tested at the moment — no infrastructure available
• Not tested on macOS yet — no Mac available
• Executables are built by GitHub but not signed; checksums are available
• Database Restore dialog needs a rework
• SQL Agent needs a complete rework

Prerequisites

• Go 1.26 or later (only needed to build from source)
• Access to a SQL Server instance
• A terminal emulator supporting 256 colours and UTF-8 (most modern ones do — without UTF-8, tree icons and box-drawing characters won't render correctly)

Installation

• Download the binary for your platform from the github Release and execute it.
• Does not have prerequisites like sql client, odbc etc.

https://github.com/radix29/gossms/releases

if you want to build it yourself:

git clone https://github.com/radix29/gossms.git
cd gossms
go build -o gossms ./cmd/gossms

# Or install directly
go install github.com/radix29/gossms/cmd/gossms@latest

Usage

./gossms

goSSMS opens the Connect to Server dialog on startup. Fill it in to connect, or press Escape to dismiss it and work offline — Ctrl+Shift+O reopens it at any time.

Keyboard Reference

Key	Action
F1	Help
F10	Activate menu bar
Ctrl+Q	Quit
Ctrl+Shift+O	Connect to server (falls back to Ctrl+O's behavior on terminals that can't distinguish the Shift)
Ctrl+O	Open a .sql file as a new query
Ctrl+N	New query panel
Ctrl+W	Close active query
Ctrl+S	Save query
Ctrl+C / Ctrl+X / Ctrl+V	Copy / cut / paste (on a focused results grid, Ctrl+C copies the selected cell or block)
Tab	Switch focus explorer ↔ panels
Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab	Cycle to next / previous panel
F5	Execute query (selection if any, else the whole query); also refreshes the selected tree node or Properties page
Ctrl+Enter	Select the T-SQL statement at the cursor without executing it
Ctrl+Left/Right	Narrow / widen object explorer
Ctrl+Up/Down	Grow / shrink query editor
Ctrl+PgUp/PgDn	Previous / next result tab
Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y	Undo / redo in editor
Ctrl+Space (query editor)	Open/force IntelliSense suggestions
Ctrl+R (query editor)	Refresh the cached table/column list
Shift+Arrow	Select text
Click + drag	Select text with the mouse
Mouse wheel (results grid)	Scroll rows (Shift+wheel scrolls columns)
Arrow keys	Navigate tree / grid
Enter / + / - / Backspace	Expand / collapse tree node
Shift+F10 / Menu key	Open the selected tree node's context menu
Right-click (grid cell)	"Show Value" — full cell text in a copyable popup

Configuration

A successful connection is saved automatically, most-recently-used first, capped at 15 profiles. In the Connect dialog, typing 4+ characters into the Server field looks up saved profiles by prefix.

Tools > Options controls the tree icon style, the results grid's maximum cell length, and IntelliSense on/off — saved immediately to the config file:

• Linux/macOS: ~/.config/gossms/config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\gossms\config.json

The config file is human-readable JSON, except saved passwords, which are encrypted (AES-256-GCM) using a key stored in a separate gossms.key file alongside it. Each password is sealed against the server, login, and authentication method it belongs to, so a password blob copied onto a different connection entry will not decrypt. Delete either file to reset all saved connections.

If config.json can't be parsed it is kept as config.json.corrupt before goSSMS falls back to defaults, and a password that can't be decrypted (a replaced key file, a hand-edit) is left on disk untouched rather than overwritten — re-enter it in the Connect dialog to replace it.

Contributing

The codebase is currently unstable and going through regular refactoring, so I'm not accepting pull requests at this time — please open an issue instead. I'll start accepting PRs once the project reaches a released, more stable state.

For the internal package layout and design rationale, see ARCHITECTURE.md.

License

MIT