Running queries

Ask a question about your data. SQLsaber writes SQL, runs it, and explains the result.

Start interactive mode

saber

Type /help for slash commands. Type @ and press Tab to complete a table name. The full list is in Commands.

Ask one question

saber "How many orders were placed last week?"

Use this in scripts, for a quick check, or for a one-line report.

Pipe a question

echo "Count all active customers from last week" | saber

cat query.txt | saber

Select a database

If a default connection exists:

saber "Show me sales data"

To use a saved connection by name:

saber -d prod-db "What's our revenue this month?"

To use a local file:

saber -d "./data/sales.db" "Top selling products"
saber -d "./data/warehouse.duckdb" "Latest partitions"
saber -d "./customers.csv" "How many customers per state?"
saber -d "./orders.parquet" "What is total revenue?"

To use a connection string for this run only:

saber -d "postgresql://user:pass@host:5432/db" "Count all users"

Turn thinking on or off

A fresh install has thinking on at medium. Raise the level for harder analysis. Turn thinking off when the question is small.

In interactive mode:

> /thinking
Thinking: enabled (medium)

> /thinking high
✓ Thinking: enabled (high)

> Analyze sales trends and forecast next quarter

> /thinking off
✓ Thinking: disabled

For a single query:

saber --thinking "Compare performance across regions with seasonal adjustments"

saber --no-thinking "How many users do we have?"

To save a default level, run saber models set and answer the thinking prompts. Check the saved values with saber models current.

Levels are off, minimal, low, medium, high, and maximum. Each level maps to a provider setting:

Anthropic: budget_tokens from 1,024 to 100,000
OpenAI: reasoning_effort from minimal to xhigh
Google: thinking_level from MINIMAL to HIGH
Groq: any non-off level enables reasoning

Start a fresh thread with context

When the conversation is long, or you want a new direction without losing what you found, run /handoff:

> /handoff optimize the monthly revenue query for better performance

SQLsaber summarizes the conversation, shows an editable draft prompt, ends the current thread, and starts a new one with that prompt.

Allow writes

SQLsaber allows SELECT only unless you pass --allow-dangerous:

saber --allow-dangerous "Insert a new user with email test@example.com"

saber --allow-dangerous

Dangerous mode allows INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE (UPDATE and DELETE require WHERE), plus CREATE TABLE, CREATE VIEW, CREATE INDEX, and ALTER TABLE.

It still blocks DROP, TRUNCATE, transaction control, GRANT, REVOKE, ATTACH, DETACH, and admin objects such as functions, procedures, triggers, users, roles, and databases.

The full policy is in Commands.

If the connection fails

saber db test my-database
saber db list