mycli is a terminal client for MySQL that provides auto-completion, syntax highlighting, and dataframe support.
The tool addresses the friction of working with MySQL databases from the command line by offering intelligent auto-completion that understands SQL context, syntax highlighting for readability, and integration with data transformation tools. When you type a query, mycli suggests relevant keywords, table names, and column names based on what you are writing. It supports fuzzy history search, query timing, SSL connections, and can log all queries to a file. The tool works with MySQL, MariaDB, Percona, TiDB, and Apache Doris.
Developers working regularly with MySQL databases from the terminal should consider mycli if they want faster query writing and better visibility into results. It suits teams that value developer experience and want to reduce typing overhead during database exploration and ad-hoc querying. The README names pgcli as the Postgres equivalent, indicating the tool occupies a similar niche for MySQL users. Optional features like fuzzy search and syntax highlighting depend on installing additional packages, so the core experience can be kept lightweight if needed.
The project maintains active development with regular updates to its codebase. Contributors have documented a clear development setup process to lower the barrier for participation. The tool continues to evolve with modern features such as Polars dataframe transforms, LLM query support, and system keyring integration for password storage, showing responsiveness to emerging use cases beyond traditional SQL execution.
