Command-Line Options

bash

tursodb [OPTIONS] [DATABASE] [SQL]

Arguments

Argument	Default	Description
`DATABASE`	`:memory:`	Path to a SQLite database file. If omitted, an in-memory database is created
`SQL`	—	SQL statement to execute. If provided, the shell runs the query and exits

Examples

bash

# In-memory database
tursodb

# Open an existing file
tursodb customers.db

# Run a query and exit
tursodb customers.db "SELECT count(*) FROM orders;"

# Pipe SQL from stdin
echo "SELECT 1 + 1;" | tursodb -q

Options

`-m, --output-mode <MODE>`

Set the output display format.

Mode	Description
`pretty`	Table with borders (default)
`list`	Pipe-delimited values
`line`	One column per line with column names

bash

tursodb -m list mydata.db "SELECT * FROM users;"

`-o, --output <PATH>`

Redirect query output to a file instead of stdout.

bash

tursodb -o results.txt mydata.db "SELECT * FROM users;"

`-q, --quiet`

Suppress the startup banner and version information.

bash

tursodb -q mydata.db

`-e, --echo`

Print each SQL statement before executing it. Useful for debugging scripts.

bash

echo "SELECT 42;" | tursodb -q -e

SELECT 42;
42

`-v, --vfs <VFS>`

Select the Virtual File System backend.

VFS	Description
`syscall`	Standard OS file I/O (default)
`memory`	In-memory storage
`io_uring`	Linux io_uring (requires feature flag)

bash

tursodb -v memory

`-t, --tracing-output <PATH>`

Write internal log traces to a file. Useful for debugging and performance analysis.

bash

tursodb -t trace.log mydata.db

`--readonly`

Open the database in read-only mode. Write operations will return an error.

bash

tursodb --readonly production.db "SELECT count(*) FROM users;"

Attempting to write in read-only mode:

bash

tursodb --readonly production.db "INSERT INTO users VALUES (1, 'test');"
# Error: Resource is read-only

`--mcp`

Start a Model Context Protocol server instead of the interactive shell. This allows AI assistants and other MCP clients to interact with the database via JSON-RPC.

bash

tursodb --mcp mydata.db

`--sync-server <ADDRESS>`

Start a sync server for database replication, listening at the given address.

bash

tursodb --sync-server 0.0.0.0:8080 mydata.db

Experimental Feature Flags

These flags enable features that are still under development. They may change or be removed in future releases.

<Warning> Experimental features may have incomplete implementations or known limitations. Use them for testing and development only. </Warning>

Flag	Description
`--experimental-views`	Enable views (`CREATE VIEW` / `DROP VIEW`)
`--experimental-custom-types`	Enable custom types (`CREATE TYPE` / `DROP TYPE`)
`--experimental-encryption`	Enable at-rest database encryption
`--experimental-index-method`	Enable custom index methods. Necessary for FTS and Sparse Vector indexes
`--experimental-autovacuum`	Enable automatic database vacuuming
`--experimental-vacuum`	Enable in-place `VACUUM`
`--experimental-triggers`	Enable triggers (`CREATE TRIGGER` / `DROP TRIGGER`)
`--experimental-attach`	Enable `ATTACH DATABASE` / `DETACH DATABASE`

bash

# Enable views, triggers, and in-place VACUUM
tursodb --experimental-views --experimental-triggers --experimental-vacuum mydata.db

Other Flags

Flag	Description
`--unsafe-testing`	Enable unsafe testing features (e.g., `sqlite_dbpage` writes)
`-h, --help`	Print usage help
`-V, --version`	Print version information