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Shell Commands

Dot commands are special commands available in the interactive shell. They start with a period (.) and do not require a trailing semicolon. 
tursodb> .help

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Database & Navigation

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.open

Open a database file, optionally specifying a VFS backend. 
.open <PATH> [VFS]

tursodb> .open mydata.db
tursodb> .open mydata.db memory

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.quit

Exit the shell. Aliases: .q, .qu, .qui. 
tursodb> .quit

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.exit

Exit the shell with an optional return code. Aliases: .ex, .exi. 
.exit [CODE]

tursodb> .exit
tursodb> .exit 1

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.cd

Change the current working directory. 
.cd <DIRECTORY>

tursodb> .cd /tmp

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Schema Inspection

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.tables

List all tables in the database, optionally filtered by a pattern. 
.tables [PATTERN]

CREATE TABLE employees (id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, name TEXT);
CREATE TABLE departments (id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, name TEXT);

tursodb> .tables
employees
departments

tursodb> .tables emp%
employees

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.schema

Display the CREATE statement for a table, or all tables if no argument is given. 
.schema [TABLE]

tursodb> .schema employees
CREATE TABLE employees (id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, name TEXT);

tursodb> .schema
CREATE TABLE employees (id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, name TEXT);
CREATE TABLE departments (id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, name TEXT);

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.indexes

Show index names, optionally filtered by table. 
.indexes [TABLE]

CREATE TABLE employees (id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, name TEXT, department TEXT);
CREATE INDEX idx_dept ON employees(department);
CREATE INDEX idx_name ON employees(name);

tursodb> .indexes
idx_dept
idx_name

tursodb> .indexes employees
idx_dept
idx_name

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.databases

List all attached databases. 
tursodb> .databases
main: /path/to/mydata.db r/w

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Output Control

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.mode

Set the output display mode. 
.mode <MODE>
ModeDescription
prettyTable with borders (default)
listPipe-delimited values
lineOne column per line with column names
tursodb> .mode list
tursodb> SELECT 1 AS a, 2 AS b;
1|2

tursodb> .mode line
tursodb> SELECT 1 AS a, 2 AS b;
a = 1
b = 2

tursodb> .mode pretty
tursodb> SELECT 1 AS a, 2 AS b;
┌───┬───┐
│ a │ b │
├───┼───┤
│ 1 │ 2 │
└───┴───┘

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.headers

Toggle column headers on or off in list mode. 
.headers <on|off>

tursodb> .mode list
tursodb> .headers on
tursodb> SELECT 1 AS x, 2 AS y;
x|y
1|2

tursodb> .headers off
tursodb> SELECT 1 AS x, 2 AS y;
1|2

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.nullvalue

Set the string displayed for NULL values in list mode. 
.nullvalue <STRING>

tursodb> .mode list
tursodb> .nullvalue [NULL]
tursodb> SELECT 1 AS a, NULL AS b;
1|[NULL]

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.output

Redirect query output to a file. Call with no argument or stdout to restore output to the terminal. 
.output [PATH]

tursodb> .output results.txt
tursodb> SELECT * FROM employees;
tursodb> .output
tursodb> -- Output is back to the terminal

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.echo

Toggle echo mode. When on, each SQL statement is printed before execution. 
.echo <on|off>

tursodb> .echo on
tursodb> SELECT 42;
SELECT 42;
┌────┐
│ 42 │
├────┤
│ 42 │
└────┘

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.show

Display current shell settings. 
tursodb> .show
Settings:
Output mode: pretty
DB: mydata.db
Output: STDOUT
Null value:
CWD: /home/user
Echo: off
Headers: off

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Performance & Diagnostics

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.timer

Toggle query timing. When on, shows execution time and I/O statistics after each query. 
.timer <on|off>

tursodb> .timer on
tursodb> SELECT 42;
42
Command stats:
----------------------------
total: 442 us (this includes parsing/coloring of cli app)

query execution stats:
----------------------------
Execution: avg=4 us, total=8 us
I/O: No samples available

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.stats

Display database statistics. Use on/off to toggle automatic display after every query, or --reset to clear counters. 
.stats [on|off] [--reset]

tursodb> .stats
Connection Metrics:
  Total statements:     3
  High-water marks:
    Max VM steps:       19
    Max rows read:      1

Aggregate Statistics:
Statement Metrics:
  Row Operations:
    Rows read:        1
    Rows written:     2
  Execution:
    VM steps:         48
    Instructions:     47
  ...

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.opcodes

Show VDBE (Virtual Database Engine) opcodes with descriptions. Optionally filter by opcode name. 
.opcodes [OPCODE]

tursodb> .opcodes Integer
Integer
-------
The 64-bit integer value P1 is written into register P2. This is different
from SQLite, where this opcode is used for 32-bit integers

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.vfslist

List available Virtual File System modules. 
tursodb> .vfslist
Available VFS modules:
memory
syscall

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Data Import & Export

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.dump

Output the entire database as SQL statements that can recreate it. 
tursodb> .dump
PRAGMA foreign_keys=OFF;
BEGIN TRANSACTION;
CREATE TABLE employees (id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, name TEXT);
INSERT INTO "employees" VALUES(1,'Alice');
INSERT INTO "employees" VALUES(2,'Bob');
COMMIT;
The output of .dump can be piped into another Turso instance to recreate the database:
tursodb original.db ".dump" | tursodb -q clone.db

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.import

Import data from a file into a table. 
.import [--csv] [--skip N] [--verbose] <FILE> <TABLE>
OptionDefaultDescription
--csvonUse comma as field separator and newline as record separator
--skip N0Skip the first N rows (useful for skipping a header row)
--verboseoffPrint progress information during import
tursodb> CREATE TABLE people (name TEXT, age INTEGER);
tursodb> .import --csv --skip 1 data.csv people
tursodb> SELECT * FROM people;
┌─────────┬─────┐
│ name    │ age │
├─────────┼─────┤
│ Alice   │  30 │
├─────────┼─────┤
│ Bob     │  25 │
├─────────┼─────┤
│ Charlie │  35 │
└─────────┴─────┘
Given a CSV file data.csv: 
name,age
Alice,30
Bob,25
Charlie,35

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.clone

Clone the current database to a new file. 
.clone <OUTPUT_FILE>

tursodb> .clone backup.db
employees... done

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.read

Execute SQL statements from a file. 
.read <PATH>

tursodb> .read setup.sql

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.load

Load an extension library. 
.load <PATH>

tursodb> .load ./liblimbo_regexp
Only Turso-native extensions can be loaded. SQLite .so/.dll loadable extensions are not supported. See the Extensions documentation for available extensions.

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Debugging

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.dbtotxt

Display raw database page contents in hex format. Useful for debugging storage-level issues. 
.dbtotxt [--page PAGE_NO]

tursodb> .dbtotxt --page 1
| size 8192 pagesize 4096 filename :memory:
| page 1 offset 0
|      0: 53 51 4c 69 74 65 20 66 6f 72 6d 61 74 20 33 00   SQLite format 3.
|     16: 10 00 02 02 00 40 20 20 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 02   .....@  ........
...

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.dbconfig

Print or set database configuration flags. Currently a no-op in Turso. 
.dbconfig [CONFIG] [on|off]

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Documentation

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.manual

Display built-in manual pages for Turso features. Call with no argument to list all available manuals. 
.manual [PAGE]
Aliases: .man. 
tursodb> .manual
# Turso Manual Pages

Available manuals:
  custom-types    Custom Types for STRICT Tables
  cdc             Change Data Capture
  encryption      At-Rest Database Encryption
  vector          Vector Search
  materialized-views  Live Materialized Views
  mcp             Model Context Protocol server

tursodb> .manual vector