Quick Start Guide

This guide takes you from a fresh install to your first query result. It should take about fifteen minutes. You will install VisuaLeaf, create a connection to a database, explore its structure, run a query, and read the results.

VisuaLeaf works with MongoDB and with SQL databases — PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQL Server, Oracle, and SQLite — from the same window. Where the steps differ between the two, this guide shows both.

Step 1: Run VisuaLeaf

When you launch VisuaLeaf, the Welcome screen opens. It shows your license status, quick actions for getting connected, and your three most recent connections.

Activate your license

Click Login or Register in the header. Registering starts your 14-day Pro trial — it runs from the moment you sign up — and unlocks the Quick Start actions, which stay disabled until a license is active.

Once you are signed in, the license card shows your email, plan, and expiration date. On a trial, a badge counts down the days remaining — blue above 7 days, orange at 4–7, red at 3 or fewer.

Get to know the workspace

VisuaLeaf is organized around four areas. Everything in this guide happens in one of them.

Step 2: Create a connection

A connection stores everything VisuaLeaf needs to reach one server: the host and port, the database name, credentials, and any TLS or SSH settings. Connections are saved locally and can be grouped into projects and environments — for example a Billing project with dev, staging, and prod environments.

Open the Connection Manager from the Welcome screen or the toolbar, then click New Connection.

Connect to MongoDB

1. Set Database Type to MongoDB.
2. Give the connection a name you will recognize later, such as Billing — staging.
3. If you already have a connection string, click Create from URL and paste it. VisuaLeaf populates the host, port, credentials, and options across every tab for you. Both mongodb:// and mongodb+srv:// Atlas strings work.
4. If you would rather fill things in by hand, use the Server tab and pick a connection type: standalone, replica set, sharded cluster, or DNS seedlist.
5. On the Authentication tab, choose your mechanism. SCRAM-SHA-256 is the default; X.509, AWS IAM, LDAP, Kerberos, and OIDC are also supported.

Connect to a SQL database

PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQL Server, and Oracle follow the same shape:

1. Set Database Type to your engine.
2. Enter the host and port. The standard ports are 5432 for PostgreSQL, 3306 for MySQL and MariaDB, 1433 for SQL Server, and 1521 for Oracle.
3. Enter the database (or service) name and your username and password.
4. Set the SSL mode on the SSL/TLS tab if your server requires an encrypted connection.

Connect to SQLite

SQLite has no server. Set Database Type to SQLite and point VisuaLeaf at the database file on disk. There is no host, port, or authentication to configure.

Test and save

Click Test Connection. It validates the configuration without saving it, and shows step-by-step progress through network connectivity, authentication, the SSL/TLS handshake, and database access — so when something fails you can see which stage it failed at. When the test passes, click Save & Connect.

Step 3: Explore the database

After connecting, your server appears in the sidebar as a tree. Expand it to work down through the hierarchy.

• Connection → expand to list databases.
• Database → expand to list collections, views, and GridFS buckets (MongoDB), or schemas and tables (SQL).
• Collection or table → click to open it in a new tab.

Two things worth learning early:

• The search box at the top of the sidebar filters the whole tree as you type, so you do not have to expand your way down to a collection you already know the name of.
• Right-clicking any node opens a context menu with the operations that apply to it — export, index management, statistics, drop, rename, and so on.

Step 4: Run your first query

Query a MongoDB collection

Click a collection in the sidebar. It opens in the Collection View, already showing the first page of documents.

1. Type a filter into the Query field, for example { status: "active" }.
2. Press Enter or click Run.
3. Results replace the document list below.

If you would rather not write the filter by hand, toggle the Query Builder and assemble conditions from dropdowns. The builder and the raw query stay in sync, so you can start visually and switch to text once you know what you want.

Query a SQL database

For SQL connections, open the SQL Editor from the activity bar or with Ctrl + Shift + S.

1. Type a statement, for example SELECT * FROM customers WHERE country = 'FR';. Autocomplete suggests table and column names as you type.
2. Press F5 to run the whole buffer, or highlight a fragment and press F9 to run just the selection.
3. If the buffer holds several statements separated by ;, you get one result tab per statement.

Step 5: View, sort, and filter the data

Results are shown in whichever view suits the shape of your data. Switch between them at any time.

• Sort by clicking a column header in Table View, or by setting a sort document in the query bar.
• Search within the loaded results with Ctrl + F.
• Refresh with F5 to re-run the current query against the server.

Step 6: Edit and export

Click any value in Tree or Table View to edit it inline. The input is type-aware — dates, ObjectIds, Decimal128, and arrays are validated as you type — and the change is saved as soon as you commit it. Every mutation goes through the command history, so Ctrl + Z undoes it and Ctrl + Shift + Z redoes it.

To get data out, right-click a collection or database in the sidebar and choose Export Data:

1. Pick a target format — JSON, CSV, SQL, BSON, or another MongoDB collection.
2. Configure field mapping and transformations if you need to reshape the output.
3. Click Execute to run it now, or Save to schedule it.

Long-running exports run in the background. Track them in the Task Manager.

Keyboard shortcuts worth learning

On macOS, use Cmd wherever Ctrl is listed.

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl + K	Open the command palette
Ctrl + F	Search within the current results
Ctrl + 1 / 2 / 3	Switch to Tree / Table / BSON view
Ctrl + Shift + S	Open the SQL Editor
F5	Refresh results, or run the whole SQL buffer
F9	Run the selected SQL fragment
Ctrl + F5	Run SQL up to the cursor

Where to go next

You now have a working connection and can read your data. These are the features most people reach for next:

If something does not work

Still stuck? Ask in Discord or send us a note from the contact page.

Related pages

• Welcome Screen — reference for everything on the start screen
• Connection Manager — every connection option in detail, including TLS, SSH, and auth mechanisms
• Sidebar — navigating databases, collections, and views
• Collection View — the three result views and what each is good for
• Layout System — tabs, split panels, and workspace management
• Command Palette — reaching anything by typing