Command-Line Options

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

# 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

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

`-o, --output <PATH>`

Redirect query output to a file instead of stdout.

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

`-q, --quiet`

Suppress the startup banner and version information.

tursodb -q mydata.db

`-e, --echo`

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

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)

tursodb -v memory

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

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

tursodb -t trace.log mydata.db

`--readonly`

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

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

Attempting to write in read-only mode:

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.

tursodb --mcp mydata.db

`--sync-server <ADDRESS>`

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

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.

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

Flag	Description
`--experimental-views`	Enable views (`CREATE VIEW` / `CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW`)
`--experimental-custom-types`	Enable custom types (`CREATE TYPE` / `DROP TYPE` / `CREATE DOMAIN` / `DROP DOMAIN`)
`--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-attach`	Enable `ATTACH DATABASE` / `DETACH DATABASE`
`--experimental-generated-columns`	Enable virtual `GENERATED ALWAYS AS` columns
`--experimental-without-rowid`	Enable `WITHOUT ROWID` tables
`--experimental-multiprocess-wal`	Enable sharing a database between processes via a shared WAL coordinator
`--experimental-mvcc-passive-checkpoint`	Enable passive checkpointing under MVCC (`journal_mode=mvcc`)

Triggers (CREATE TRIGGER / DROP TRIGGER) are stable as of Turso 0.7 and no longer require a flag.

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

Other Flags

Flag	Description
`--mvcc`	Start the MVCC concurrent-transaction harness instead of the normal shell
`--unsafe-testing`	Enable unsafe testing features (e.g., `sqlite_dbpage` writes)
`-h, --help`	Print usage help
`-V, --version`	Print version information

Getting Started

Fundamentals

AI and Agents

CLI Reference

SQL Reference

Changelog

Command-Line Options

Command-Line Options

Arguments

Examples

Options

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

`-o, --output <PATH>`

`-q, --quiet`

`-e, --echo`

`-v, --vfs <VFS>`

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

`--readonly`

`--mcp`

`--sync-server <ADDRESS>`

Experimental Feature Flags

Other Flags

​Command-Line Options

​Arguments

​Examples

​Options

​-m, --output-mode <MODE>

​-o, --output <PATH>

​-q, --quiet

​-e, --echo

​-v, --vfs <VFS>

​-t, --tracing-output <PATH>

​--readonly

​--mcp

​--sync-server <ADDRESS>

​Experimental Feature Flags

​Other Flags

Command-Line Options

Arguments

Examples

Options

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

`-o, --output <PATH>`

`-q, --quiet`

`-e, --echo`

`-v, --vfs <VFS>`

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

`--readonly`

`--mcp`

`--sync-server <ADDRESS>`

Experimental Feature Flags

Other Flags