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

.open

Open a database file, optionally specifying a VFS backend.

.open <PATH> [VFS]

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

.quit

Exit the shell. Aliases: .q, .qu, .qui.

tursodb> .quit

.exit

Exit the shell with an optional return code. Aliases: .ex, .exi.

.exit [CODE]

tursodb> .exit
tursodb> .exit 1

.cd

Change the current working directory.

.cd <DIRECTORY>

tursodb> .cd /tmp

Schema Inspection

.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

.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);

.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

.databases

List all attached databases.

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

Output Control

.mode

Set the output display mode.

.mode <MODE>

Mode	Description
`pretty`	Table with borders (default)
`list`	Pipe-delimited values
`line`	One 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 │
└───┴───┘

.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

.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]

.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

.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 │
└────┘

.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

Performance & Diagnostics

.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

.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
  ...

.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

.vfslist

List available Virtual File System modules.

tursodb> .vfslist
Available VFS modules:
memory
syscall

Data Import & Export

.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

.import

Import data from a file into a table.

.import [--csv] [--skip N] [--verbose] <FILE> <TABLE>

Option	Default	Description
`--csv`	on	Use comma as field separator and newline as record separator
`--skip N`	0	Skip the first N rows (useful for skipping a header row)
`--verbose`	off	Print 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

.clone

Clone the current database to a new file.

.clone <OUTPUT_FILE>

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

.read

Execute SQL statements from a file.

.read <PATH>

tursodb> .read setup.sql

.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.

Debugging

.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   .....@  ........
...

.dbconfig

Print or set database configuration flags. Currently a no-op in Turso.

.dbconfig [CONFIG] [on|off]

Documentation

.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

​Shell Commands

​Database & Navigation

​.open

​.quit

​.exit

​.cd

​Schema Inspection

​.tables

​.schema

​.indexes

​.databases

​Output Control

​.mode

​.headers

​.nullvalue

​.output

​.echo

​.show

​Performance & Diagnostics

​.timer

​.stats

​.opcodes

​.vfslist

​Data Import & Export

​.dump

​.import

​.clone

​.read

​.load

​Debugging

​.dbtotxt

​.dbconfig

​Documentation

​.manual

Shell Commands

Database & Navigation

.open

.quit

.exit

.cd

Schema Inspection

.tables

.schema

.indexes

.databases

Output Control

.mode

.headers

.nullvalue

.output

.echo

.show

Performance & Diagnostics

.timer

.stats

.opcodes

.vfslist

Data Import & Export

.dump

.import

.clone

.read

.load

Debugging

.dbtotxt

.dbconfig

Documentation

.manual