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QueryBox is a database management tool built with a plugin-based architecture. This guide will help you get started with contributing to the project.

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What You Can Contribute

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Core Application

  • Backend services (Go)
  • Frontend UI (Vue 3)
  • Desktop integration (Wails v3)
  • Connection and credential management

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Plugin Development

  • Database driver plugins (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MongoDB, Redis, ArangoDB, etc.)
  • New database type support
  • Plugin SDK improvements

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Documentation

  • User guides
  • API documentation
  • Architecture documentation

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Project Structure

├── main.go                     # Application entry point
├── services/                   # Core services (connection, credential, plugin manager)
├── pkg/plugin/                 # Plugin SDK — ServeCLI helper and type aliases
├── plugins/                    # Plugin source code
│   ├── mysql/
│   ├── postgresql/
│   ├── sqlite/
│   └── template/               # Starting point for new plugins
├── contracts/plugin/v1/        # Protobuf definitions
├── rpc/contracts/plugin/v1/    # Generated Go code (pluginpb)
├── frontend/                   # Vue 3 frontend
├── docs/                       # Design and architecture documentation
├── scripts/                    # Build helper scripts
└── build/                      # Platform-specific build configuration

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Development Prerequisites

ToolVersionPurpose
Go1.24+Backend
Wails v3v3 alphaDesktop framework
TasklatestBuild automation
Node.js18+Frontend tooling
protoc + protoc-gen-go + protoc-gen-go-grpclibprotoc 29.6 / protoc-gen-go v1.36.10 / protoc-gen-go-grpc v1.6.1gRPC code generation (only if modifying .proto files)

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Getting Started

Follow the setup guide to configure your development environment, then refer to the building guide to learn how to build the application and plugins.

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Development Workflow

  1. Build plugins - Compile all database plugins
  2. Start dev mode - Run wails3 dev for hot-reload
  3. Make changes - Frontend and backend changes reload automatically
  4. Test - Run unit tests with go test
  5. Build - Create production builds with wails3 build

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Plugin Architecture

Plugins are standalone executables that communicate with the host application via gRPC. Each plugin implements four core commands:
  • info - Return plugin metadata (name, version, type)
  • authforms - Return auth form definitions for the UI
  • exec - Execute a query and return results
  • connection-tree - Return a browsable object hierarchy
Plugins live in bin/plugins/ and are automatically discovered by the application. At startup, the app copies bundled plugins to the per-user config directory, allowing both bundled and user-added plugins.

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Next Steps

Setup Environment

Install dependencies and clone the repository

Building

Learn how to build the app and plugins

Testing

Run and write tests for your contributions

Plugin System

Learn about the plugin architecture