PlumeSQL

The System page ​

The System page, opened from the cog menu or the F1 palette, reports what this machine has and offers actions on it. Nothing on it is a preference and nothing is per workspace, which is why it is not part of Settings and carries no scope switch. Like Settings it has a section map on the left that highlights what is on screen, and it remembers its place with the tab.

PostgreSQL client tools ​

psql, pg_dump and their siblings are yours to run, not PlumeSQL's. The page answers three questions about them:

  • What is installed. Every installation found on the machine, its version, where it came from, its path and which of the tools it actually carries (a client-only keg has psql and pg_dump but no pg_isready, and the row says so). Scan again rescans; the answer is never written to disk.
  • Which servers it can reach. Coverage is listed per server version rather than per connection, because eight connections to PostgreSQL 18 are one thing to install. A dump needs pg_dump at least as new as the server, and a missing version carries its own Install button. The connection editor says the same about one server, under its version.
  • How to add what is missing. The page offers the ways this machine has: Homebrew, including the client-only libpq keg and its versioned libpq@17, on macOS; apt, dnf or apk on Linux; winget or Chocolatey on Windows. It offers client tools and never a server package. Each option shows the exact command on its face, a confirmation repeats it, and it runs in your own terminal, where you can read the output; PlumeSQL then rescans until the tools appear.

The plumesql command ​

The Command line section says whether a plumesql command exists on PATH, whether the one found is this PlumeSQL or another copy, and offers to add one. On macOS and Linux that is a symlink into a directory of your home that is already on PATH (~/.local/bin or ~/bin), falling back to /usr/local/bin, which needs a password; on Windows the program's folder is appended to your user PATH through PowerShell. PlumeSQL never writes to PATH on its own: the command is shown as text, and your terminal runs it on your gesture. The offer also appears once in the Log on a first start that finds no command.

Open with PlumeSQL ​

The File manager section says whether a folder can be handed to PlumeSQL from the file manager. On macOS the app bundle declares it, and on Linux the desktop entry does (the AppImage writes its own on first run), so both are reported rather than offered. On Windows the entry is a key under your own user, no administrator needed, offered as a reg add command you can read before it runs; the same command with /delete removes it. A folder always opens in its own window.

Running an offer ​

Every offer on this page follows one contract:

  • the exact command is shown on its face, and a confirmation repeats it;
  • it runs in the integrated terminal where there is one, so the output stays inside PlumeSQL, and on Windows, which has no integrated terminal yet, in a terminal window;
  • the page never sends the command itself: the request names which offer to run, and the server rebuilds it from the same generator that produced what you were shown;
  • the outcome is confirmed by looking again (re-reading the integration status, rescanning the machine), never by trusting the terminal.

What is yours and what rebuilds itself ​

The PlumeSQL files section lists everything PlumeSQL keeps outside your workspace, with sizes, split by a hard line:

  • Yours, never offered for removal whatever its size: the encrypted vault, the shared and workspace scripts, the settings, the connection metadata and statistics, the sessions.
  • Rebuildable, cleaned one item at a time with a Clean button that says what it will free: the DDL snapshots (those left behind by deleted connections called out separately), the shared catalog stores, the logs, the downloaded libraries a chart view or the extension editor fetched, and the result spill folders.

Every path opens where it lives. The vault and the session files are not offered for editing: the vault is encrypted and the sessions are not text anyone should edit by hand.

The page also says where the vault key is: in your macOS Keychain, in your desktop keyring, in a file protected by Windows DPAPI, or in a key file readable only by you, with its path.

The update check ​

The Version section shows the running build, the latest published version, and whether an update exists. The check reads plumesql.com once an hour at most. In the desktop app the Update button triggers the native updater, which installs a signed release in place on macOS, Windows and the AppImage; .deb and .rpm installs are sent to the download page. A build ahead of the last release says so rather than pretending to be up to date.

The PlumeSQL service ​

The update check goes to plumesql.com, so the service section reports once whether the machine can reach it. Nothing else PlumeSQL does needs the network: the databases are your own and PlumeSQL never sends them anywhere.

Not in this release ​

The AI assistant and the AI agents (MCP) sections stay on the page with their controls disabled and a line saying both come in a later release.

See also ​

PlumeSQL is a hercstack product.

© 2026 hercstack