berry is a single-script bash-only Postgres branch manager with a small TUI powered by gum.

When working on a feature branch, it's likely migrations on that branch wouldn't be needed on the other branches (or at least the main branch) yet. berry allows to create copies (aka branches) of the main dev db and build from there so you don't have to recreate and re-seed the db every time.

Install berry from GitHub:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/blackmann/pgdb/main/install.sh | bash

• berry list shows databases on the current Postgres instance
• berry branch lets you choose a source database, pick an existing branch or create a new one, then prints the URL to use
• berry delete lets you choose a branch database and remove it with confirmation
• berry url <database> prints a Postgres URL for any database

Branch databases follow this naming convention:

<source_db>__<branch_name>

Example:

app__feature_login

• bash
• psql
• gum for interactive commands

Install gum on macOS with:

brew install gum

berry accepts an optional base connection URL:

export DBURL=postgresql://postgres:postgres@localhost:5432/app

You can also use DATABASE_URL as a fallback.

If neither is set, berry falls back to whatever psql would use by default on your machine.

List visible databases:

./berry list

berry list groups branch databases under their parent with a small tree view and shows database sizes in a right-aligned column.

Sample output:

Databases
◆ adeton                 124.00mb
├─ adeton/campaigns      8.00mb
╰─ adeton/plans          22.00mb
◆ otr                    1.20gb
◆ ussdk                  310.00mb

System
postgres                 7.28mb

List branches for one database:

./berry list --branches app

Sample output:

app/feature_login       8.00mb
app/bugfix_auth         22.00mb

Create or switch to a branch:

./berry branch

Sample output:

Branch ready: adeton/plans
postgresql://postgres@127.0.0.1:5432/adeton__plans

Delete a branch:

./berry delete

Sample output:

Deleted branch: adeton/plans

Print a URL directly:

./berry url app/feature_login

Sample output:

postgresql://postgres@127.0.0.1:5432/app__feature_login

• berry branch clones databases with CREATE DATABASE ... WITH TEMPLATE ...
• source databases must not be template databases
• branch creation is naming-based and stateless in v1
• branch names are shown as source/branch in the UI, while the real Postgres database name remains source__branch
• when DBURL is set, berry reuses it as the base for the printed branch URL
• when DBURL is not set, berry tries to infer a fuller URL from the active Postgres connection and falls back to postgresql://localhost/database_name
• if the source database is busy, berry stops and tells you to retry after closing connections