What is Surrealist used for?

Surrealist is the former desktop and web interface for SurrealDB, now superseded by SurrealDB Studio, with query, schema and cloud management tools. It is a good fit for maintaining existing Surrealist-based workflows, exploring SurrealDB data visually and reviewing the codebase before migrating to Studio.

Is Surrealist open source?

Yes. Surrealist is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at surrealdb/surrealist and is written mainly in TypeScript.

Yes. Surrealist is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available.

What are some alternatives to Surrealist?

Similar open-source tools in the Database Tools category include pgAdmin, Dejavu and DBeaver. SaaS products in the same category include DataGrip, dbdiagram.io and DesignSQL.

Is Surrealist actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Surrealist was on 9 September 2026. The project has 1.3k stars on GitHub.

Surrealist: open-source database tools

About Surrealist

Surrealist was the original graphical interface for SurrealDB, built to connect to any SurrealDB instance, run queries, explore tables, design schemas and manage SurrealDB Cloud. It served for years as the companion app for the database and is available as a desktop application for macOS, Windows and Linux as well as in the browser.

According to the README, Surrealist has been superseded by SurrealDB Studio, which builds on it with improved performance, easier navigation and new ways to present data. The repository remains available for historical reference and for maintenance of the Surrealist codebase, and users are pointed to download Studio or open it in the browser.

The project is written with TypeScript, React, Rust and Tauri, and its source is licensed under the MIT licence. Developers working with SurrealDB who find older guides referring to Surrealist should know that Studio is now the recommended tool, while Surrealist remains useful for existing workflows.

Key features

Connect to SurrealDB instances
Run and save SurrealQL queries
Explore tables and records
Design database schemas visually
Manage SurrealDB Cloud resources
Desktop apps built with Tauri

Good fit for

→Maintaining existing Surrealist-based workflows
→Exploring SurrealDB data visually
→Reviewing the codebase before migrating to Studio

Built with: TypeScript; React; Rust; Tauri
Tags: surrealdb; database-gui; surrealql; desktop; tauri; react; query-editor; schema-design; legacy

Surrealist: questions and answers

What is Surrealist used for?: Surrealist is the former desktop and web interface for SurrealDB, now superseded by SurrealDB Studio, with query, schema and cloud management tools. It is a good fit for maintaining existing Surrealist-based workflows, exploring SurrealDB data visually and reviewing the codebase before migrating to Studio.
Is Surrealist open source?: Yes. Surrealist is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at surrealdb/surrealist and is written mainly in TypeScript.
Is Surrealist free?: Yes. Surrealist is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available.
What are some alternatives to Surrealist?: Similar open-source tools in the Database Tools category include pgAdmin, Dejavu and DBeaver. SaaS products in the same category include DataGrip, dbdiagram.io and DesignSQL.
Is Surrealist actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Surrealist was on 9 September 2026. The project has 1.3k stars on GitHub.