---
title: RDBMS Playground
description: A terminal playground for learning relational databases — tables, keys, relationships, indexes, queries, and query plans, hands-on.
template: splash
# Title-only hero: this keeps Starlight's splash from emitting a second,
# page-title <h1> in a content panel (which can't be styled per-page). The hero
# <h1> lives inside `.hero`, so it can be visually hidden (kept for SEO/a11y)
# while the Wordmark + tagline + buttons below it carry the visible hero — see
# `.hero h1` in global.css. tagline/actions are rendered in the body so they sit
# *below* the wordmark, where the old title used to be.
hero:
  title: RDBMS Playground
---

import { Card, CardGrid, LinkCard, LinkButton } from '@astrojs/starlight/components';
import Demo from '../../components/Demo.astro';
import Wordmark from '../../components/Wordmark.astro';

<Wordmark />

<p class="hero-tagline">Learn relational databases by doing — in your terminal.</p>

<div class="hero-actions">
	<LinkButton href="/getting-started/installation/" icon="right-arrow">Get started</LinkButton>
	<LinkButton href="/reference/types/" variant="minimal" icon="right-arrow">Browse the reference</LinkButton>
</div>

RDBMS Playground is a cross-platform terminal app that gives you a safe
sandbox for exploring relational database concepts: tables, columns,
primary and foreign keys, relationships, indexes, queries, and query
plans. It is built for learning — from your first table to writing raw
SQL.

<Demo src="/casts/quickstart.cast" title="From a fresh table to your first query, in simple mode." autoplay loop />

<CardGrid>
	<Card title="Two ways to work" icon="seti:db">
		Start in **simple mode** — a friendly, keyword-based command language —
		and switch to **advanced mode** for standard SQL whenever you are ready.

		<a class="card-more" href="/getting-started/modes/">Modes →</a>
	</Card>
	<Card title="Learn the SQL underneath" icon="open-book">
		Run a simple-mode command in advanced mode and the playground shows you
		the equivalent SQL, so the bridge from concepts to SQL is always visible.

		<a class="card-more" href="/getting-started/modes/#seeing-the-sql-behind-a-command">Seeing the SQL →</a>
	</Card>
	<Card title="Safe to experiment" icon="approve-check">
		Every change can be undone, your work is saved as you go, and you can
		rebuild the whole database from plain, readable files.

		<a class="card-more" href="/using-the-playground/undo-and-history/">Undo and history →</a>
	</Card>
	<Card title="See how queries run" icon="rocket">
		Ask the playground to explain any query and it renders the database's
		plan as an annotated tree — so indexes and scans stop being a mystery.

		<a class="card-more" href="/reference/querying-and-inspecting/#query-plans">Query plans →</a>
	</Card>
	<Card title="Helpful as you type" icon="pencil">
		The input field completes commands with <kbd>Tab</kbd>, highlights
		syntax, flags mistakes before you run them, and hints what comes next.

		<a class="card-more" href="/using-the-playground/the-assistive-editor/">The assistive editor →</a>
	</Card>
</CardGrid>

## Start here

<CardGrid>
	<LinkCard title="Install" href="/getting-started/installation/" description="Get the playground running on your machine." />
	<LinkCard title="Your first project" href="/getting-started/first-project/" description="Create a table, add a row, and see it." />
	<LinkCard title="The example library" href="/getting-started/example-library/" description="The small database used throughout these docs." />
	<LinkCard title="Reference" href="/reference/types/" description="Every command, type, and constraint in detail." />
</CardGrid>