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Connect a MySQL GUI to PlanetScale

Introduction

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to connect to a PlanetScale database using a MySQL GUI. While this tutorial uses Sequel Ace as a demonstration, many applications that connect to MySQL databases will support connecting to and querying a PlanetScale database as long as the applicaton supports connecting over SSL.

Gather the credentials

To connect to a PlanetScale database, you'll need four pieces of information:

  • The database name
  • Host name
  • Username
  • Password

The easiest way to gather this information is by selecting the Connect button from the Dashboard tab. Then, on the Connect page, select the branch that you wish to connect to and click the Create password button. Within the Select a language or framework section, select "Other" to display the connection details as a list instead of a language or framework-specific connection string.

Note

As a security best practice, passwords are only displayed when they are created.

Connect to the database

In the application you are using, enter the access information you gathered in the previous step into the appropriate fields. Make sure to check "Require SSL" as SSL is required to connect to a PlanetScale database. Click "Connect" once you are finished.

The new connection window in Sequel Ace.

If the connection is successful, you should be able to query your database and perform other supported operations.

A sample query in Sequel Ace.

Caveats

While many standard MySQL statements are supported, there are a few caveats worth calling out:

  1. Each branch of a PlanetScale database is considered an isolated MySQL database. You'll need separate connection details per branch.
  2. Production branches with safe migrations enforce the use of branching and deploy requests to safely make schema changes and do not support direct DDL as a result. However, DDL is supported on development branches and production branches without safe migrations enabled (not recommended).
  3. Creating new databases is not supported using any GUI tool.

Tested GUIs

The following MySQL GUI applications have been tested and confirmed to work with PlanetScale databases:

Need help?

Get help from the PlanetScale Support team, or join our GitHub discussion board to see how others are using PlanetScale.