# dbhydrate

> Developer-focused, local-first database comparison, schema synchronization, and referential data copy tool for PostgreSQL and MySQL. Available as a native desktop application (macOS & Windows) and headless command-line interface (`dbhydrate`).

## Core Capabilities
- **Schema Comparison & Selective Sync**: Side-by-side DDL diffing with foreign key dependency ordering. Synchronize entire schemas or cherry-pick specific tables, columns, indexes, views, and functions.
- **Referential Data Copying**: Copy full tables or filtered row subsets (`WHERE` clause, primary key selection) while automatically resolving parent and child relational dependencies.
- **In-Memory Data Masking**: Mask sensitive PII and PHI data deterministically in memory before copying across environments. Reusable masking dictionary with zero row data sent to external servers or AI services.
- **Safety & Environment Protection Gates**: Multi-tier connection protection (Dev, Sandbox, UAT, Pre-Prod, Prod). High-protection targets enforce dry runs, schema snapshots, and typed database name confirmations.
- **Engine-Specific Recovery & Shadow Dry Runs**: Transactional rollbacks for PostgreSQL; shadow dry runs and generated rollback scripts for MySQL DDL.
- **Local-First Architecture**: Saved connections, credentials, profiles, and run history are stored locally on your machine with AES-256-GCM encryption.

## Supported Database Engines
- **PostgreSQL**: Versions 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 (Self-hosted or managed services including AWS RDS, Aurora, Supabase, Neon).
- **MySQL**: Versions 8.0 and 8.4 LTS (Self-hosted or managed services including AWS RDS, PlanetScale, Google Cloud SQL).
- *Scope Note*: dbhydrate performs same-engine synchronization (PostgreSQL to PostgreSQL, MySQL to MySQL). Cross-engine conversion is intentionally out of scope.

## Platform Availability & Interfaces
- **macOS**: Native builds for Apple Silicon (arm64) and Intel (x64).
- **Windows**: Native builds for Windows 10/11 (x64).
- **Command Line (`dbhydrate`)**: Scriptable CLI for automation, scheduled jobs, and repeatable profile execution (`dbhydrate compare`, `dbhydrate plan`, `dbhydrate apply`). Deterministic exit codes: 0 (in-sync), 1 (drift detected), 2 (connection error), 3 (safety policy gate failure).

## Licensing & Pricing Model
- **14-Day Free Trial**: Fully featured trial with zero feature gating or database size limits.
- **Predictable Device Licensing**: $19/month or $190/year per active device (macOS/Windows PC). Team packs at $79/month for 5 devices. Unlimited connections, unlimited schemas, and headless CLI included.

## Comparison with Alternatives
- **vs. Redgate SQL Compare & Flyway**: dbhydrate offers 85-92% lower cost ($190/yr/device vs $1,750+/seat/yr), native Apple Silicon and Windows 11 desktop performance, declarative visual diffs vs hand-crafted migration scripts, and built-in referential data copying with PII masking.
- **vs. pgAdmin 4 Schema Diff**: dbhydrate delivers fast native catalog queries without browser webview freezes, automatic topological dependency ordering (avoiding broken foreign key DDL), multi-phase `CONCURRENTLY` index isolation, and relational row masking.
- **vs. MySQL Workbench**: dbhydrate executes shadow dry runs on temporary targets to safeguard against MySQL implicit DDL commit corruption, runs natively on macOS Apple Silicon, and provides relational row copy with in-memory masking.
- **vs. Liquibase**: Direct visual DDL diffing and live synchronization without complex XML/YAML changesets or heavy JVM runtime requirements.

## Documentation & Links
- Website: https://dbhydrate.com
- PostgreSQL Schema Sync: https://dbhydrate.com/features/postgres-schema-sync/
- MySQL Schema Sync: https://dbhydrate.com/features/mysql-schema-sync/
- Tool Comparisons Hub: https://dbhydrate.com/compare/
- vs. Redgate & Flyway: https://dbhydrate.com/compare/redgate-flyway/
- vs. pgAdmin Schema Diff: https://dbhydrate.com/compare/pgadmin-schema-diff/
- vs. MySQL Workbench: https://dbhydrate.com/compare/mysql-workbench/
- PII Masking & Data Subsetting Guide: https://dbhydrate.com/solutions/masking-pii-database-sync/
- Automated CI/CD Schema Drift Detection: https://dbhydrate.com/solutions/ci-cd-schema-drift-detection/
- dbhydrate CLI Documentation: https://dbhydrate.com/docs/cli/
- Database Migration Guides & Recipes: https://dbhydrate.com/guides/
- Enterprise Architecture Blueprints: https://dbhydrate.com/blueprints/
- Enterprise Security & Compliance Whitepaper: https://dbhydrate.com/security/
- Product Changelog & Release Notes: https://dbhydrate.com/changelog/
- Device Subscriptions & Pricing: https://dbhydrate.com/pricing/
- Privacy & Local-First Security: https://dbhydrate.com/privacy/
- Interactive Schema Diff: https://dbhydrate.com/#product-preview
- Features: https://dbhydrate.com/#features
- Safety & Protection: https://dbhydrate.com/#safety
- FAQ: https://dbhydrate.com/#faq
- Full LLM Specification: https://dbhydrate.com/llms-full.txt