Overview

Command Reference

Command	Purpose	Key Use Cases
split	Split dump into per-table SQL files	Work on individual tables, parallel processing
merge	Merge per-table files into single dump	Reassemble after editing, restore preparation
analyze	Read-only statistics about tables	Planning, size estimation, table discovery
convert	Transform between MySQL/PostgreSQL/SQLite/MSSQL	Database migrations, environment portability
validate	Check syntax, encoding, PK/FK integrity	CI gates, backup verification, pre-restore checks
sample	Create reduced FK-consistent datasets	Dev/CI seeding, testing with realistic data
shard	Extract tenant-specific data	Multi-tenant isolation, tenant exports
diff	Compare two SQL dumps for changes	Schema migrations, change detection, auditing
redact	Anonymize PII in SQL dumps	GDPR compliance, dev data, safe sharing
graph	Generate ERD diagrams (HTML, DOT, Mermaid)	Schema visualization, documentation
order	Reorder dump in topological FK order	Safe imports, cycle detection, DROP order
query	Run SQL analytics on dumps with DuckDB	Ad-hoc queries, data exploration
completions	Generate shell completion scripts	CLI productivity

Common Flags

Most commands support these flags (availability varies):

Flag	Description	Available In
-d, --dialect	Override dialect auto-detection	Most commands (except convert which uses --from/--to)
-p, --progress	Show progress bar	split, analyze, merge, sample, shard, convert, validate, diff, redact, graph
--dry-run	Preview without writing output	split, merge, sample, shard, convert, redact, order
--json	Machine-readable JSON output	split, analyze, merge, sample, shard, convert, validate, redact, graph
--fail-fast	Stop on first error (for glob patterns)	split, analyze, convert, validate

Command Aliases

For faster typing, all commands have short aliases:

Command	Alias	Command	Alias
split	sp	diff	df
analyze	an	redact	rd
merge	mg	graph	gr
sample	sa	order	ord
shard	sh	query	qy
convert	cv
validate	val

Decision Guide

Goal	Command(s)
Check if dump is valid	validate --strict
Understand dump contents	analyze
Edit specific tables	split → edit → merge
Create dev dataset	sample --preserve-relations
Export tenant data	shard --tenant-value
Convert MySQL → PostgreSQL	convert --to postgres
Validate in CI	validate "*.sql" --json
Compare two dumps	diff old.sql new.sql
Anonymize PII	redact
Visualize schema	graph
Safe import order	order
Query without restore	query