MongoBuddy

A fast, friendly, lightweight MongoDB GUI client for macOS, Windows, and Linux.

MongoBuddy is an open-source desktop MongoDB client built for developers who want a snappy, keyboard-first alternative to heavier GUIs. Connect to any MongoDB instance, run queries and aggregations, edit documents inline, and keep your query history — all in a clean native app.

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✨ Features

• 🔌 Multi-connection manager — save and switch between MongoDB connections, credentials stored locally via electron-store
• ⌨️ Powerful query editor — CodeMirror 6 with JavaScript/JSON syntax highlighting, autocomplete, bracket matching, undo/redo, Ctrl+F search and Ctrl+H replace
• 📊 Results table — row numbers, inline document editor, EJSON-aware filters for find / count / aggregate / distinct
• 🕑 Query history — per-connection history so you can rerun anything you’ve touched before
• 📥 Import dialog — drop in JSON / EJSON documents
• 🎯 Keyboard-first UX — thoughtful focus management (Base UI Dialogs) and shortcuts throughout
• 🌙 Dark by default — CodeMirror one-dark theme, easy on the eyes
• 🖥 Cross-platform native builds — Windows, macOS (Apple Silicon), and Linux
• 🤖 Built-in MCP server — point Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client at your live MongoDB connection (read-only tools)

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📸 Screenshots

Connection dialog	Query editor

Document editor	Query history

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📥 Download & Install

Grab the latest build from Releases →.

OS	File	Notes
🪟 Windows	MongoBuddy-Setup-X.Y.Z.exe	NSIS installer, x64
🍎 macOS	MongoBuddy-X.Y.Z-arm64.dmg	⚠️ Apple Silicon only — Intel Macs not yet supported (see Roadmap)
🐧 Linux	MongoBuddy-X.Y.Z.AppImage or mongo-buddy_X.Y.Z_amd64.deb	AppImage (portable) or Debian package

The app is not yet code-signed, so your OS may show a “publisher unknown” warning the first time you open it. That’s on the roadmap.

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🚀 Quick Start

1. Download the build for your OS from Releases
2. Open MongoBuddy
3. Add a connection — paste any MongoDB URI (mongodb://… or mongodb+srv://…) and hit connect

That’s it. Pick a database, pick a collection, and start querying.

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🤖 MCP Server

MongoBuddy ships with a built-in Model Context Protocol server so you can let Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-aware tool inspect the MongoDB connection you already have open in the app.

The server starts automatically on launch and exposes a Streamable HTTP endpoint:

http://localhost:27099/mcp

The MCP server uses the active connection in the app — open a connection in MongoBuddy and your MCP client will see the same databases and collections. Close the app and the server goes with it.

Tools

All tools are read-only. Writes still go through the GUI.

Tool	Purpose
list_databases	List databases on the connected server
list_collections	List collections in a database
sample_fields	Sample a collection and return its top-level field names
find	Query documents (supports filter, sort, skip, limit, EJSON)
count	Count documents matching a filter
aggregate	Run an aggregation pipeline
distinct	Distinct values of a field
list_indexes	List indexes on a collection

CLI flags

Flag	Default	What it does
--mcp-port=N	27099	Bind the MCP server to port N (1–65535)
--disable-mcp	off	Don’t start the MCP server

Wiring up a client

For Claude Code, register the server with the claude CLI:

claude mcp add --transport http mongo-buddy http://localhost:27099/mcp

For other MCP clients that support Streamable HTTP, point them at the same URL. If you change the port with --mcp-port=N, update the URL to match.

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🛠 Development

Want to hack on MongoBuddy? Everything runs locally.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+
• pnpm 10+

Setup

git clone https://github.com/terebentina/mongo-buddy.git
cd mongo-buddy
pnpm install
pnpm dev

Scripts

Command	What it does
pnpm dev	Run the app in development with hot reload
pnpm build	Build the app bundles
pnpm test	Run main + renderer Vitest suites
pnpm lint	ESLint over src/
pnpm typecheck	TypeScript check (node + web)
pnpm format	Prettier write
pnpm release	Bump version, tag, push — triggers GitHub Actions to build Win/Mac/Linux artifacts and attach them to the release

Project layout

src/
├── main/        # Electron main process — Mongo service, IPC handlers, stores
├── preload/     # Preload bridge
├── renderer/    # React 19 + Tailwind UI
└── shared/      # Shared TypeScript types

Commit convention

We use Conventional Commits — commit-and-tag-version reads them to generate the CHANGELOG and pick the next version.

feat(editor): add bracket matching
fix(connection): handle SRV records with no TXT

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🧪 Tech Stack

Electron 41 · React 19 · TypeScript · Vite · Tailwind v4 · Base UI · CodeMirror 6 · MongoDB Node driver 7 · Zustand · Vitest

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🗺 Roadmap

Ideas on deck — contributions very welcome:

• macOS Intel (x64) build
• Auto-update via electron-updater
• SSH tunnel support
• Schema visualization
• Export results (CSV / JSON / BSON)
• Code-signed Windows + macOS builds

Open an issue if you want to tackle one — or suggest your own.

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🤝 Contributing

PRs are welcome! A few ground rules:

• For anything non-trivial, open an issue first so we can align
• Follow Conventional Commits
• Before opening a PR, run pnpm lint && pnpm test

A proper CONTRIBUTING.md is on the way.

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📜 License

MIT © 2026 Dan Caragea

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🙏 Credits

Built on the shoulders of giants: Electron, MongoDB, CodeMirror, Base UI, Tailwind CSS, and many more.