About SequelPG

A personal open-source project — a lightweight, native PostgreSQL GUI for macOS, built by a single developer who wanted a fast, transparent, no-telemetry database client.

What SequelPG Is

SequelPG is a free and open-source PostgreSQL GUI for macOS, released under the MIT license. It is not a company product and not backed by an organization — it is a personal side project maintained in the open on GitHub.

Why It Exists

Every PostgreSQL developer on a Mac eventually faces the same trade-off: pay for a closed-source app like TablePlus or Postico, run a heavy Electron tool, or wrestle with pgAdmin’s web UI. None of those options are bad, but none of them are an open-source, fully native SwiftUI client built with modern Apple APIs. SequelPG fills that gap.

The project uses the native macOS Table grid, AppKit-backed results rendering, the macOS Keychain for credentials, and the system ssh binary for tunnels — the same primitives a Mac developer expects to interact with anywhere else on the platform.

Principles

  • Open by default. The entire codebase is on GitHub under the MIT license. Bug reports, security issues, and contributions are public.
  • Native, not wrapped. SwiftUI + AppKit, not Electron. No bundled Chromium, no JavaScript runtime, no hundred-megabyte install.
  • No telemetry. SequelPG sends nothing about you, your queries, or your databases to any server. Credentials stay in the macOS Keychain on your device.
  • Real PostgreSQL. Binary wire-format decoding, every SSL mode, SSH tunneling, and pgAdmin-style object categories — including roles, privileges, extensions, and partitions.

About the Maintainer

SequelPG is built and maintained by Mykhailo (Michael) Shumilov — a software engineer with 15+ years of experience shipping web applications, backend systems, data infrastructure, and developer tooling. SequelPG is his personal side project and is unrelated to his employer.

Background

  • CTO & Co-Founder, Vadimages (since 2014) — built and led a web development department, architected full-stack systems on TypeScript, Node.js, Next.js, and PostgreSQL, and oversaw delivery of 100+ software projects.
  • CTO & Co-Founder, Trade Assistant (since 2021).
  • Earlier roles as Chief Technology Officer, Deputy CTO, Team Leader, and Developer across high-load SMS aggregation, real-time payments, video hosting, and outsourced product engineering — going all the way back to Delphi desktop applications in 2006.

Areas of Expertise

  • PostgreSQL — schema design, performance, catalog internals
  • System architecture for high-load and real-time platforms
  • Web development with TypeScript, Node.js, and Next.js
  • Native macOS development with Swift and SwiftUI
  • Database tooling, SQL, and data infrastructure

Education & Recognition

  • Master’s degree in Computer Science — Kharkiv Educational- Scientific Institute of the Banking University.
  • IAENG Senior Member; Fellowship Membership Certificate; AI Fluency Framework & Foundations.
  • Published author on software development, AI, and continuous learning.

Connect

How SequelPG Is Built

SequelPG is a native Swift application targeting macOS 14 Sonoma and later. It uses SwiftUI for layout and navigation, AppKit for the high-performance results grid, and connects directly to PostgreSQL with full binary decoding for numeric, money, network, JSONB, and composite types. Every introspection query is parameterized and reviewed for catalog correctness.

Get Involved

SequelPG is in active development. If you want to help shape it: