# 1. Getting started

*Tabellum for mobile, chapter 1. On the web: https://tabellum.dudko.dev/manual/mobile/getting-started*

Tabellum is a database client for PostgreSQL, MySQL and MariaDB, SQL Server, BigQuery, SQLite and MongoDB. On a phone it browses and edits data, runs SQL, draws charts and dashboards, compares and designs schemas, and has an AI assistant that never writes to a database without your approval.

Everything you create — connections, saved queries, dashboards, designs, snapshots — is a plain file in the app’s workspace. Passwords and API keys are not: they stay in the phone’s secure storage (the Keychain on iPhone, the Keystore on Android).

## 1.1 The screen

The screen has three parts: the title bar at the top, the page in the middle, and four buttons at the bottom.

![A saved query and its rows](https://tabellum.dudko.dev/manual/mobile/img/home.jpg)

*A saved query and its rows*

Marked on the screenshot: (1) The menu: connections, queries, dashboards, designs; (2) Search everything; (3) Run the query; (4) Inspector, history and agent pages.

- The menu button (1) opens the side menu with your connections, saved queries, dashboards and designs. Whatever you open there opens as a tab.
- The search button (2) opens the command palette: connections, tables, saved queries and commands, found by a few letters.
- **Run** (3) runs the query in the open tab.
- The buttons at the bottom switch the page: **Query** shows the open tabs, **Inspect** (4) the selected object’s columns, indexes and constraints, **History** what ran, and **Agent** the AI agent.

Open tabs are listed in a strip above the page; tap one to switch, tap its **×** to close it, and tap **+** for a new query tab.

## 1.2 The demo database

The first time Tabellum starts, its workspace already holds a small demo: an invented shop in an SQLite file inside the app, a saved query, and a design of its schema. Nothing needs a network or a server, so it is the quickest way to try every feature. Deleted demo files stay deleted; to get them back, choose **Open the demo database** in the command palette.

![The side menu with the demo connection, its example query and its design](https://tabellum.dudko.dev/manual/mobile/img/demo.jpg)

*The side menu with the demo connection, its example query and its design*

Marked on the screenshot: (1) Edit the connection; (2) An example saved query; (3) A design of the demo schema.

1. Open the menu and tap **Shop demo** to connect. The pencil (1) edits the connection.
2. Tap the example query (2), then **Run**.
3. Tap the design (3) to see the schema designer (see [Section 7](https://tabellum.dudko.dev/manual/mobile/the-schema-designer)).

## 1.3 Your workspace

The workspace is a folder inside the app. In it, `connections/` holds the connections, `queries/` the saved queries, `dashboards/`, `designs/` and `snapshots/` the rest, and `sqlite/` the SQLite databases that belong to the workspace. The files are readable YAML, SQL and JSON, so the workspace can be kept in a git repository and shared with your other devices (see [Section 10.3](https://tabellum.dudko.dev/manual/mobile/backup-restore-and-sync#syncing-the-workspace-with-git)).

> **Note:** Removing the app removes its workspace. Sync it to a repository, or export what you want to keep, first.

A connection file never contains a password. The password is in the secure storage of the device it was typed on; on another device you type it once.