Chat2DB Community 5.3.0: A Fresh Start

[openai0229]

Today, we are officially releasing Chat2DB Community 5.3.0.

It has been a long time since the last official Community release. During that time, we did not release new versions promptly or communicate consistently about project progress, release plans, and the relationship between Community and our commercial products. We should have responded to the community's questions and expectations earlier and more clearly, but we did not. We apologize to every user and contributor who has continued to follow the project and wait for Community updates.

We also sincerely thank everyone who still uses Chat2DB, opens issues, contributes code, joins discussions, and continues to follow the project. This release cannot make up for the communication that was missing, but we hope it marks a new beginning for regular Community releases and ongoing maintenance.

5.3.0 at a Glance

• Unified versioning: Community moves from its separate 0.3.x release line to 5.3.0 and now uses the same versioning system as the rest of the Chat2DB product family.
• Shared core: Community, Pro, and Enterprise share the same database client core, with the public Community repository serving as its upstream.
• Local usage: No registration or sign-in is required. Application state is stored in local files on the current device.
• Breaking upgrade: In-place upgrades from historical releases such as v0.3.7 are not supported. Back up and migrate your existing data before installing.
• License change: Version 5.3.0 and later use a new custom source-available license. Releases before 5.3.0 remain under the Apache License 2.0 terms that applied when they were published.

Why We Are Jumping Directly from v0.3.7 to 5.3.0

Community previously remained on its own 0.3.x release line while the current Chat2DB product family evolved to 5.3.0. Starting with this release, Community will no longer maintain a separate version number that falls increasingly behind. Instead, it will use the same versioning system as Chat2DB's commercial products. That is why this release is 5.3.0 rather than 0.3.8.

Unified versioning reflects a change in how we develop Chat2DB:

Shared core -> unified versions -> Community as the public upstream -> general improvements continuously return to Community

Community and our commercial products will share the same database client core, with the public Community repository serving as the upstream for that shared core. Unified version numbers indicate that they are built on the same generation of the shared core. This relationship also creates a long-term engineering constraint: general improvements made to the shared core for commercial products must return to Community rather than remain only in commercial branches, and maintaining Community becomes part of the continued development of our commercial products rather than an extra synchronization task after commercial development is complete.

This is not a one-time code sync, but a long-term, mutually reinforcing relationship between Community and our commercial products. Community provides a public, stable, and participatory database client foundation for the commercial products, while real-world use cases, engineering investment, and sustainable operations from the commercial products support the continued maintenance and evolution of the shared core. By choosing the commercial product that best fits their needs, users support more than the commercial capabilities themselves: they also help us secure stable resources to keep improving Community.

What 5.3.0 Brings

Chat2DB Community 5.3.0 is aligned with the current Chat2DB commercial products at the database client foundation level, including:

• Data source connections, credential management, database plugins, and metadata browsing;
• SQL editing, completion, formatting, and execution;
• DDL/DML, database object management, and data editing;
• Data import and export, saved SQL, history, tasks, dashboards, and charts;
• CLI, MCP, and user-configured AI models.

A More Direct Local Experience

No sign-in is required. Chat2DB Community 5.3.0 uses a lightweight model designed for a personal database tool: one user, one device, and one set of local application state. Community does not provide cloud identities, account workspaces, multi-device synchronization, or team collaboration, so registration and sign-in are unnecessary. Install it, connect to a database, and start working.

A lighter runtime and storage model. Application state, including data sources, query history, tasks, dashboards, and AI configuration, is stored in local files on the current device. Community returns to a direct workflow: install it, connect to a database, and get to work.

Boundaries Between Community, Pro, and Enterprise

Community, Pro, and Enterprise share the same database client foundation. The commercial products add official AI services, cloud storage, multi-device access, collaboration, and governance on top of that foundation rather than providing a separate database client core.

Capability	Community	Pro	Enterprise
Data source connections and credential management	✅	✅	✅
Database plugins and metadata browsing	✅	✅	✅
SQL editing, completion, formatting, and execution	✅	✅	✅
DDL/DML, object management, and data editing	✅	✅	✅
Data import and export	✅	✅	✅
Saved SQL, history, and tasks	✅	✅	✅
Dashboards and charts	✅	✅	✅
CLI and MCP	✅	✅	✅
Custom AI models	✅	✅	✅
Official AI credits and cloud chat history	❌	✅	✅
Accounts and identity	❌	✅	✅
Cloud storage and multi-device access	❌	✅	✅
Team data sources and shared assets	❌	❌	✅
Members and roles	❌	❌	✅
Permissions, approvals, and audit logs	❌	❌	✅
Organizational data context and enterprise knowledge base	❌	❌	✅

Community is intended for individual users and developers who want the complete database client foundation on their own devices and prefer to manage their own data and model configuration. Community does not provide the authentication, tenant isolation, or access controls required for public or multi-user deployments. Use the appropriate commercial product when you need official AI services, cloud and multi-device access, team collaboration, or enterprise governance.

Before You Download

Breaking Upgrade

Warning

Chat2DB Community 5.3.0 is incompatible with historical Community releases and does not support in-place upgrades from older versions such as v0.3.7. Install it as a new version, and back up and migrate your existing data before proceeding.

License Boundary

Chat2DB Community 5.3.0 and later are governed by the new LICENSE in the repository root. The new license is a custom source-available license based on Apache License 2.0 with additional use conditions. It must not be described as standard Apache-2.0 or as an OSI-approved open source license. Previously published releases, including v0.3.7 and earlier versions, remain governed by the Apache License 2.0 terms that applied when they were released; those terms are not changed retroactively.

Before using, modifying, distributing, embedding, or offering products or services based on Community to external users, read the complete LICENSE.

Download Chat2DB Community 5.3.0

GitHub Release v5.3.0

Platform	Package
macOS Apple Silicon	DMG
macOS Intel	DMG
Windows	MSI
Linux x64	AppImage · DEB · RPM
Linux ARM64	AppImage · DEB · RPM
Docker	Docker image

Get Involved

Long-term Community maintenance depends on more than releases. It also depends on real-world use cases, public discussion, and sustained contributions. Contributing does not only mean writing code: a reproducible issue, a documentation correction, a regression test, or a compatibility result from a particular database and environment can all be valuable contributions.

• Contribute code, documentation, or tests: read the contribution guide first. Maintainers use Good First Issues and Help Wanted to mark tasks with confirmed scope that welcome external contributions.
• Report bugs or compatibility problems: create an issue.
• Ask installation, configuration, or usage questions: visit Q&A Discussions.
• Share an idea or real-world use case: visit Ideas Discussions and describe the problem, your current workflow, your existing approach, and the outcome you want.
• Show what you built with Chat2DB: share dashboards, SQL techniques, plugins, integrations, MCP or agent workflows in Show and tell, and tell the community what feedback, testing, or collaboration you are looking for.
• Report security issues: use the private reporting channel described in SECURITY.md. Do not disclose vulnerability details in a public issue or discussion.

Tip

When reporting a bug, include the operating system and CPU architecture, the installer or Docker image used, the current version and the version used before upgrading, reproducible steps, expected and actual results, and redacted logs whenever possible. Do not include database passwords, API keys, access tokens, complete connection strings, or unredacted business data.

Project direction will continue to be shaped by public code, issues, design discussions, and real-world use cases. Community proposals and contributions will be important inputs to release planning, but they do not automatically become roadmap commitments. Adoption decisions will be made publicly based on general applicability, long-term maintainability, compatibility, and verification results. For changes with a broad impact, describe the constraints, tradeoffs, and expected behavior in a public discussion before implementation.

A New Starting Point

Version 5.3.0 is not the destination. It is the new baseline for resuming continuous Community maintenance. We will start by doing the things we can verify: keeping release notes transparent, publishing known issues, documenting version boundaries clearly, and making issues, pull requests, and discussions effective collaboration channels again. Unconfirmed features and dates will not be presented as commitments.

Thank you to everyone who has used, supported, and contributed to Chat2DB Community. Back up your existing data, download 5.3.0, validate your usual databases and workflows, and share the results with us.