The free MongoDB client that speaks to everyone.
Engineers get a fast, precise workspace. Everyone else gets an AI studio that turns
plain English into queries, charts, and answers — in the same app.
- ⚡ Why Ognom
- 🔀 Two modes, one app
- ✨ Features
- 📦 Installation
- 🚀 Getting started
- 🤖 AI setup and cost
- 🔐 Security model
- 🔌 Connect to anything
- 🔧 Build from source
- 📚 Docs and more
- 📄 License
Most database tools force a choice: powerful but intimidating, or friendly but shallow. Ognom refuses that trade-off.
- 🆓 Free & open source. No license keys, no locked "premium" tabs, no account, no telemetry.
- 🪶 Native & lightweight. Built with Tauri (Rust + your OS webview) — a tiny binary and a fraction of the memory an Electron app burns.
- 🗂️ Many connections at once. Open several servers as live workspaces and switch between them in one click — each keeps its own open tabs and sidebar.
- 🔐 Secure by default. Credentials are encrypted at rest with AES‑256‑GCM; one toggle moves the key into your OS keychain. Passwords are never sent back to the UI.
- 👥 For developers and the people they work with. Flip one switch in the header and the whole app changes shape to fit the task in front of you.
- ❓ Never stuck. A built‑in Help page (the
?in the header) has guided examples for both developers and product owners.
You don't pick a tool for your skill level — you flip a switch for the task in front of you.
|
For developers, DBAs & data engineers. A fast, keyboard-driven workspace with everything you expect from a serious MongoDB client — plus an AI assistant in the shell. Browse · query · aggregate · edit · index · explain · optimize. |
For product managers, analysts & founders. Chat with your data in plain English. Studio writes the query, runs it, charts it, and explains it — across one collection or your whole database. Ask · join · chart · summarize · export. |
One app, as many connections as you need — the same safety guarantees underneath every workspace.
| Workspaces | Connect to many servers at once and switch between them from the header — one click, no reconnect. Each workspace keeps its own open tabs and sidebar, and the ones you had open reconnect automatically next launch. |
| Browse | Databases & collections sidebar with sizes, a search filter, and a ⌘K jump‑to‑collection palette. Toggle the sidebar with ⌘B. Right‑click menus everywhere — refresh, copy, edit, delete. |
| Two views, done well | Documents render as JSON (collapsible, type‑colored, ObjectId/date aware) or a table (typed cells, sticky _id). |
| Visual Query Builder | Build filters as field · operator · value rows with autocomplete from your latest 1,000 documents, Match‑ALL / Match‑ANY logic, and a deep operator set (between, starts/ends with, regex, in/not‑in, type, exists…). Drop to raw JSON anytime. |
| Aggregate | A stage‑by‑stage pipeline builder: enable/disable, reorder, run‑to‑stage previews, copy as shell, or eject into the shell. |
| Schema Analyzer | Sample your data and instantly see every field, its types, fill‑rate %, and example values. |
| Explain Plans | Index usage, docs‑vs‑keys examined, timing, and a plain‑language verdict ("collection scan — add an index") for find and aggregate. |
| Guided Index Builder | Templates (single, compound, text, geo, hashed, TTL), a visual key editor, and full options (unique, sparse, hidden, partial filters, collation) — no syntax to memorize. |
| Export & Import | Push query results or whole collections to JSON / CSV; import JSON / NDJSON. |
| Move connections | Export your saved connections to a file and import them on another machine — either without passwords (re‑enter on import) or a passphrase‑encrypted backup that carries credentials safely. Copy any connection's string (with or without the password) in two clicks. Deleting one asks you to type its name first. |
| Shell (advanced) | A real query editor — db.users.find({}).sort({ gpa: -1 }).limit(5) — with highlighting, history, a drag‑resizable editor, and helpers like ObjectId(), ISODate(), NumberLong(). |
| Safety‑first | Destructive actions require an explicit "I know what I'm doing" confirmation. |
Flip the Terminator switch in the header, pick a database and a collection (or Whole database), and just chat.
| 💬 A real conversation | Ask in plain English, then follow up — "now just the last 30 days", "make it a pie chart". Studio keeps context across the thread. |
| 📊 Instant charts | Numeric answers render as animated bar / line / pie / donut charts with hover tooltips — switch types in a click, export as PNG. |
| 🔗 Whole‑database joins | Choose Whole database and Studio samples your collections, picks the right ones, and writes $lookup joins for you — "orders per customer", "revenue by product category". |
| 🔍 See the query | Every answer has a View query panel with the exact generated mongosh statement and what it does. Curious users learn; engineers trust. |
| 🕑 Chat history | Every conversation is saved. Reopen one from the History rail (or the welcome screen) and it restores the database, collection, and full transcript. |
| 💡 Suggestions & summaries | Suggest questions proposes smart, collection‑aware prompts; Summarize gives a plain‑language readout of any result set. |
| 🪙 Token usage | Each answer, each chat, and the whole conversation show how many tokens were used (hover for the input/output split). When you switch topics, Studio nudges you to start a fresh chat to keep costs down. |
| 🛡️ Read‑only, always | Ask Studio to insert, update, or delete and it politely refuses with a friendly note — Studio explores and visualizes, it never changes your data. |
| 📤 Export | Charts as PNG, results as JSON / CSV. |
| ➡️ Hand off to the Shell | On any answer, Optimize in Shell sends the generated query into Normal mode's developer shell to refine. |
The developer shell isn't just an editor — it has a built‑in AI co‑pilot:
- 🩹 Fix with AI — when a query errors, one click sends the statement and the error for an instant fix.
- ⚙️ Optimize · Explain · Suggest indexes · Add safety limits — one‑click actions, schema‑aware from your sampled fields.
- ✅ Apply & run — accept the AI's improved query and re‑run instantly.
Grab the build for your OS from the latest release ⬇️. Installed apps update themselves from GitHub releases (signature‑verified) — so you only do this once.
| Platform | File |
|---|---|
| 🍎 macOS (Apple Silicon) | Ognom_x.y.z_aarch64.dmg |
| 🍎 macOS (Intel) | Ognom_x.y.z_x64.dmg |
| 🪟 Windows | Ognom_x.y.z_x64-setup.exe (or the .msi) |
| 🐧 Linux | .AppImage, .deb, or .rpm |
1. Pick the right build. Apple menu → About This Mac. If it says Apple M1/M2/M3/M4… (Apple Silicon), download the aarch64 .dmg; if it says Intel, download the x64 .dmg. (Picked the wrong one? The Intel build also runs on Apple Silicon via Rosetta, but the native aarch64 build is faster — prefer it.)
2. Install. Open the .dmg and drag Ognom into your Applications folder.
3. First launch — clear Gatekeeper (one command). Ognom is open source and distributed outside the App Store, so macOS quarantines it on download. The one step that works on every Mac — and is required on Apple Silicon — is to remove that quarantine flag. Open Terminal and run:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Ognom.appThen double‑click Ognom in Applications. That's it — you only do this once. ✅
Why is this needed? (and why right‑click → Open isn't enough on Apple Silicon)
macOS adds a com.apple.quarantine flag to anything you download. Because Ognom isn't signed with a paid Apple Developer certificate, Gatekeeper blocks the quarantined app — but the message differs by chip:
- Apple Silicon (M‑series): macOS shows "Ognom is damaged and can't be opened." There is no right‑click → Open or "Open Anyway" escape for the damaged verdict — Apple Silicon strictly enforces code signatures, so the quarantine flag must be removed with the command above.
- Intel: macOS shows the gentler "unidentified developer" warning, which right‑click → Open can bypass.
The xattr command simply strips the download flag so macOS treats the app like one you built yourself. Notarized apps from a paid Developer account skip all of this — Ognom is free and open source, and the code is right here for you to read or build yourself.
Intel Mac alternative — right‑click → Open (no Terminal)
On an Intel Mac you can skip the command:
- In Finder, open Applications.
- Right‑click (or Control‑click) Ognom → Open.
- Click Open in the dialog. macOS remembers your choice.
If you instead see a "damaged" message (typical on Apple Silicon), use the xattr command above — right‑click → Open won't clear it.
- Download
Ognom_x.y.z_x64-setup.exe(NSIS installer) — or the.msiif your org prefers MSI. - Run it. Because the app isn't code‑signed with a paid certificate, SmartScreen may show "Windows protected your PC." Click More info → Run anyway.
- Follow the installer. Launch Ognom from the Start menu. Updates install automatically going forward.
Pick the package that matches your distro. You may need GTK/WebKit runtime libraries (libwebkit2gtk-4.1, libgtk-3) — most desktops already have them.
AppImage (works almost everywhere)
chmod +x Ognom_x.y.z_amd64.AppImage
./Ognom_x.y.z_amd64.AppImageIf it won't start, install FUSE (sudo apt install libfuse2 on Debian/Ubuntu).
Debian / Ubuntu (.deb)
sudo apt install ./Ognom_x.y.z_amd64.deb
# or: sudo dpkg -i Ognom_x.y.z_amd64.deb && sudo apt -f installFedora / RHEL (.rpm)
sudo dnf install ./Ognom-x.y.z-1.x86_64.rpm
# or: sudo rpm -i Ognom-x.y.z-1.x86_64.rpm- Connect. Click the connection name (top‑left) → New connection. Paste a connection string, or fill in host/auth/TLS under Advanced. Connect to more servers any time and switch between them from the same menu.
- Explore (Normal mode). Click a collection in the sidebar, or press
⌘Kto jump by name. Browse, build queries, aggregate. - Ask (Terminator mode). Flip the header switch to Terminator, pick a database + collection (or Whole database), and type a question.
- Add your AI key. Studio and the Shell assistant need an OpenAI key — see below.
- Stuck? Hit the
?in the header for the in‑app Help page with examples for both audiences.
Studio and the Shell AI assistant use OpenAI. Set it up in Settings → Prompts & AI (or the key button in the Studio header).
- 🔑 Bring your own key. Stored locally on your machine and sent only to
api.openai.comfrom Ognom's backend — never through the web layer. - 🧩 One editable model. Defaults to
gpt-5.4-nano; change it to any model you prefer. - ⚡🧠 Normal vs Deep Think. A single toggle controls reasoning on that same model — Normal stays fast, Deep Think reasons harder for tricky multi‑collection joins and ambiguous questions.
- 🪙 Transparent usage. Token counts are shown per answer, per chat, and per conversation (hover for input/output). A fresh chat doesn't re‑send the previous conversation, so it costs fewer tokens — Studio suggests one when you change topics.
- 🛡️ Always safe. AI‑generated queries run through Ognom's safe layer: results capped at 500 documents, an automatic
$limiton aggregations, the generated query always visible, and never any writes from a prompt.
- Connection profiles live in your OS app‑data directory as JSON; secrets are AES‑256‑GCM encrypted.
- The 256‑bit master key is generated on first run and stored in a private (
0600) key file by default — no permission prompts, ever. Flip "Guard the encryption key with the OS keychain" to move it into the macOS Keychain / Windows Credential Manager / Secret Service (saved connections keep working). If the keychain becomes unreachable, Ognom falls back to the key file and tells you so in the UI — no silent downgrades. - The UI never receives stored secrets back; editing a connection keeps the stored password unless you type a new one.
- Exports are honest about secrets. A no‑passwords export is plain, portable metadata — safe to share. A full backup re‑encrypts credentials under a passphrase you choose (Argon2id → AES‑256‑GCM); the master key never leaves your machine, so a naive copy of the on‑disk file can't be decrypted elsewhere.
- The webview runs with a strict Content‑Security‑Policy and no remote content — Monaco and every asset are bundled locally, so the core app works fully offline.
- Your queries go to your MongoDB server. Studio's AI prompts go only to your configured AI provider (OpenAI) using your key.
Standard & mongodb+srv, replica sets, all SCRAM mechanisms, X.509, LDAP, TLS with custom CA / client certificates, read preferences, timeouts — all under Advanced. Or just paste a connection string.
Prerequisites: Rust, Node 20+, and the Tauri prerequisites for your OS.
git clone https://github.com/sunilksamanta/ognom.git
cd ognom
npm install
npm run tauri dev # run in development
npm run tauri build # produce a bundle for your OS- Shell syntax → MONGODB_SHELL_SYNTAX.md — everything the embedded shell understands.
- Releasing → RELEASING.md — how builds are signed and shipped.
- In‑app Help → the
?button in the header, with examples for developers and product owners.
MIT — free for everyone, forever.
Built with Rust 🦀, Tauri, and React. Made for the people who query — and the people who just need answers.