Design and Manage ScyllaDB Databases Visually with DbSchema

DbSchema lets you design, manage, and document ScyllaDB databases. Create ER diagrams, define tables and columns, and generate SQL scripts - with or without a live database connection.

Use Git to share the design, compare it with the ScyllaDB database, and deploy changes. DbSchema also includes a data editor, query builder, and HTML5 documentation - everything you need in one tool.

DbSchema Database Designer

Download DbSchema Download ScyllaDB JDBC Driver

ScyllaDB is a Cassandra-compatible wide-column database written in C++ using the Seastar framework, delivering significantly lower latency than Apache Cassandra by eliminating the JVM garbage collector and using a shard-per-core architecture. Its CQL schema model — keyspaces, tables, partition keys, clustering columns, materialized views, and secondary indexes — is compatible with Cassandra at the protocol level. DbSchema connects to ScyllaDB using the Cassandra JDBC driver and treats the schema identically, providing visual keyspace design, CQL query tools, and schema documentation for high-throughput ScyllaDB deployments.

Browsing ScyllaDB Column Types and Keyspace Structures

ScyllaDB supports the full CQL type system — including collections, frozen types, user-defined types, and duration — as well as ScyllaDB-specific features like tablets for dynamic sharding. DbSchema reads the ScyllaDB system catalog and displays the complete data type and schema structure for each keyspace and table, including partition key and clustering column annotations.

Browsing ScyllaDB keyspace column types and structure in DbSchema

CQL Query Builder for ScyllaDB Tables

The DbSchema query builder constructs CQL SELECT statements for ScyllaDB tables, respecting partition key requirements that ScyllaDB enforces at query time. You can select columns, add WHERE conditions that include partition key predicates, and execute queries directly against the cluster — avoiding the ALLOW FILTERING penalty for unqualified queries.

Building CQL queries against a ScyllaDB cluster in DbSchema

Schema Documentation for ScyllaDB Clusters

DbSchema generates HTML documentation from the ScyllaDB schema, capturing keyspace replication strategy settings, table definitions with partition and clustering key designations, materialized view definitions, and index structures. For teams running ScyllaDB at scale across multiple datacenters, this documentation provides a shared reference without requiring direct cluster access.

Auto-generated schema documentation for a ScyllaDB keyspace in DbSchema

Connecting DbSchema to ScyllaDB

ScyllaDB listens on port 9042 by default and is protocol-compatible with Apache Cassandra. DbSchema connects using the DataStax Cassandra JDBC driver. The JDBC URL format is jdbc:cassandra://host:9042/keyspace. For ScyllaDB Cloud, use the hostname and credentials provided in the ScyllaDB Cloud console — the connection uses standard CQL authentication with a username and password, identical to Cassandra's PasswordAuthenticator. For self-managed ScyllaDB clusters that use client-to-node encryption, configure SSL parameters in the JDBC URL or in DbSchema's driver settings.

DbSchema uses its own open-source ScyllaDB JDBC driver. The source code is available on GitHub.

Why Teams Use DbSchema with ScyllaDB

  • Cassandra-compatible tooling — the same JDBC driver and connection approach works for both Cassandra and ScyllaDB.
  • Partition key visualization — see partition and clustering key designations clearly in ER diagrams and table views.
  • Materialized view documentation — capture materialized view definitions in the schema model and generated docs.
  • ScyllaDB Cloud support — connect to cloud-hosted ScyllaDB clusters using standard CQL authentication credentials.
  • High-throughput data inspection — browse ScyllaDB table data from the explorer without writing raw CQL queries.