2. Quick Start¶

Your first diagram in 5 minutes. You need qdbd installed.

2.1 Write (or paste) a schema¶

Save this as schema.txt. If you already have a schema in QuickDBD, copy it from QuickDBD's editor and paste it in unchanged.

Customer
-
CustomerId PK int
Name string
Email string UNIQUE

Order as o
----
OrderId PK int
CustomerId int FK >- Customer.CustomerId
OrderDate datetime
Total decimal(10,2)

A table is a name, a line of dashes, then one column per line: name type modifiers. FK >- Customer.CustomerId means many orders → one customer. Everything else is in 3.1 Schema Syntax.

2.2 Check it¶

qdbd check schema.txt

No errors found. Good job!

Errors print as schema.txt:12: error: …, using QuickDBD's own messages, and exit with code 1. That makes the same command a CI gate (7. CI and Automation).

2.3 Edit it live¶

qdbd serve schema.txt

A browser tab opens with the diagram and an editor pane.

Edit in the pane (it autosaves 1 s after you stop typing) or in your own editor. The diagram reloads on save.
Drag tables to arrange them. Positions are saved to schema.layout.json; commit it with the schema (3.3 Table Positions).
Stop the server with Ctrl+C.

qdbd build schema.txt -o schema.html

schema.html is one self-contained file. Open it locally, email it, attach it to a ticket, or publish it on GitHub Pages (7.4). To send a link instead, run qdbd share schema.txt (4.4 Sharing a Link).

In the page, click a table to see its details, type +Order in the filter, or press Link to copy a URL to exactly what you're looking at. The tour is in 4.1 Reading the Diagram.

2.5 Export an image¶

qdbd export schema.txt -o schema.png                         # whole diagram: .png, .svg or .drawio
qdbd export schema.txt --focus Order --depth 1 -o order.svg   # one table and its neighbours

.drawio files open in diagrams.net as editable ER shapes. More: 4.3 Exports.

2.6 Where next¶

You want to…	Go to
Split a big schema into several files	3.2 Many Files, One Diagram
Filter to part of the schema, or find how two tables join	4.2 Selecting Tables, 4.1 Reading the Diagram
Generate the schema from a dbt project	5.1 dbt Import
Send someone a link to the diagram	4.4 Sharing a Link
See what a branch changes	6. Reviewing Changes
Run it on every pull request	7. CI and Automation