Scythe¶

Polyglot SQL-to-code generator with built-in linting and formatting.

Write SQL. Get type-safe code. In any language.

Why Scythe¶

• 10 languages, 34 backend drivers -- Rust, Python, TypeScript, Go, Java, Kotlin, C#, Elixir, Ruby, PHP
• 5 databases -- PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, DuckDB, CockroachDB -- all 10 languages supported on every engine
• 93 lint rules (22 custom + 71 sqruff) -- catch bugs before they ship
• SQL formatting -- via sqruff integration
• Smart type inference -- nullability from JOINs, COALESCE, window functions, aggregates
• Configurable row types -- Pydantic, msgspec, Zod, or language defaults per backend
• @optional parameters -- SQL rewriting for conditional filters without dynamic query building

Quick Install¶

cargo install scythe-cli
# or
brew install Goldziher/tap/scythe

30-Second Example¶

-- @name GetUserOrders
-- @returns :many
SELECT u.id, u.name, o.total, o.notes
FROM users u
LEFT JOIN orders o ON u.id = o.user_id
WHERE u.status = $1;

Scythe knows o.total and o.notes are nullable (right side of LEFT JOIN) and generates type-safe code:

pub struct GetUserOrdersRow {
    pub id: i32,
    pub name: String,
    pub total: Option<rust_decimal::Decimal>,
    pub notes: Option<String>,
}

@dataclass
class GetUserOrdersRow:
    id: int
    name: str
    total: decimal.Decimal | None
    notes: str | None

interface GetUserOrdersRow {
    id: number;
    name: string;
    total: string | null;
    notes: string | null;
}

type GetUserOrdersRow struct {
    ID    int32    `json:"id"`
    Name  string   `json:"name"`
    Total *string  `json:"total"`
    Notes *string  `json:"notes"`
}

public record GetUserOrdersRow(
    int id,
    String name,
    @Nullable BigDecimal total,
    @Nullable String notes
) {}

data class GetUserOrdersRow(
    val id: Int,
    val name: String,
    val total: java.math.BigDecimal?,
    val notes: String?,
)

public record GetUserOrdersRow(
    int Id,
    string Name,
    decimal? Total,
    string? Notes
);

defmodule GetUserOrdersRow do
  @type t :: %__MODULE__{
    id: integer(),
    name: String.t(),
    total: Decimal.t() | nil,
    notes: String.t() | nil
  }
  defstruct [:id, :name, :total, :notes]
end

module Queries
  GetUserOrdersRow = Data.define(
    :id, :name, :total, :notes
  )
end

readonly class GetUserOrdersRow {
    public function __construct(
        public int $id,
        public string $name,
        public ?string $total,
        public ?string $notes,
    ) {}
}

Learn More¶

• Quickstart -- from zero to generated code in 5 minutes
• Philosophy -- why compile SQL instead of using an ORM
• Alternatives -- how scythe compares to sqlc, SQLDelight, jOOQ, and ORMs