SurrealDB

Project Overview: SurrealDB is a powerful, next-generation database that is rapidly gaining popularity for its flexibility and developer-friendly features. A key part of any developer tool is its command-line interface (CLI). For a database with a rich query language like SurrealQL, a plain text terminal can make writing complex queries tedious and error-prone.

Recognizing the need to improve the developer experience, I took on the initiative to implement full syntax highlighting directly within the SurrealDB CLI. This contribution transformed the terminal from a simple text input into a smart, intuitive, and visually helpful editor for writing SurrealQL.

My Role and Contribution: Bringing Color to the Command Line

My primary goal was to make interacting with SurrealDB through the terminal as seamless and pleasant as using a modern code editor. I was responsible for the end-to-end implementation of the syntax highlighting feature.

This wasn’t just about adding a splash of color; it was a deep dive into the intersection of terminal user interfaces, parsing, and real-time feedback.

1. Parsing and Tokenization: I integrated a parsing mechanism that could analyze SurrealQL queries in real-time as the user typed. This involved breaking down the query string into distinct tokens, such as keywords (SELECT, FROM), data types (string, int), functions, and operators.

2. Terminal UI Integration: I utilized Rust libraries for advanced terminal control to apply colors to these specific tokens. This required careful handling of terminal escape codes and ensuring cross-platform compatibility across different shells and operating systems (macOS, Linux, and Windows).

3. Performance is Key: A major challenge was ensuring that the highlighting process was instantaneous and didn’t introduce any input lag. The solution had to be highly performant, providing immediate visual feedback without slowing down the user’s typing speed, even with very long and complex queries.

Features of the Implementation

• Real-time Highlighting: Keywords, functions, strings, numbers, and operators are colored instantly as you type, providing immediate visual context.
• Improved Readability: Complex queries with multiple joins, nested selects, and LET statements become significantly easier to read, understand, and debug.
• Faster Error Detection: Typos in keywords or misplaced quotes become immediately obvious, allowing developers to spot and fix syntax errors before they even run the query.
• Enhanced Professionalism: A polished CLI reflects the quality of the underlying tool, and syntax highlighting is a standard expectation for modern developer tools.

Technology Stack

The implementation was built directly into the SurrealDB codebase, leveraging its core language and relevant libraries from its ecosystem:

• Core Language: Rust
• Terminal Interaction: Libraries like reedline or rustyline for sophisticated line editing capabilities.
• Parsing/Lexing: Utilized SurrealDB’s own SurrealQL parser to ensure the highlighting was perfectly in sync with the actual query grammar.

Outcome & Personal Growth

The syntax highlighting feature was successfully merged into the main SurrealDB codebase and is now a standard part of the CLI experience for thousands of developers worldwide. The feedback from the community was incredibly positive, with many users noting the significant improvement in their daily workflow.

This project was a fantastic opportunity to deepen my skills in Rust, low-level system interaction, and parsing techniques. More importantly, it taught me the value of focusing on the developer experience—a small, well-executed feature can have a massive impact on a tool’s usability and adoption.

Community Feedback

I remember the first time I updated my SurrealDB client and saw the syntax highlighting in the terminal. It was a game-changer! Writing queries became so much faster and less error-prone. It’s one of those quality-of-life features you don’t realize you need until you have it, and then you can’t live without it.