The Workspace Folder #

A workspace is a folder on your machine. Any folder: a repository you cloned, a directory of .sql files you have had for years, or an empty one you just made. SELECT opens it the way an editor does, and reads what is already in it.

There is no managed location and nothing hidden in your application data directory. Your files stay where you put them.

Opening a folder #

Signing in with no folder open leaves you in the app itself, with the folders you opened recently where your files would be. Open one from there, or with the button in the top left corner – Cmd+O.

What happens next depends on what is in the folder.

Already a workspace. It holds a select.config.json, so SELECT connects to the right server and builds the tree.

Not a workspace yet. SELECT offers to make one, named after the folder. Creating it adds that one file and changes nothing else; an empty folder also gets a small sample database to start from.

On another server. Roles and permissions come from the server a workspace lives on, so sign out, pick that server, and open the folder again.

Not yours to open. The workspace was deleted, or you are not in it. Ask someone in the workspace to invite you. select.config.json is left alone, because your team probably shares it – starting a new workspace in the folder is a separate, deliberate click.

select.config.json #

This is the file that makes a folder a workspace. It sits at the root and holds two things:

{
  "$comment": "Managed by SELECT. Do not edit by hand.",
  "version": 1,
  "server": "app.select-db.com",
  "workspaceId": "ws_01hq..."
}

Do not edit it by hand. SELECT writes it when you create a workspace and reads it every time you open the folder.

Commit it. That is the point of the file. A teammate clones the repository, opens the folder, and lands in the right workspace on the right server without being told which.

The workspace’s name is deliberately not in it. The name lives on the server, shared with everyone in the workspace, so renaming it renames it for the team. What you call the directory on your own disk is your business.

Sharing a workspace with your team #

1. One person creates the workspace in a folder and commits select.config.json along with their queries.
2. Everyone else clones the repository and opens the folder.
3. The owner invites them under Settings -> Users.

Git moves the files; the SELECT backend moves the team settings. See Git for what belongs in each.

Large folders #

SELECT reads your .gitignore and skips the folders it excludes when building the tree and watching for changes, so opening a repository with a node_modules or a target in it stays fast. Only folders are skipped, never files: .env is gitignored by default and SELECT still reads your $VARIABLES from it. See .gitignore.

Deleting a workspace #

Deleting a workspace removes it from the server and deletes select.config.json from the folder. Your files are not touched. The folder, the queries and the databases in it stay exactly as they were, and you can create a new workspace in the same folder afterwards.

Only the owner can delete a workspace. On their machine the folder closes and select.config.json goes with it; everyone else finds out on their next sync, where the folder closes and the config stays. Your files are still there either way, and the folder then opens on the screen above.

Losing access to a workspace someone else deleted, or being removed from one, looks the same from your side: the folder closes and you are left on the start screen, still signed in.

Folders SELECT will not open #

Your home directory and a filesystem root are refused. Both mean indexing everything you own, and both are mis-clicks rather than intentions. Pick a folder inside them instead.