Get LibreDB Studio listed in the CockroachDB docs #976

Problem

CockroachDB's docs list the GUI tools their users reach for, and we are in none of them. Their own measurement of us is good: the wire-compatible engines table in docs/providers/README.md records CockroachDB CCL v26.2.6 as Partial, with the editor, error handling, performance metrics, slow queries, sessions and the object browser all working. That is a stronger position than most tools on their community page.

CockroachDB is also one of the engines a Postgres-shaped product is most often compared against, so the traffic is the right traffic: their docs are read by exactly the people who then need a client.

What the docs repo actually looks like (measured 2026-09-19)

cockroachdb/docs, docs live under src/current/<version>/, one directory per released version, currently v25.2 through v26.3. Two separate slots exist, and they are not the same amount of work:

Slot A, a one-line listing. src/current/<version>/community-tooling.md ("Third-Party Tools Supported by the Community") has a Visualization tools section that today lists Beekeeper Studio. The page itself says: "If you have a tested or developed a third-party tool with CockroachDB, and would like it listed on this page, please contact the Cockroach Labs docs team." This is the cheap, honest entry: one bullet per version file, six files, no new page.

Slot B, a tutorial page. Each version directory also carries per-tool pages, src/current/<version>/dbeaver.md being the model ("Visualize CockroachDB Schemas with DBeaver": front matter with title, summary, toc, docs_area: develop, then a walkthrough against a secure cluster). A page needs a sidebar entry too: the dbeaver.html link lives in src/current/_includes/<version>/sidebar-data/reads-and-writes.json.

Other things that bind a PR there:

• StyleGuide.md at the repo root is enforced, and Vale runs over *.md with MinAlertLevel = suggestion and a CockroachDB vocabulary (.vale.ini, vale/).
• The repo has an AGENTS.md under src/current/ describing includes and version directories. Read it before writing.
• Liquid links are written as {% link {{ page.version.version }}/<page>.md %}, not bare Markdown links.

Proposal

Do Slot A first, as its own PR. If it lands, offer Slot B as a follow-up rather than opening both at once.

Slot A bullet, one per version file, under Visualization tools, alphabetical:

- [LibreDB Studio](https://libredb.org) - Browser-based SQL IDE that connects to CockroachDB over the PostgreSQL wire protocol.

What must be measured before writing anything

Our current CockroachDB row is honest about three gaps, and the docs page must not paper over them:

• pg_size_pretty(), pg_postmaster_start_time() and pg_tablespace_location() do not exist there, so the overview and health size fields stay unavailable rather than crashing.
• The schema query falls back to a 0-byte size because pg_total_relation_size() is missing; tables, foreign keys and indexes list correctly.
• crdb_internal and pg_extension objects reach pg_tables, which once made the overview count 98 tables for the 2 the browser listed. That exclusion is in place now.

Re-probe against a current CockroachDB before submitting. The row says v26.2.6 and the docs repo already carries v26.3; a claim about a version we have not run is the one thing that gets a docs PR closed. database-compose.yml has the service.

Acceptance criteria

• A PR against cockroachdb/docs adds the bullet to community-tooling.md in every currently supported version directory, with no other file touched.
• The bullet's claim is verified first: a live connection to a CockroachDB matching the newest documented version, with the object browser listing real tables and a query returning rows. Paste the evidence in the PR body.
• Vale passes locally over the changed files.
• If the docs team asks for the tutorial page instead, Slot B is scoped as a separate issue, not bolted onto that PR.
• On merge, distribution/channels.yaml is untouched (this is a docs listing, not a channel), but the CockroachDB row in docs/providers/README.md gains a pointer to the upstream page, so the two sides stay in sync.

Depends on

Nothing. This is documentation work plus a live probe we can run today.