We’ve developed a new database design tool called Liam ERD, and it’s finally here! Let us introduce it to you.

Overview

Liam ERD is a tool that automatically generates ER diagrams to visualize database table structures. It comes in two main versions:

• Web Version: For public repositories, you can visualize schema files by prepending https://liambx.com/erd/p/ to their URL. For example, to view Mastodon’s schema: https://liambx.com/erd/p/github.com/mastodon/mastodon/blob/main/db/schema.rb.
• CLI Version: For private repositories, we provide a guide to deploy it with Prisma, GitHub Actions, and Cloudflare Pages.

Why We Built Liam ERD

Entity Relationship Diagrams (ERDs) are essential for understanding database structures, facilitating smoother communication in software development. They are particularly helpful for:

• Reducing onboarding costs for new team members.
• Supporting non-engineering roles, like PdMs or customer support, in understanding database structures.
• Assisting data analytics teams in comprehending table structures without delving into product code.

Creating ER diagrams manually is time-consuming and error-prone. Automating this process ensures accuracy and saves effort. While existing tools like Mermaid.js or PlantUML provide static images, they struggle with readability for large projects. Others, like SchemaSpy, require extensive dependencies and are difficult to integrate into CI/CD pipelines. We wanted a CI/CD-friendly, easy-to-use, and highly readable solution—hence, Liam ERD was born.

Key Features

• Modern and Interactive UI: Supports panning, zooming, filtering, and focusing, offering better interactivity.
• High Performance: Handles databases with over 100 tables seamlessly, with fast filtering capabilities.
• CI/CD Friendly: Easily integrates with hosting services for automated workflows.
• Open Source: Freely modifiable, with new features driven by community feedback on our GitHub repository.

Improved User Experience

Liam ERD arranges related tables close together, avoiding overly complex connections, ensuring a clean and readable layout even for large databases. Additionally, hovering over a table highlights related tables and columns, helping users focus on areas of interest. Selecting a table displays a detailed pane with comments, indexes, and related tables.

Using Liam ERD for Public Repositories

For public GitHub repositories, simply prepend https://liambx.com/erd/p/ to the schema file’s URL, and Liam ERD will render the diagram. You can also specify a commit hash to view diagrams at a specific point in the project’s history.

Deploying with CLI for Private Projects

The CLI version of Liam ERD is available via npm, enabling local generation of ER diagrams or integration with CI/CD pipelines. For example, combining Prisma, GitHub Actions, and Cloudflare Pages allows internal use while restricting access to authorized members. Detailed deployment instructions can be found in our documentation.

Supported Formats

Currently, Liam ERD supports schema files for Ruby on Rails (schema.rb), Prisma (schema.prisma), and SQL DDL. We’re actively working on expanding support for other formats and welcome community contributions.

Future Features

We plan to enhance Liam ERD with the following capabilities:

• Enhanced Documentation: Grouping and adding comments for better clarity.
• ERD Editing: Adding or editing tables and columns with migration file generation.
• Record Insights: Connecting to databases to run simple SQL queries and make table structures more accessible.
• Cloud Version: Real-time collaborative editing for teams working on private projects.

How You Can Contribute

Liam ERD is open source, and we welcome contributions. You can help by:

• Reporting issues.
• Suggesting new features.
• Submitting pull requests.

Your support matters! Give our repository a ⭐️ on GitHub to help us grow and improve. You can also track our roadmap and share your feedback.

Try Liam ERD Now

That’s Liam ERD, a powerful tool for generating clear, interactive ER diagrams effortlessly. Explore it today at https://liambx.com/.

For a more detailed introduction, check out our blog post:

🔗 Introducing Liam ERD