Guide
Layerbase Desktop
Layerbase Desktop is a native GUI for managing databases without a terminal. It wraps the SpinDB engine manager in a visual app, so you can create, start, query, and back up 21 database engines locally, and manage your Layerbase Cloud databases in the same window. It is free for personal use on macOS, Windows, and Linux.
Download and install
Get the app from layerbase.com/desktop/download. The page detects your platform and offers the matching installer: a DMG on macOS (a universal build for both Intel and Apple Silicon), an NSIS installer or portable EXE on Windows 10 and later, and .deb or .rpm packages on Linux.
The macOS build is Developer ID signed and notarized (0.33.0 and later), so it opens straight from the DMG with no Gatekeeper workaround. Do not run xattr -cr on the app: that strips the notarization ticket rather than helping. Just drag it to Applications and open it.
The Windows build is fully working but not yet code-signed, so Windows SmartScreen may warn you the first time you run the installer. Choose More info, then Run anyway, and Windows remembers the choice for later launches. Linux ships as .deb and .rpm packages, installed with your distribution's package manager.
Signing in
To manage cloud databases from the app, sign in with your Layerbase account. The app opens your browser, you continue with GitHub or Google, and the browser redirects back to the app once you are authenticated. It is the same account you use on the web dashboard. You do not need to sign in to work with purely local databases.
Local databases
Local databases run on your own machine through SpinDB. Create a container for any supported engine, then start, stop, clone, or delete it from the sidebar. A multi-tab query editor gives you syntax highlighting, live results, sorting, and filtering, and you can create and restore local snapshots for one-click data safety.
The local set is a superset of what Cloud offers. CockroachDB and SurrealDB, for example, are Desktop and SpinDB only today, so you can run them locally even though they are not creatable in the Cloud dashboard. Every Cloud engine is also available locally.
Managing cloud databases
Once you are signed in, your Layerbase Cloud databases appear alongside your local containers. From the app you can start and stop a database, wake a hibernated one, take and restore backups, view usage, promote a local database into a hosted one, and delete a hosted database you no longer want. These actions run against the same Cloud backend as the web dashboard, so state stays consistent between the two.
Promote to cloud sits next to Deploy on a local container's overview, in the container's right-click menu, and in the command palette. Deploy creates an empty cloud database from a container's shape; promote takes the container you already have and puts it in the cloud with its data. The app creates the cloud database, dumps the local one, uploads the dump, restores it, and hands back the connection string, with the option to link the new cloud database back into the app. Your local container is never moved, stopped, or changed. PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Redis, Valkey, SQLite, and DuckDB can be promoted, the same set the CLI promote command supports; other engines keep the button visible and grayed out with the reason. The cloud database is created on the version line your container runs, checked against the versions Cloud can still create, and when that line has been retired the app picks the newest version still offered and tells you before it creates anything.
Delete database sits at the end of a cloud database's overview toolbar and asks you to type the database's name to confirm. The deletion is permanent, and Layerbase Cloud takes a final backup into your account before it removes anything. A linked local container is deliberately left in place, since unlinking is a separate decision, and Unlink still does only that. Server-side rules still decide: a database with branches forked off it cannot be deleted until those branches are, and the dialog names the branches that are blocking it.
Both the Databases tab and the Cloud tab list as a table by default, with branches nested under the database they were forked from, the same way the web dashboard shows them. A chevron collapses a family down to a single row and opens it again, sorting a column sorts within each family rather than lifting a branch away from its parent, and the app remembers whether you chose the list or the card grid for each tab.
Plan limits apply exactly as they do on the web. If you try to activate a database beyond your plan quota, deploy a paid-only engine, or act on a suspended account, the request is rejected with an upgrade prompt. Controls you cannot use are grayed out rather than hidden, so it is clear what an upgrade would unlock.
Session diagnostics and privacy
The desktop app can record anonymized session diagnostics to help us debug issues. This is off by default and controlled centrally by Layerbase, not a per-user toggle: there is a single remote switch that is disabled unless we turn it on for troubleshooting. Secret values such as connection credentials are masked from the recording.