Curlybrace is a free MongoDB GUI for Mac.

What you can do with it

The basics, done carefully, plus a compare tool for moving data between databases safely. Everything here works today.

Connect the way your servers need

SCRAM, X.509 and LDAP sign-in, TLS, replica sets and mongodb+srv:// URIs. Reach private servers through an SSH tunnel via a bastion host, with the host key checked before anything is sent. Kerberos is included and still experimental.

Keep passwords out of files

Passwords and SSH secrets are stored in the macOS Keychain. The saved connection list never contains them, and they never appear in logs or error messages.

See documents three ways

Open a collection and switch between a tree, a table and raw JSON. Pages hold 50 documents, and long arrays are summarised so big documents stay readable.

Query without leaving the page

Type a filter, sort, projection, skip and limit as JSON and run it. If something is wrong, the app says what, and your previous results stay on screen.

Edit without losing types

Insert, edit, clone and delete documents. The editor uses canonical extended JSON, so numbers, decimals, dates, binary data and MinKey keep their exact BSON type. Any _id works: ObjectId, string, number, UUID or a compound value.

Compare collections or whole databases

Pick a source and a target, even on different servers, and compare two collections or a whole database. See what is only on one side and what differs, field by field. Comparing never writes. To change data you tick the differences, review exactly what will be written where, and confirm; every document is checked again just before it is written. You can also export the changes as a mongosh script or JSON plan, or the differences as a CSV report. Read the compare guide.

Several connections at once

Open more than one saved connection at the same time. Each has its own tree root, status and view, and the documents pane, the delete confirmation and the editor name the connection a write goes to. If a server goes away, only its root turns red, with a Reconnect button, and the others keep working. A TLS problem is reported as such, apart from an unreachable server. Details in #46.

A connection manager

Saved connections in folders, with filter and sort, an edit dialog, a connection test, and import and export of your connection list without secrets. Details in #45.

Built to not lose your data

Deletes ask for confirmation and show the document’s _id. A page shown with a projection is read-only for edit and clone, so a partial copy can never overwrite the full document. Unsaved editor text survives a stray click.

What is coming next

Curlybrace focuses first on what free MongoDB tools do not already cover well, then fills in the everyday features. Every item is a GitHub issue you can follow, discuss or build.

Install it in a minute

For Apple Silicon Macs. The app isn’t notarized by Apple yet, so macOS asks you to confirm the first launch.

1. Download curlybrace-…-macos-arm64.zip from the latest release and unzip it.

2. Move Curlybrace into your Applications folder.

3. Right-click the app, choose Open, then Open again. Or clear the quarantine flag once from a terminal:

   xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Curlybrace.app"