Redis

SoftDB supports Redis with key browsing by type, database index switching (0-15), and a command interface that accepts any Redis command via the SQL editor.

Quick Setup

1. Open the Connection Hub and click New Connection.

2. Select Redis as the database type.

3. Fill in your connection details:

   • Host: localhost
   • Port: 6379
   • Password: your Redis password (leave blank if none)
   • Database: a number from 0 to 15 (defaults to 0)

4. Click Test Connection, then Save.

Connection Settings

Field	Default	Notes
Host	localhost	Redis server hostname or IP
Port	6379	Standard Redis port
Username	—	Optional. Used for Redis ACL (Redis 6+)
Password	—	Optional. Leave blank for unauthenticated servers
Database	0	Redis database index, 0-15

Key Browsing

SoftDB scans the selected database index using SCAN and lists up to 1,000 keys in the sidebar. Each key shows its type (string, hash, list, set, zset, stream). Clicking a key opens it in the table explorer.

The sidebar tree shows database indexes (0-15) as “databases”. Clicking a different index issues a SELECT command and refreshes the key list.

Data Type Support

SoftDB reads each key type using the appropriate Redis command:

Type	Read Command	Display
string	GET	Single value
hash	HGETALL	Field-value pairs
list	LRANGE 0 -1	Ordered list with index
set	SMEMBERS	Member list
zset	ZRANGE 0 -1 WITHSCORES	Score-value pairs
stream	XRANGE - +	Stream entries

Key metadata shown in the column panel includes the TTL (in seconds, -1 means no expiry), encoding, and memory usage in bytes.

Running Commands

The SQL editor accepts any Redis command in CLI syntax. Commands are space-separated tokens, just like redis-cli:

GET mykey

SET session:user:42 "active" EX 3600

HSET user:1 name "Alice" email "alice@example.com"

ZADD leaderboard 1500 "player1" 1200 "player2"

You can run multiple commands by putting each on its own line:

SET counter 0
INCR counter
INCR counter
GET counter

Results from multiple commands are merged into a single result set.

Useful commands

# List all keys matching a pattern
KEYS user:*

# Get key type
TYPE mykey

# Check TTL
TTL session:user:42

# Get server info
INFO server

# Get memory usage
MEMORY USAGE mykey

# Flush current database (careful!)
FLUSHDB

Limitations

Redis is a key-value store, not a relational database. Several SoftDB features that work with SQL databases are not available for Redis:

Feature	Available
SQL editor	Yes (Redis CLI syntax)
Key browsing	Yes
Database index switching	Yes
Structure designer	No
Export to CSV/JSON	No
Transactions (MULTI/EXEC)	No (via SoftDB UI)
Drop table / delete key	No (use DEL command)
Views / functions	No

Note

To delete a key, use the DEL command in the SQL editor: DEL mykey. The “drop table” button in the UI is disabled for Redis connections.

Troubleshooting

Connection refused

failed to ping redis: dial tcp 127.0.0.1:6379: connect: connection refused

Redis isn’t running. Start it with redis-server or systemctl start redis. Check the port in /etc/redis/redis.conf (port directive).

Authentication required

failed to ping redis: NOAUTH Authentication required

The Redis server requires a password but none was provided. Add the password in the connection settings.

Wrong password

failed to ping redis: ERR invalid password

The password is incorrect. Check the requirepass directive in your Redis config.

Invalid database index

failed to ping redis: ERR DB index is out of range

The database index must be between 0 and 15. Redis defaults to 16 databases (0-15). If your server has fewer, use a lower index.