Install the local service
The signed package installs a boot-time LaunchDaemon with protected credentials and configurable LAN binding.
Developer preview · in active development
macSQL
Server
Powerful SQL. Built for macOS.
A SQL Server-compatible database engine for Mac, written in Rust and run as a LaunchDaemon on Apple Silicon. Administered by macSQL Studio or by any SQL Server client that speaks TDS.
sqlcmd -S 127.0.0.1,1433 \
-U website \
-P "$MACSQL_PASSWORD" \
-No \
-Q "SELECT 1 AS ok;"
Use Repair Local Login in macSQL Studio if a clean installation
needs its SQL account created, reset, enabled, or unlocked.
Current engine
Engine 0.133.0
Build 133
Build 132 with permission and error-handling fixes: a DENY holds inside dynamic SQL (D-516), database management is the administrator's (D-537), an unreadable security catalog is refused, not read as empty (D-538), a conversion failure inside a function stops its caller (D-348 stage 4), and CREATE FUNCTION refuses a body SQL Server refuses (D-532)
Previous release
Build 132, qualified on production 2026-10-08
Product stage
Local/LAN developer preview
01
Rust database engine
SQL execution, persistence, WAL recovery, schema management, security metadata, and TDS compatibility.
02
Administered over TDS
macSQL Studio is the native Mac client and a separate product. SQL Server Management Studio and the thirteen qualified client stacks connect to the same listener.
03
Mac service workflow
LaunchDaemon installation, LAN operation, SQL-authenticated clients, protected secrets, and signed update delivery.
Status
In active development. Not a beta yet.
macSQL is a developer preview. Builds ship several times a week. Each one is installed on a production server and passes a sixteen-gate qualification before it is published here.
Every published build has passed: a signed and notarized package; thirteen real client adapters exercised over encrypted TDS with no skips; physical backup with write-ahead log archiving and point-in-time recovery against a service-managed server; strict two-phase-locking contention against live clients; and a security surface with zero failures. Each release is recorded with dated, cryptographically signed evidence that chains to the one before it.
Per-release notes are published to your account. The readiness measurement below is re-run against the installed server, not the source tree. When there is a beta, this page will say so.
Current engine: Engine 0.133.0. Read the readiness measurement before deciding whether it fits your use.
Built for real development loops
Install, connect, inspect, recover.
Connect familiar tools
SQL username/password authentication over TDS, with documented settings for sqlcmd, ODBC, PHP, and Node.
Administer from macSQL Studio
Logins, roles, object permissions, databases, backups, integrity checks, and diagnostics from the Mac client, which is a separate product.
Recover without shell work
Repair local SQL logins through Studio’s normal macOS administrator prompt instead of editing plists or tokens.
Developer preview channel
Two products, downloaded separately.
macSQL Server is the database engine and its LaunchDaemon package. macSQL Studio is the Mac client that administers it — and, over TDS, any Microsoft SQL Server. They have separate release trains: the server runs headless on a machine you administer, the client runs on your Mac, and neither requires the other on the same machine.
LaunchDaemon package
The signed server package that installed, ran, and passed its pre-publication gate. Installs the engine as a system daemon and listens for TDS on port 1433.
Sign in to downloadMac client
A native Mac client for macSQL and Microsoft SQL Server. It ships no engine and links no engine library — it connects over TDS to a server that is already running.
Studio checks its own release feed at launch, downloads a new build in the background, and offers to relaunch — no account, no manual download. Updates are verified against a signing key built into the app, so a build that is not ours cannot install.
Sign in to downloadFeed and notes
Signed-in accounts can inspect build numbers, checksums, compatibility requirements, and release notes.
Honest readiness snapshot
Developer preview. Still proving enterprise depth.
Overall enterprise-replacement readiness is 25.1% — round thirteen of the seven-dimension adversarial series, measured 2026-09-08 against the installed Build 118 boundary. Each dimension is assessed against a live engine and then attacked by a separate reviewer looking for optimism; six of the seven were cut by their skeptic. An older weighted model reads higher; where the two disagree we publish the lower one.
The mean fell from 29.0 to 25.1 because the round probed harder than any before it, not because the engine regressed: durability rose from 26 to 32 (crash recovery lost zero acknowledged rows across five SIGKILL-and-restart cycles under concurrent writers), and the round found twelve criticals and thirty-nine highs elsewhere, all filed. Builds 119 through 125 each closed the ones they were built for; round fourteen is due.
The seven dimensions are scored independently and averaged; the 97.1% beside them is a different measurement on a different scale and is not part of the average. Nothing here is capped or rounded upward. Scale is the lowest dimension. Nothing implements replication or failover yet, so losing a machine still loses the database.
macSQL accounts
Preview access backed by macSQL itself.
The account portal stores user profiles, password hashes, approval state, and revocable session hashes in macSQL. Plaintext passwords are never stored or shown. New accounts remain pending until an administrator approves them.
Account security
- PHP
password_hashandpassword_verify. - Secure, HttpOnly, SameSite session cookies.
- CSRF checks, generic login failures, and rate limiting.
- First-admin invite and administrator approval workflow.