Installation

DBPinball is built from source. There is no published installer or package registry release documented here, and this page does not claim one.

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/programinglive/dbpinball.git
cd dbpinball

Build the CLI

cargo build -p dbpinball-cli --release

The binary is written to target/release/dbpinball (or dbpinball.exe on Windows). Add that directory to PATH, or call the binary by its full path.

Verify it:

dbpinball --version
dbpinball doctor

Run the desktop from source

npm install
npm run tauri dev

Build desktop installers

npm run tauri build

Installers are written to src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.

Verify the build

Check	Command
Rust formatting	cargo fmt --all -- --check
Rust lints	cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings
Rust tests	cargo test --workspace
Frontend type check	npm run lint
Frontend tests	npm test
Frontend build	npm run build
Dependency boundaries	node scripts/check-boundaries.cjs

These are the same checks the CI workflow runs. See CI checks.

Where the data lives

Purpose	Location
Connection profiles	dirs::config_dir()/dbpinball/connections.json
Passwords	The OS keyring, service dbpinball, account = profile id

On Windows the config directory is %APPDATA%\dbpinball; on macOS it is ~/Library/Application Support/dbpinball; on Linux it is ~/.config/dbpinball.

The CLI accepts --config-dir <PATH> to override the location for tests and advanced use. The desktop always uses the default, so the two cannot drift.