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Quick Start

This guide will have you extracting database subsets in under 5 minutes.

Basic Extraction

Extract a single record and all its related data:

dbslice extract postgres://user:pass@localhost/mydb --seed "orders.id=12345"

This outputs SQL to stdout. Pipe it to a file:

dbslice extract postgres://localhost/mydb --seed "orders.id=12345" > subset.sql

Understanding Seeds

Seeds tell dbslice where to start. Two formats are supported:

Primary Key — table.column=value

dbslice extract $DB_URL --seed "orders.id=12345"
dbslice extract $DB_URL --seed "users.email=john@example.com"

WHERE Clause — table:WHERE_CLAUSE

dbslice extract $DB_URL --seed "orders:status='failed'"
dbslice extract $DB_URL --seed "orders:created_at > '2024-01-01'"

Multiple Seeds

Extract data for multiple records:

dbslice extract $DB_URL \
  --seed "orders.id=100" \
  --seed "orders.id=101" \
  --seed "orders.id=102"

Control Traversal

Depth

Limit how many FK hops to follow (default: 3):

# Only immediate relationships
dbslice extract $DB_URL --seed "orders.id=1" --depth 1

# Deep traversal
dbslice extract $DB_URL --seed "orders.id=1" --depth 5

Direction

Control which relationships to follow:

# Parents only (referenced tables)
dbslice extract $DB_URL --seed "orders.id=1" --direction up

# Children only (tables that reference this)
dbslice extract $DB_URL --seed "orders.id=1" --direction down

# Both (default)
dbslice extract $DB_URL --seed "orders.id=1" --direction both

Anonymize Sensitive Data

Automatically detect and anonymize PII:

dbslice extract $DB_URL --seed "users.id=1" --anonymize

Add specific fields to redact:

dbslice extract $DB_URL --seed "users.id=1" \
  --anonymize \
  --redact "audit_logs.ip_address"

Output Formats

# SQL (default)
dbslice extract $DB_URL --seed "orders.id=1" --output sql

# JSON
dbslice extract $DB_URL --seed "orders.id=1" --output json

# CSV
dbslice extract $DB_URL --seed "orders.id=1" --output csv

Save to File

dbslice extract $DB_URL --seed "orders.id=1" --out-file subset.sql

Import to Local Database

# Extract
dbslice extract $PROD_DB --seed "orders.id=1" --anonymize > subset.sql

# Import to local
psql -d localdb < subset.sql

Inspect Schema First

Before extracting, you can inspect your database schema:

dbslice inspect postgres://localhost/mydb

This shows tables, foreign keys, and detected sensitive fields.

Using Config Files

For repeated extractions, use a config file:

# Generate config from database
dbslice init postgres://localhost/mydb

# Use config
dbslice extract --config dbslice.yaml --seed "orders.id=123"

Next Steps