Forem: Julian Mills

What's new in Surrealist 3.4

Julian Mills — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 10:15:27 +0000

We're excited to announce the release of Surrealist 3.4. This version introduces exciting and highly requested features such as multi-window support for desktop users, improved support for computed table views, a redesigned Cloud deployment workflow, and various other enhancements. Let's dive into what's new 🎉.

Highlights

Multi-window support

One of the most requested features for Surrealist Desktop has finally arrived - multi-window support! You can now open multiple independent windows, each connecting to different SurrealDB instances. This feature dramatically improves workflow when working with multiple databases or comparing data across instances.

Windows can be opened through several methods:

The File > New Window menu bar item
MacOS Dock action
"Open a new window" command
Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+N (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+Shift+N (Mac)

Computed table views support

We've significantly enhanced support for computed table views in this release. Views can now be created directly in both the Explorer and Designer views, with view tables having a distinct appearance in the Designer view to help distinguish them from regular tables. To maintain data integrity, manual record creation in view tables has been disabled.

Redesigned Cloud deployment

The Surreal Cloud instance deployment process has been completely redesigned to be more intuitive and user-friendly. Notable improvements include:

Automatic generation and suggestion of instance names
Option to initialize instances with sample datasets and queries
Streamlined and stabilized instance creation experience
Easier deployment within preferred organizations
Configurable network target capabilities

Multi-record selection

The Explorer view now supports selecting multiple records at once, enabling bulk actions such as:

Deleting multiple records
Copying multiple records
Exporting selected records

Full changelog

Add multi-window support for Surrealist Desktop
- Each window runs independently, enabling connections to different SurrealDB instances
- Introduced a menu bar for quick access to common commands and actions
- Windows can now be opened using several methods:
  - The "File > New Window" menu bar item
  - MacOS Dock action
  - "Open a new window" command
  - Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+N (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+Shift+N (Mac)
Improved support for computed table views
- Views can now be created in the Explorer and Designer view
- View tables will have a unique appearance in the Designer view
- You will no longer be able to create records manually in a view table
Redesigned the Surreal Cloud instance deployment workflow
- The deployment process is now more streamlined and user-friendly
- Surrealist will now automatically generate and suggest instance names
- Added the option to initialize the instance with a sample dataset and queries
- Improved and stabilized the instance creation experience
Added the ability to select multiple records in the Explorer view
- You can now select multiple records and perform bulk actions on them
- Bulk actions include deleting, copying, and exporting selected records
Updated the overal appearance of Surrealist
- Improved the visual consistency across different pages
- Added breadcrumbs to help navigate between pages
- Updated icons and colors to provide a more modern look
Improved the overview page appearance
- You can now more easily deploy instances in your preferred organisation
Moved the web app to https://app.surrealdb.com/
Network target capabilities can now be configured for Surreal Cloud instances
Improved the behaviour of the namespace and database selection dropdowns
Fixed instances where the explorer view pagination would go out of bounds
Fixed the overview page not appearing when internet access is unavailable

We hope you enjoy these new features and improvements! As always, we appreciate your feedback and suggestions for future releases. Join the SurrealDB Discord – engage with the community and receive support.

Get started for free today – app.surrealdb.com

What's new in Surrealist 3.3

Julian Mills — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 15:43:06 +0000

We're excited to announce the release of Surrealist 3.3. Our rethink on the Surrealist experience has led us to a new overview page, Instance configurator, and a dashboard view with a few more updates for Cloud instance configuration. Let's dive right in and see what's new 🎉.

Highlights

New overview page

When we first released Surreal Cloud as part of Surrealist, we focused on providing a way to connect to and manage your Surreal Cloud Instances. The Surreal Cloud panel was a single place to manage your instance settings, capabilities, and other configuration options. Although this was a great start, we knew we could do better.

To ensure that you have a better experience when using Surreal Cloud, we have introduced a new overview page. This page provides a more intuitive and user-friendly experience for navigating between local connections and Surreal Cloud Instances.

Redesign Cloud dashboard

The Cloud Dashboard view has also been redesigned to provide a more intuitive and user-friendly experience for managing connection methods, instance configuration, compute and storage resources, and more.

Enabling backups

Also included in the Cloud Dashboard is the ability to enable backups for your Surreal Cloud Instances. This allows you to create a backup of your instance and restore it if needed.

For free Surreal Cloud Instances, automatic backups are not available. For the Start plan, daily automatic backups are enabled by default.

Learn more about Surreal Cloud pricing.

Capabilities configuration

In the previous release, capabilities were not configurable. This meant that you could not allow configurations like guest access, scripting functions, RPC or HTTP endpoints. To address this, Surrealist 3.3 introduces a new instance configuration drawer which includes the following:

Capabilities configuration
Version upgrade
Instance type change
Increase disk size

Instance pausing

You can now pause and resume your Surreal Cloud Instances. This is useful if you need to stop your instance from running to save costs. Learn more about this in the Surreal Cloud documentation.

Redesigned Sidekick page

The Sidekick page has been redesigned to provide a more intuitive and user-friendly experience. The page now includes suggestion prompts to help you get started with SurrealQL. We hope you like it!

Other changes

Routing has been updated to allow for top level pages, outside of the scope of a connection
New embedded SurrealQL editor
Start screen has been replaced with a new overview page
The Surreal Cloud panel has been removed and integrated into top level pages
Cloud instances can now be connected to with a single click
Lazy-prompt namespace / database selection
Replaced connection groups with connection labels
Added keyboard multicursor support to the editor
Added use of locale number format for rows counter
Added dedicated Surrealist Mini creator page
Added a new overview page
- Provides a single clear overview of all your connections and cloud instances
- Includes various help resources and latest blog posts
- Provides a quick way to create new connections and cloud instances
- You can search and filter connections and cloud instances
Improvements to connections
- Improved the connection creation form
- The prompt requesting the selection of a namespace and database has been improved
- The active connection is now specified in the URL
Overhauled Surreal Cloud integration
- Cloud Instances can now be managed and opened from the new overview page
- Instances can now be connected to without having to add them to Surrealist first
- The Surreal Cloud panel has been removed in favor of new top level pages
- Improved the performance of authentication
- The instance provision page has been redesigned and simplified
- Added a new provisioning page which opens your instance once it is ready
Added a new Dashboard view visible for all cloud instance connections
- Provides a single clear overview of your instance configuration and usage
- Allows configuring many instance settings directly from the dashboard
- Displays an alert banner when your instance can be updated to a new version
Connection groups have been replaced with connection labels
- You can tag each connection with any amount of labels
- Labels are displayed on the overview page
- You can filter connections by label
Added the ability to pause and resume Surreal Cloud instances
- Instances can be paused to save costs when not in use
- All data is preserved when an instance is paused
- Instances can be resumed at any time
Added the ability to customise Surreal Cloud instance capabilities
Added the ability to increase maximum disk size for Surreal Cloud instances
Added the ability to view the backup status of a Surreal Cloud instance
Added a policy notification on first use
Added suggested questions to the Sidekick page
Added a button to the sidebar to return to the overview page
Display Explorer view row counts in a localised format
Enhanced the CSV importing functionality
Improved the performance of CSV importing
Added editor shortcuts for multicursor editing
Allow cost estimations to be selected

Bug fixes

Fixed an issue with Surrealist crashes on large CSV imports
Fixed overview glow animation performance on certain systems
Fixed missing instance name validation
Fixed issues in light theme

What's new in Surrealist 3.2

Julian Mills — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 12:11:44 +0000

Hello everyone! We’re excited to announce the release of Surrealist 3.2—our first major update of the year. This version introduces the highly requested graph visualisation functionality, a fresh new interface design, extended Surreal Cloud features, and fixes for reported issues. Let’s dive into the highlights of this release.

Highlights

Graph visualisation

This is the largest addition in Surrealist 3.2 and the star of this release. Using the new Graph result mode in the Query View, you can plot the result of any query into a visual graph, complete with force-based physics, full control over the appearance, and the ability to expand the graph in place.

The new Graph result mode automatically analyzes query results for record IDs and maps relationships between them. This gives you complete flexibility in writing queries, allowing you to filter and limit records as needed. There are no strict query requirements—just ensure the response includes all record IDs you want to visualize. Once the graph is rendered, you can customize its appearance using the sidebar and access additional actions by right-clicking nodes.

Stay on the lookout as we will be dropping an additional blog post later this week diving into the details of the new Graph result mode, and how to use it to your benefit.

Interface redesign

The Surrealist interface has received a new look! This new appearance more closely reflects the SurrealDB brand, while simultaneously improving contrast throughout the interface.

Additionally, various improvements have been made to improve interface consistency, such as the addition of an introduction box in the Designer view.

Surreal Cloud panel improvements

This release introduces some highly requested features to the Surreal Cloud panel, including the ability to view active discount codes, the current monthly usage charges, and referral progression. Additionally, instances will now clearly indicate when they are using resources.

With these changes we hope to provide a clearer view of your resource usage and offer greater transparency on billing.

Other changes

Added a button to copy the table name in the table designer
Added an additional deletion confirmation when deleting Cloud instances

Bug fixes

Fixed table creator validation issues
Fixed missing Explorer view table panel reveal button
Fixed explorer not resetting to page 1 when changing tables
Fixed the namespace and database selector incorrectly rendering

Surrealist 3.0 is now available!

Julian Mills — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 16:23:02 +0000

In addition to our spectacular SurrealDB 2.0 release, we are also excited to announce that the next major iteration of Surrealist has arrived! Besides providing full support for SurrealDB 2.0, this release is packed full of useful new features, community requested quality of life improvements, and bug fixes for reported issues. Let’s explore the highlights of this release and discover what you can expect from Surrealist 3.0.

Getting started

Existing user of Surrealist

If you already have Surrealist installed, you will be prompted to update the next time you start the application. Surrealist will automatically create a configuration backup for you when updating through this channel. Alternatively, you can create a backup of your config file manually.

New to Surrealist

The easiest way to get started with Surrealist is using the web app available at https://surrealist.app. While the web app offers a convenient and portable way to interact with SurrealDB, for the complete Surrealist experience we recommend downloading and installing the Surrealist Desktop app.

Highlights

Improved namespace and database selection

Previously you were required to provide a namespace and database in each connection, and while this worked well for simple use-cases, we believe a more scalable approach is required.

In Surrealist 3.0 you will no longer be required to pass namespace and database in the connection editors. Instead, you will be able to select, create, and remove namespaces and databases directly from the toolbar. This means you can now connect to your database without selecting any namespace or database, and switch them on-the-fly without creating a new connection.

New GraphQL view

Alongside the new experimental GraphQL query functionality included in SurrealDB 2.0, this new release of Surrealist also includes a brand new GraphQL view. This view provides an optimised zero-configuration interface for executing queries against your database.

In addition, this new view provides full GraphQL syntax highlighting, live error checking, and full support for query variables. Much like the regular Query view you can even infer your variables directly from your query.

Note that since GraphQL support is still experimental, this view can only be used when GraphQL functionality is enabled on the remote database.

Overhauled Authentication view

SurrealDB 2.0 includes a significant improvement to authentication, hence the Surrealist Authentication view has been updated to reflect these improvements.

Within this view you will now be able to manage both system users and access methods, each on a root, namespace, and database level. You can fully configure these through the redesigned editor dialogs, allowing you to effortlessly setup and manage authentication within your database.

Light interface theme

After being absent for a few months, we can finally say the Light interface theme has made a spectacular comeback! The new Light theme is supported across the entire interface and features a stunning new design. Additionally, when set to “Automatic”, Surrealist will synchronise its theme to your operating system’s preference.

Designer view improvements

The Surrealist Designer view remains an excellent choice for designing, building, and managing your database schemas. To facilitate this further the Designer view has been improved with some useful quality of life improvements. This includes a new expandable table list, persistent expanded table designer sections, and a new system warning you of potential schema issues.

Other changes

Redesigned start screen with a new appearance, useful resources, and latest news
Query formatting support for the functions view
The sidebar is now organised more logically
Maximum size of resizable drawers has been increased
Customize the history size and log level of the database serving console
Query view variable panel expansion state is now saved persistently
Functions editor now auto completes arguments, tables, and other functions
Updated SurrealQL highlighting to support new SurrealDB 2.0 features
Highlighting for regular expressions in query editors
New collapsible table list in the Designer view
Improved appearance of edge tables in the Designer view
Designer view will now report on schema configuration warnings
Added the option to initialise any empty database with a demo dataset
Decreased the minimum window size for Surrealist Desktop
Initial work on making the interface mobile compatible
Improved listing of fields and indexes in the Table Designer
Remember expanded Table Designer panels persistently
Improved search behaviour in the tables panel
Slightly changed the appearance of drawers

Bug fixes

Performance improvements for large schemas
Performance improvements for Designer view record link visualisation
Performance improvements when navigating the explorer view
Fixed designer field and table permissions initialising incorrectly
Fixed explorer object tooltip indenting
Fixed incorrect editor highlighting keywords
Fixed Designer view performance issues when visualising record links
Fixed backspace deleting nodes in the Designer view
Fixed designer permission fields incorrectly including WHERE keyword
Fixed indenting in data table tooltips
Fixed unintended scrollbars rendering on Windows
Fixed null geo coordinates crashing Surrealist
Fixed the geography explorer not always updating
Fixed live messages displaying incorrect timestamps
Fixed record ids within live message previews not being clickable
Fixed the designer view not changing incoming/outgoing tables on relation tables
Fixed incorrect Surrealist Mini embed URL generation

Surrealist 3.0 beta

Julian Mills — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 14:18:44 +0000

Following in the footsteps of the recent SurrealDB 2.0 beta release, we are thrilled to announce that the first beta release for Surrealist 3.0 is now available.

This release contains exciting new features, user experience improvements, and most importantly, it fully supports the SurrealDB 2.0 beta.

Notable changes

Support for the SurrealDB 2.0 beta
- Partial support for SurrealDB 1.x is included
Updated and improved editor syntax highlighting
- Support for all new SurrealQL queries and features
Revised connection system and handling of namespaces & databases
- Connections are now decoupled from the active namespace and database
- The namespace and database can now be selected visually from the toolbar
- First class support for creating and managing namespaces / databases
New GraphQL view
- Supports GraphQL syntax highlighting and variable declarations
- Additional futures such as documentation and completion coming soon
Light interface theme
- Accessible from the “Appearance” tab in the Settings dialog.

Feedback

Since we launched Surrealist 2.0 in April as the official management interface for interacting with your SurrealDB database, your continuous feedback has been invaluable to our team.

With the Surrealist 3.0 beta release, please continue to provide feedback, including submitting issues and requests via our GitHub repo. Your feedback means everything to us, and shapes the future of Surrealist.

Surrealist will use a different config location for the beta, meaning any connections will be stored separately from those configured in stable Surrealist. Changes you make in the Surrealist beta will not transfer over to the stable Surrealist 3.0 release.

Getting started

The easiest way to get started using the Surrealist 3.0 beta is through the web app available at https://beta.surrealist.app/.

Alternatively you can download and install the beta version of Surrealist Desktop from our GitHub release page.