Query Notebook

A fast, native SQL snippet library for Windows — keep the queries you actually rerun in one searchable place instead of scattered across .sql files, chat history and your editor's scratch buffer.

• Tiny & fast — the whole app is under 1 MB. Native x64 exe, no Electron, no bundled runtime, no third-party libraries at all. It uses what Windows already ships: .NET Framework 4.8, the WebView2 (Microsoft Edge) rendering engine, and Windows' own SQLite.
• Any dialect — a place to keep the MySQL, T-SQL and other SQL you actually rerun. The app does not care which; it stores the text you write.
• Real database — your queries are kept in a SQLite file (database\notebook.db) rather than a blob of JSON. That is the storage, not the dialect: open it with any SQLite tool and you get a normal, normalized schema.
• Organize by category and tag — one-click facets in the sidebar, with live counts.
• Search everything — title, description, SQL body, category and tags at once.
• Favorites — star the handful you run every morning.
• SQL syntax highlighting in both the reading view and the library preview.
• Light / dark theme that follows Windows, plus four accent colors. The title bar follows too.
• Import / export JSON — back the notebook up, or share a set of queries with a teammate.
• Portable — copy the folder to a USB stick; the database travels with it.

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Quick start

The built app lives in dist\:

dist\
├── QueryNotebook.exe                   ← the app
├── Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Core.dll
├── Microsoft.Web.WebView2.WinForms.dll
├── WebView2Loader.dll
├── assets\                             ← UI (must stay next to the exe)
└── database\                           ← created on first run
    └── notebook.db

1. Double-click QueryNotebook.exe. It starts with an empty notebook — nothing is added for you, and nothing comes back once you delete it.
2. Press N (or click New query) to add one, / to jump to search.

You can move/copy the dist folder anywhere (e.g. C:\Tools\QueryNotebook\) — just keep the exe, the DLLs and the assets folder together. The database folder comes along with your queries inside it.

Where your queries are stored

Situation	Database path
Normal (portable)	<folder with the exe>\database\notebook.db
Exe folder is read-only (e.g. C:\Program Files)	%APPDATA%\QueryNotebook\database\notebook.db

The app shows the active path under About (? button, bottom-left). Window size, theme and accent are separate and live in %APPDATA%\QueryNotebook\settings.json.

Keyboard shortcuts

Keys	Action
/ or Ctrl+F	Focus the search box
N	New query
Enter	Open the highlighted query
E	Edit the open query
Ctrl+S	Save while editing
Ctrl+C	Copy the open query's SQL
Ctrl+D	Duplicate the open query
Esc	Close the editor / clear the search box
↑ ↓	Move through the library list
Ctrl+0 Ctrl+- Ctrl+=	Reset / decrease / increase zoom

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Building from source

No SDK, no NuGet, no internet connection required — the build uses the C# compiler that is part of Windows itself.

.\build.ps1          # → dist\QueryNotebook.exe
.\test.ps1           # run the database test suite
.\build.ps1 -Test    # both

Requirements: Windows 10 1803+ / Windows 11 (x64), .NET Framework 4.8 (preinstalled on Windows 10 1903+), and the WebView2 Runtime (preinstalled on Windows 11; on Windows 10 the app will link you to the free download if it is missing).

Layout

src/                  WinForms host (C# 5 only — see CLAUDE.md)
├── Program.cs        entry point
├── MainForm.cs       WebView2 host + JSON message bridge
├── AppSettings.cs    window/theme preferences
└── Database/         storage layer — the only place that speaks SQL
    ├── SqliteInterop.cs      P/Invoke into Windows' winsqlite3.dll
    ├── SqliteConnection.cs   connection + transactions
    ├── SqliteStatement.cs    prepared statements, bind & read
    ├── SqliteException.cs
    ├── SavedQuery.cs         the record type
    └── QueryRepository.cs    schema, migrations, CRUD, search, import/export
assets/               the entire UI (index.html + app.css + app.js)
tools/
├── IconGen.cs        draws app.ico at build time
└── DbTests.cs        automated test suite for the storage layer
docs/reference_ui/    the design mockup this UI was built from
.claude/docs/         architecture & development notes

Why SQLite over P/Invoke?

System.Data.SQLite would mean shipping a managed assembly plus a native interop DLL and pulling a NuGet package into a build that deliberately has no package manager. Windows 10 1803 and later ship winsqlite3.dll in System32 — the same SQLite library the OS itself uses. src/Database/SqliteInterop.cs binds the dozen C functions the app needs, and the wrapper classes above it give a small, typed, disposable API. Net cost: ~200 lines and zero bytes of shipped dependency.

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Data format

The schema is deliberately boring so that external tools can read it:

queries(id, title, description, sql_text, category, starred, created_at, updated_at)
tags(id, name)
query_tags(query_id, tag_id)          -- many-to-many, ON DELETE CASCADE

Export writes a JSON array with one object per query (title, description, sql, category, tags[], starred), which is also the format Import accepts — so a hand-written file or another tool's output works as long as each object has an sql field.

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License

MIT — see LICENSE.