⚡MongoStudio

A blazing-fast, beautiful MongoDB UI

Modern • Minimal • Open Source

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Why MongoStudio?

MongoStudio is a lightweight, stunning MongoDB GUI that runs in a single Docker container. Connect with just a connection string and start browsing your data instantly.

• ⚡ Blazing Fast — Sub-100ms query rendering, zero bloat
• 🎨 Beautiful UI — Dark, minimal design inspired by Linear & Vercel
• 🐳 Single Docker Container — One command to deploy, runs anywhere
• 🔄 MongoDB 3.6 → 8.x — Auto-detects version, adapts API calls automatically
• 🧭 Operate Center — Insert/Delete/Update/Bulk with method-level control
• 🖥️ Console Modes — ConsoleUI + optional real mongo / mongosh with auto-version routing
• 🛠️ Server Management — mongodump, mongorestore, mongoexport, mongoimport, mongostat, mongotop, mongofiles with legacy/modern auto-fallback
• 🔑 Audit & Logs — action/source/method/scope filters + JSON/CSV export
• 🔐 Admin Access Control — Optional ADMIN_ACCESS_KEY to gate Console and Server Management
• 👤 Connection Profiles — Save, edit, export/import profiles with optional password and admin key
• 🧪 Try Demo — mock mode synced with real UI/API flow (except real shells and server tools)
• 🔒 Secure — Helmet.js, non-root container, admin-gated sensitive tools, no MongoDB document data stored server-side
• 📦 Lightweight — ~50-275MB Docker image, minimal dependencies

Quick Start

Demo: https://beztebya666.github.io/mongostudio/

If you pull from a registry, use the same fully qualified image name in docker run.
Also you may sometimes need argument: --security-opt seccomp=unconfined
Examples below use mongostudio for a locally built image or a local tag alias.

# Pull from ghcr
docker pull ghcr.io/beztebya666/mongostudio:latest

# Run ghcr image
docker run -d -p 3141:3141 --name mongostudio ghcr.io/beztebya666/mongostudio:latest

# Pull from docker.hub
docker pull beztebya666/mongostudio:latest

# Run docker.hub image
docker run -d -p 3141:3141 --name mongostudio beztebya666/mongostudio:latest

Open http://localhost:3141 and paste your connection string.

Optional local alias if you prefer shorter commands:

docker tag ghcr.io/beztebya666/mongostudio:latest mongostudio
# or
docker tag beztebya666/mongostudio:latest mongostudio

# Build
docker build -t mongostudio .

# Run
docker run -d -p 3141:3141 --name mongostudio mongostudio

Open http://localhost:3141 and paste your connection string.

Connecting to localhost MongoDB

If MongoDB runs on your host machine or in another Docker container:

# Linux opt 1 (recommended if MongoDB is in Docker too, same custom network)
docker run -d --name mongostudio --network mongo-net -p 3141:3141 mongostudio
# Then connect with container DNS name, for example: mongodb://mongo:27017

# Linux opt 2 (if MongoDB runs on Linux host machine)
docker run -d -p 3141:3141 --add-host=host.docker.internal:host-gateway mongostudio
# Then connect with: mongodb://host.docker.internal:27017

# macOS / Windows - works automatically
docker run -d -p 3141:3141 mongostudio
# Connect with: mongodb://host.docker.internal:27017

Custom port

docker run -d -p 8080:3141 mongostudio
# Open http://localhost:8080

Production recommended flags

docker run -d \
  -p 3141:3141 \
  --name mongostudio \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  --memory 512m \
  --cpus 1 \
  mongostudio

Admin access key

Set ADMIN_ACCESS_KEY to require a key for Console and Server Management features:

docker run -d -p 3141:3141 \
  -e ADMIN_ACCESS_KEY="your-secret-key" \
  --name mongostudio mongostudio

When set, users must enter the key in Settings before accessing Console or Server Management. When not set, all features are accessible without a key.

MongoDB Version Compatibility

MongoStudio auto-detects your MongoDB server version on connect and adapts its behavior:

MongoDB Version	Support Level	Notes
8.x	✅ Full	All features
7.x	✅ Full	All features
6.x	✅ Full	All features
5.x	✅ Full	All features
4.4	✅ Full	All features
4.2	✅ Full	$unionWith unavailable
4.0	✅ Full	$merge, $unionWith unavailable
3.6	⚡ Good	Uses legacy count(), no transactions
< 3.6	❌	Upgrade required (driver limitation)

The UI shows a version badge and warnings banner when connected to older versions.

How version detection works

1. On connect, MongoStudio runs buildInfo to get the exact version
2. If that fails (restricted permissions), it falls back to wire protocol version detection via hello / isMaster
3. A capabilities matrix is built and stored for the session
4. Every API call uses version-appropriate methods (e.g., countDocuments() on 3.6+, legacy count() on older)
5. Aggregation pipeline stages are pre-checked against version before execution

Console auto-version routing

MongoStudio ships two shell binaries in Docker:

• mongosh 2.x — for MongoDB 4.2+
• mongosh 1.x (as mongosh1) — for MongoDB 3.6–4.0

Regardless of which Console tab the user selects, the server automatically routes to the correct binary based on the connected MongoDB version. Old servers always get mongosh 1.x, new servers always get mongosh 2.x.

Server Management tool auto-fallback

Server tools (mongodump, mongoexport, etc.) ship in two variants:

• Modern — current mongodb-database-tools (MongoDB 4.2+)
• Legacy — MongoDB 4.0.x line tools (*_legacy binaries)

The server probes both and automatically falls back to legacy if the modern binary reports wire version incompatibility.

Features

• Database Explorer: Browse databases and collections in a resizable sidebar with instant search.
• Document Browser: Paginated documents with expandable JSON rows, syntax highlighting, inline edit/delete, and MongoDB filter bar.
• Query Console: Shell-style syntax (db.collection.find({}), .aggregate([]), .distinct()), templates, and execution time tracking.
• Operate Modal: Scoped write operations with Insert/Delete/Update/Bulk tabs, method presets, and safety preflight for risky actions.
• Console (UI + Real Shell): ConsoleUI for guided commands plus optional real-shell modes (mongo legacy / mongosh) when binaries are installed.
• Server Management: Run mongodump, mongorestore, mongoexport, mongoimport, mongostat, mongotop, mongofiles directly from the UI with form-based configuration and live output.
• Index Manager: View, create, and drop indexes with unique/sparse/TTL support and wildcard-version validation.
• Document Editor: Full JSON editor with line numbers, tab indentation, keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl/Cmd+Enter to save, Esc to cancel), and syntax validation.
• Schema Analyzer: Auto-detect field types and frequency across sampled documents.
• Audit & Logs: Track connect/query/write/admin events with source/method/scope filters and one-click JSON/CSV export.
• Connection Profiles: Save, edit, delete connection profiles with optional password and admin key storage. Export/import profiles as JSON.
• Try Demo Mode: Built-in demo dataset with reset support and mock API flow aligned with the real UI.

Architecture

HTML: index.html (SPA, #root)
CSS: Tailwind CSS + custom index.css (CSS variables, dark/light)
JS/Frontend: React 18 (JSX), no TypeScript
Build: Vite + PostCSS + Autoprefixer
API client: fetch (custom src/utils/api.js)
Backend: Node.js + Express
MongoDB: official MongoDB driver (no ORM)
Security/API middleware: helmet, cors, compression, express-rate-limit
Deployment: Docker (multi-stage, node:20-bookworm-slim)
Shell binaries: mongosh 2.x, mongosh 1.x, mongodb-database-tools, legacy mongo tools (all via tarballs)

Local Development

npm install
npm run dev
# Frontend: http://localhost:5173
# Backend:  http://localhost:3141

Console shell check (Node.js)

Use this command to verify that both shell binaries are available for real Console mode:

npm run check:shells

Optional JSON output:

node server/check-shells.mjs --json

Readiness endpoint (no X-Connection-Id required):

curl http://localhost:3141/api/health
# { status: "ok", ready: true, ... }

Status endpoint requires active connection and supports shell-probe refresh:

curl http://localhost:3141/api/status \
  -H "X-Connection-Id: <connectionId>"

curl "http://localhost:3141/api/status?refresh=1" \
  -H "X-Connection-Id: <connectionId>"

MongoStudio does not silently remap mongo to mongosh. Each mode is checked independently and reported as available/unavailable.

Security/Ops Notes (v2.6)

• /api/service-config is connection-gated; PUT requires execution mode power.
• Invalid JSON in filter / sort / projection now returns 400 validation (no silent {} fallback on critical routes).
• Real shell auth uses URI auth path (minimal strip): credentials are not injected to process argv.
• Audit coverage includes preflight and exact-total lifecycle (exact_total_start, exact_total_done|timeout|error).
• Docker healthcheck uses /api/health, so container readiness is independent from active Mongo session.
• Admin access key endpoints (/api/admin-access/*) gate Console and Server Management when ADMIN_ACCESS_KEY is set.
• Server Management endpoints are protected by admin key when configured.
• Service-wide rate-limit / governor / cache settings persist in server/service-config.json.
• All MongoDB binaries in Docker are installed via direct tarballs (no apt repo dependency).

Release QA (Manual)

• Manual parity + smoke checklist: docs/QA-MANUAL.md
• Current release scope is a stable OSS/manual-QA release. Remaining strict production-readiness gaps are tracked in docs/release-v-3-0-0-tracker.md.

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
PORT	3141	Server port
NODE_ENV	development	Set to production in Docker
MONGO_BIN	mongo	Legacy shell binary used by Console legacy mode
MONGOSH_BIN	mongosh	Modern shell binary used by Console mongosh mode
ADMIN_ACCESS_KEY	(none)	When set, requires this key to access Console and Server Management
STATUS_SHELL_RUNTIME_TTL_MS	15000	TTL cache for runtime shell probe in /api/status
MONGOSTAT_BIN	mongostat	Path to mongostat binary
MONGOTOP_BIN	mongotop	Path to mongotop binary
MONGODUMP_BIN	mongodump	Path to mongodump binary
MONGORESTORE_BIN	mongorestore	Path to mongorestore binary
MONGOEXPORT_BIN	mongoexport	Path to mongoexport binary
MONGOIMPORT_BIN	mongoimport	Path to mongoimport binary
MONGOFILES_BIN	mongofiles	Path to mongofiles binary
MONGOSTAT_LEGACY_BIN	mongostat_legacy	Legacy mongostat for MongoDB < 4.2
MONGOTOP_LEGACY_BIN	mongotop_legacy	Legacy mongotop for MongoDB < 4.2
MONGODUMP_LEGACY_BIN	mongodump_legacy	Legacy mongodump for MongoDB < 4.2
MONGORESTORE_LEGACY_BIN	mongorestore_legacy	Legacy mongorestore for MongoDB < 4.2
MONGOEXPORT_LEGACY_BIN	mongoexport_legacy	Legacy mongoexport for MongoDB < 4.2
MONGOIMPORT_LEGACY_BIN	mongoimport_legacy	Legacy mongoimport for MongoDB < 4.2
MONGOFILES_LEGACY_BIN	mongofiles_legacy	Legacy mongofiles for MongoDB < 4.2

License

MIT — use it however you want.

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_{Built with ⚡ for the open source community}