The tools you already own,
measured one by one.
Data Oil speaks the PostgreSQL wire protocol, so DataGrip, DBeaver, Power BI and the everyday drivers connect to it with no adapter. Each one was connected to a real deployment and used the way a person uses it, and everything it sent is kept and replayed every time Data Oil is built — so a change that would break your tool is caught before it reaches you.
Measured in September 2026
Six tools, each connecting, browsing and querying
DataGrip
Connects, passes its connection and encryption checks, and reads the whole schema — every one of its 97 introspection queries answers.
DBeaver
Connects, lists databases, schemas, tables, columns, keys, indexes and types, and opens a table's data.
Power BI Desktop
The navigator lists your tables and their columns, and Import loads them. Nothing to install: Power BI brings its own driver.
psycopg
Parameters, prepared statements, binary results, transactions and COPY, from Python.
Npgsql
Schema listing, prepared statements and COPY, from .NET, with or without its type loading.
The JDBC driver
Every metadata call a browsing tool makes, server-prepared statements, streaming by fetch size, and COPY.
The versions measured, and what each didFor the technically minded
| Tool | Version | Connects | Browses | Queries | Parameters | COPY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| psycopg | 3.3.6 | yes | describes results | yes | yes | out |
| Npgsql | 10.0.3 | yes | tables and columns | yes | yes | out |
| JDBC (PgJDBC) | 42.7.3 | yes | every metadata call | yes | yes | out |
| DataGrip | 2026.2.5 | yes | the whole schema | yes | yes | — |
| DBeaver | 23.3.0 | yes | yes, except Jobs | yes | yes | — |
| Power BI Desktop | 2.157 | yes | the navigator | Import; DirectQuery tested | — | — |
Connecting
The same five settings as any PostgreSQL server
What you point it at
The host and the PostgreSQL port of your deployment, the Data Oil database by name, a Data Oil account and its password — and SSL on, which Data Oil requires, so a password never crosses the wire unencrypted.
Names with capitals
Written in double quotes — "Gender" — as PostgreSQL expects.
Every tool above does it for you when you click; it matters only when you type SQL
yourself.
Said plainly
What it says no to, and what to use instead
A tool that asks for something Data Oil does not do is told so, with the reason, rather than handed a quiet wrong answer.
The four things it declinesAnd what to do instead
- Server-side cursors —
DECLARE,FETCH. Set the driver's fetch size instead, which streams a large result a page at a time. LISTENandNOTIFY— Data Oil sends no notifications; its change feed is the way to follow what is written.- Schemas other than
publicand the two catalogues — which is why DBeaver's Jobs folder, which lists pgAgent's schedule, says there is nothing there. - A function's source — the functions PostgreSQL's catalogue lists here are built in, so there is no definition to show.
Next
Point your own tool at it.
The proof of concept starts with your data and the tools your team already uses.
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