Desktop App (BifrostQL.UI)

BifrostQL includes a desktop application built on Photino.NET — a lightweight native window that wraps a web view. Point it at any SQL Server and you get a GraphQL playground with zero setup.

Install

The desktop app ships as a standalone binary:

dotnet tool install -g BifrostQL.UI

Or build from source:

dotnet build src/BifrostQL.UI/BifrostQL.UI.csproj

This produces a bifrostui binary.

Usage

Pass a connection string directly:

bifrostui "Server=localhost;Database=mydb;User Id=sa;Password=xxx;TrustServerCertificate=True"

Or launch without one and connect through the UI:

bifrostui

Options

Flag	Short	Description
`--port`	`-p`	Port for the embedded server (default: 5000)
`--expose`	`-e`	Bind to `0.0.0.0` instead of localhost
`--headless`	`-H`	Server only, no desktop window

Headless mode

Run BifrostQL as a standalone server without the desktop window:

bifrostui "Server=localhost;Database=mydb;..." --headless --port 8080

This gives you the same GraphQL endpoint and playground at http://localhost:8080/graphql and http://localhost:8080/graphiql, plus the connection management API — useful for remote servers or Docker containers.

What it does

The desktop app bundles a full BifrostQL server inside a native window:

Connection management — Test and switch database connections without restarting. The UI provides endpoints to test (/api/connection/test) and set (/api/connection/set) connections at runtime.
GraphQL playground — Built-in GraphiQL interface at /graphiql for writing and testing queries against your database.
Sample databases — Create pre-built test databases (Northwind, AdventureWorks Lite, Simple Blog) with schema and sample data via /api/database/create. Useful for demos and learning.
Health check — /api/health reports server status and connection state.

Architecture

The app runs an embedded ASP.NET Core server on localhost and opens a Photino native window pointed at it. The server hosts both the BifrostQL GraphQL endpoint and a React-based frontend.

bifrostui
├── ASP.NET Core server (localhost:5000)
│   ├── /graphql          — BifrostQL GraphQL endpoint
│   ├── /graphiql         — GraphQL playground
│   ├── /api/connection/* — Connection management
│   ├── /api/database/*   — Test database creation
│   └── /api/health       — Health check
└── Photino native window
    └── Loads http://localhost:5000

Kestrel is configured with larger request header limits (128KB) to accommodate auth tokens.

Sample database templates

The /api/database/create endpoint accepts a template parameter:

Template	Tables	Description
`northwind`	Categories, Products, Customers, Orders, OrderDetails	Classic Northwind with foreign key relationships
`adventureworks-lite`	Departments, Employees, Shifts, EmployeeDepartmentHistory	HR-style schema with history tracking
`simple-blog`	Users, Posts, Comments, Tags, PostTags	Blog with many-to-many tag relationships

Database creation streams progress via Server-Sent Events, reporting each stage (connection, schema creation, data insertion) with percentage updates.