# psql

8 Hacker News commenters recommended psql and 6 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend psql for dumping table subsets, editing queries in vim with \e, and as a daily driver. Critics say it is error prone and unsafe to give to agents.

## Why people recommend it

- Editing queries in vim via \e (2 comments): "psql has the \e command which helps but again I would rather have something named" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49270701)) "editing in vim invoked from psql with \e" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47667699))

## What people warn about

- Poor fit for agent access (2 comments): "the MCP server is far better optimised than using psql" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46328488)) "Letting them access psql is a recipe for disaster" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47217859))
- Error prone and awkward (2 comments): "psql is pretty awful at identifying this" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49466530)) "bash and psql were error prone" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48072631))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Telnet client](https://hackerapproved.com/p/telnet.md): 19 recommend
- [emacsclient](https://hackerapproved.com/p/emacsclient.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "psql", https://hackerapproved.com/p/psql/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).