MySQL Shell
Oracle's official advanced command-line client for MySQL — SQL, JavaScript, and Python modes in one shell, plus an AdminAPI for provisioning and managing InnoDB Cluster, ReplicaSet, and ClusterSet deployments.
MySQL Shell is a scriptable client that runs in SQL, JavaScript, or Python mode, sitting alongside the classic mysql CLI as Oracle’s more modern interface to the server. Beyond running queries, it ships dump and load utilities for fast logical backups and migrations, an upgrade-readiness checker for validating a server before a version jump, and an AdminAPI for creating and operating MySQL InnoDB Cluster, InnoDB ReplicaSet, and InnoDB ClusterSet high-availability topologies.
It’s part of the MySQL Community distribution, released under GPLv2, and stays in lockstep with server releases — the current line carries full compatibility with MySQL 8.4 and 9.x, with best-effort support for querying and dump/load against older 8.0 and 5.7 servers. A companion “MySQL Shell for VS Code” extension adds a GUI notebook-style interface on top of the same shell.
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