Connections

Open the Connection Manager with Mod+N (File → New Connection) or the Connect button. Mod is Cmd on macOS and Ctrl on Windows.

Paste a connection string

The quickest way to connect is to paste a URI. MotionQL fills in the form from it:

mongodb://user@db1.example.com:27017,db2.example.com:27017/?replicaSet=rs0&authSource=admin
mongodb+srv://user@cluster0.abcde.mongodb.net/?retryWrites=true&w=majority

Then click Test. A failed test tells you which stage failed (DNS, TLS, authentication or a timeout) in plain words. When it passes, click Save and Connect.

Server settings

The form has tabs for Server, Authentication, TLS, SSH, Proxy, Advanced and Safety. On the Server tab you can connect to:

• a single host and port;
• a seed list of several hosts;
• a mongodb+srv SRV record, as used by MongoDB Atlas. MotionQL looks up the SRV and TXT records to find the hosts and options;
• a Unix domain socket: enter a host that starts with /, for example /tmp/mongodb-27017.sock.

Also on this tab:

• Replica set name and read preference (primary, primaryPreferred, secondary, secondaryPreferred, nearest) with tag sets.
• Direct connection (talk to one member only) and load-balanced mode.
• Sharded clusters connect through mongos like any other host.

The Advanced tab holds the default database, application name, compressors (snappy, zlib, zstd), timeouts and any other URI option.

SRV and corporate networks

mongodb+srv:// needs DNS that answers SRV and TXT queries. Some corporate DNS servers and VPNs block them. If the SRV lookup fails, use the standard mongodb:// seed-list string instead, which lists every host explicitly.

Organize connections

• Folders, tags, colors and an environment label: dev, staging or prod. While you are connected to a prod connection, a warning banner stays visible.
• Quick connect: assign a connection to Mod+1…9 (or Mod+Alt+1…9).
• Duplicate, edit and delete. You can have several connections open at once.
• A health dot shows the last ping result, server version, replica set and latency.

Export and import connections

Export saved connections to a file in one of two ways:

• Without secrets: passwords and keys are removed. Safe to share.
• Encrypted with a password you choose (scrypt and AES-256-GCM). Import it on another computer with the same password.

Use an encrypted export to move to a new computer: saved passwords are tied to your operating-system account and can't be decrypted elsewhere.

Where passwords are kept

Passwords, key passphrases, tokens and API keys are encrypted with your operating system's keychain and are only ever used by MotionQL's background process. The form shows •••••• instead of the value. If the keychain is not available, MotionQL keeps secrets for the current session only and asks you again next time.

Next steps

• Authentication methods
• TLS, SSH and proxies
• Read-only and safety settings