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AI · February 6, 2025

Former – Open-source Cursor for SQL

Hey everyone, Elliott and Matty here. We’ve built Former, an open source AI-first SQL Editor. The repo is available at https://github.com/former-labs/former and our home page is https://formerlabs.com/. We built Former to provide an AI-first development environment for working with data. We’ve seen incredible applications of AI to the software engineering space with Cursor, Windsurf, and others, but we believe that focussing on a product just for data teams is needed for their unique workflows. Former is starting as a full SQL editor experience with an…

Former – Open-source Cursor for SQL launched on February 6, 2025 with 6 votes and more than 75% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 1 year on.

What it does

Contribute to former-labs/former development by creating an account on GitHub.

Former is a desktop/web SQL editor with a copilot experience designed specifically for writing SQL. It was created as a 10x better alternative to the workflow of copy pasting database context and SQL into and out of ChatGPT. Instead of using an external AI that knows nothing about your database, Former provides you with AI assistance embedded in your SQL editor, with an AI that knows everything about your database and the nuances of working with your schema. The fastest way to get started with Former is by visting Former Labs to download the desktop client. This package will use a cloud hosted instance of Former for account and workspace management, but all database connections and query…from github.com

In the maker’s words, at launch

Hey everyone, Elliott and Matty here. We’ve built Former, an open source AI-first SQL Editor. The repo is available at https://github.com/former-labs/former and our home page is https://formerlabs.com/. We built Former to provide an AI-first development environment for working with…

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