45 pages · checked against v1.11.0
Monghoul documentation
Everything the app does, written down. Start at the top if you have just installed it, or go straight to the reference if you know what you are looking for.
Getting started
Install it, connect to a cluster, run the first query. One path, no branching.
- Install Monghoul Download and install on Windows, macOS or Linux, and what each platform asks you the first time you open it.
- Connect to a cluster Create your first connection from a URI or from individual fields, and turn on write protection before you point it at production.
- Run your first query Open a collection, run a find, read the result six different ways, and find out whether it used an index.
Guides
One task per page. How to do the thing you came here to do.
- Export a collection to CSV or Excel Get a result or a whole collection out of MongoDB, with the BSON types intact and without loading the file into memory.
- Connect through an SSH tunnel Reach a cluster that only listens on a private network, without a VPN, using the tunnel built into the connection.
- Join two collections with $lookup Build a $lookup stage in the visual builder, and use the autocomplete that keeps working on the joined fields afterwards.
- Generate realistic test data Fill a collection with documents that keep the shape, the types and the unique constraints of the real thing.
- Fix a slow query with an index Go from a query that feels slow to the index that fixes it, using the explain view and the profiler.
- Give an AI assistant access to your data Pro Connect Claude, Cursor or any MCP client to your databases, and decide what it may reach and what it has to ask for first.
- Copy a collection to another cluster Pro Move a collection between two connections, and what write protection does when the target is production.
- Make a custom theme Pro Generate a whole theme from three colours, then adjust the parts you care about, and share it as a file.
- Import a JSON or CSV file Load a file into a collection, choose a write strategy, and avoid the type inference traps that quietly corrupt data.
- Edit a document in production without an accident The settings to turn on before you point this at something that matters, and what each one actually stops.
Reference
What is true. Every setting, every limit, every tier marker.
- Connections and security Connection profiles, the eight authentication methods, TLS and SSH, and the write protection that sits in front of every destructive operation.
- Sidebar and navigation The connection tree, search across the whole hierarchy, pinned collections, favorite queries, and folders.
- Command palette One fuzzy search over every command, connection, database, and collection.
- Query editor and environment A Monaco editor over the MongoDB Node driver, with a JavaScript sandbox around it.
- Schema-aware autocomplete Completions come from your collections, and they follow fields through the stages that reshape them.
- Aggregation builder Build a pipeline stage by stage with a live preview, or write it as code. The two views stay in sync.
- Result views Six ways to read a result set: table, tree, JSON, result, explain, and chart.
- Document actions and result export Editing a document in place, comparing two of them, and getting a result out of the app.
- Charts and visualization Pro Six chart types over a result set, with stacking, without leaving the tab.
- Tabs and workspace Tabs, split panels, detached windows, and what the app restores when you reopen it.
- Import and export JSON, CSV, Excel and NDJSON in and out, plus copying a collection between instances.
- Schema analysis Sample a collection and get every field, its types, and how often each one appears.
- Data generation Generate test documents from 17 Faker categories, previewed before anything is written.
- Index management Create, inspect, rebuild and drop indexes, with usage counts on each one.
- Validation rules Edit a collection $jsonSchema, with its validation level and action.
- Cluster monitoring Pro Live server metrics, connection usage, replica set health, slow queries, and the profiler.
- Users and roles Pro Database users, the roles they hold, and custom roles.
- Operation logs Every operation the app ran, searchable, with its duration and its outcome.
- Current operations What Monghoul is running right now, and how to cancel it.
- AI access Pro The built-in MCP server: which clients connect, what they are allowed to reach, and what needs approval first.
- Themes and appearance Eleven built-in themes and an editor that generates a whole token set from three seed colours.
- Interface and display Zoom, date display, and the other settings that change how the app reads.
- Keyboard shortcuts Every shortcut in the app, and how to rebind one.
- Extended JSON and BSON How ObjectId, Date, Decimal128, Long, UUID and Binary survive a round trip through the app.
- Database and collection operations Creating, renaming and dropping databases and collections, and reading their stats.
- Licensing and trial What the free tier includes, what Pro adds, how the trial works, and how device activation behaves.
- Updates, privacy and support Automatic updates, what leaves your machine, and where your data is kept.
Concepts
Why the app behaves the way it does, for the parts where that is not obvious.
- Write protection Why the confirmation you see is raised by reading your query but enforced at the driver, and what that difference buys you.
- Reading an explain plan What the four plan grades mean, why examined-against-returned is the number that decides, and when a collection scan is fine.
- Free and Pro What the free tier includes forever, which limits are hard and which are soft, and exactly what a Pro licence adds.
Troubleshooting
What to do when it does not work.
Not finding it?
The docs cover the app. For a licence, a payment, or a bug, the support page has the route for each one and says how long a reply takes.
Support →