If your database documentation is always behind production, this is for you.
SchemaCrawler Scribe generates structured database documentation directly from live schema metadata, using ** Google Open Knowledge Format (OKF)**.
The result is documentation that works for both developers and AI agents, without creating a second documentation workflow.
Source code: SchemaCrawler/schemacrawler-scribe
Most teams end up in one of two modes:
SchemaCrawler Scribe targets the middle ground:
This turns documentation into part of your engineering workflow, not a side task.
SchemaCrawler Scribe outputs in Google Open Knowledge Format (OKF), which gives you one format that serves multiple use cases:
In short: one documentation artifact that supports people, automation, and long-term maintainability.
SchemaCrawler Scribe is in the same family of tooling as SchemaSpy: both crawl schema metadata and generate browsable documentation.
Like SchemaSpy-style documentation workflows, Scribe covers:
So if your team already likes auto-generated schema docs and relationship views, SchemaCrawler Scribe keeps that experience while producing Google OKF Markdown artifacts that are easier to review in Git and consume with AI tooling.
Run standard SchemaCrawler from the command line or Docker. Use the scribe
command with okf
output format.
Tips:
--title
to label the generated documentation set--expanded-output
to generate a directory tree instead--include-lint
to generate schema design issue reports
docker run \
--mount type=bind,source="$(pwd)",target=/home/schcrwlr/share \
--rm -it \
schemacrawler/schemacrawler \
/opt/schemacrawler/bin/schemacrawler.sh \
--server=sqlite \
--database=sc.db \
--info-level=maximum \
--command scribe \
--output-format okf \
--title "Books Database" \
--expanded-output \
--include-lint \
--load-row-counts \
--output-file=share/schema
If you are using PowerShell, replace each trailing backslash with a backtick for line continuation.