Arcula - MongoDB Database Synchronization Tool

From author: This project exists to help me with my development workflow. I often need to synchronize MongoDB databases between different environments (local, dev, staging, not production 🙈). Before, I used raw mongodump/mongorestore and relied on atuin ✨ (great tool btw) to switch between. This tool is a simple wrapper around these commands and with help of AI (Claude Code) it took max 2 hours to implement. Somehow for me it is much more convenient to use and maybe it will be useful for someone else too. 🙌

Arcula is a CLI application for synchronizing MongoDB databases between different environments. It allows you to easily export databases from one MongoDB instance and import them to another.

Features

• Export databases from one MongoDB instance
• Import databases to another MongoDB instance
• Dynamic environment configuration (not limited to predefined environments)
• Create and restore backups
• Interactive mode with prompts for missing options
• Progress indicators for long-running operations
• Colored terminal output
• Automatic detection of MongoDB tools

Installation

Prerequisites

• MongoDB Tools (mongodump and mongorestore executables)
• Rust and Cargo (install from https://rustup.rs)

Build from source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/ggagosh/arcula.git
cd arcula

# Build the project
cargo build --release

# The binary will be available at target/release/arcula

Running with cargo

# Run directly with cargo
cargo run -- [COMMAND] [OPTIONS]

Configuration

Create a .env file in the root directory of the project with the following variables:

# MongoDB Connection URIs - You can add any environment you need
MONGO_LOCAL_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017
MONGO_DEV_URI=mongodb://user:password@dev.example.com:27017
MONGO_STG_URI=mongodb://user:password@stg.example.com:27017
MONGO_PROD_URI=mongodb://user:password@prod.example.com:27017
MONGO_RANDOM_URI=mongodb://user:password@random.example.com:27017

# Path to MongoDB binaries (optional, auto-detected if not specified)
MONGODB_BIN_PATH=/usr/local/bin

# Backup directory
BACKUP_DIR=./backups

# Logging level: trace, debug, info, warn, error
RUST_LOG=info

You can copy the sample.env file and modify it for your needs. The application will dynamically detect all MongoDB environments from environment variables following the pattern MONGO_<ENV>_URI.

Usage

Display information about available environments

cargo run -- info

This command will show all configured MongoDB environments and their databases.

Synchronize databases between environments

Interactive mode (will prompt for missing options):

cargo run -- sync

With command-line options:

cargo run -- sync --from LOCAL --to DEV --db my_database --backup true

Options:

• --from: Source environment (any configured environment)
• --to: Target environment (any configured environment)
• --db: Database to synchronize
• --target-db: Target database name (defaults to source database name)
• --backup: Whether to create a backup before import (true/false, defaults to true)
• --drop: Whether to drop collections during import (true/false, defaults to true)
• --clear: Whether to clear collections during import (true/false, defaults to false, ignored if drop is enabled)
• --interactive: Enable interactive prompts

Examples

# Synchronize 'users' database from DEV to LOCAL environment with interactive prompts
cargo run -- sync --from DEV --to LOCAL --db users --interactive

# Synchronize 'products' database from PROD to STG environment without prompts
cargo run -- sync --from PROD --to STG --db products

# Synchronize 'analytics' database from RANDOM to DEV environment with custom target db
cargo run -- sync --from RANDOM --to DEV --db analytics --target-db analytics_copy

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to submit a pull request with your changes.

License

MIT