AL2DBML

Generates a DBML database schema from a Business Central AL project by parsing table and field definitions.

Prerequisites

No runtime required — AL2DBML is distributed as a self-contained binary.

Platform	Supported
Windows (x64)	✓
macOS (Apple Silicon)	✓
Linux (x64)	✓

Installation

Windows (PowerShell)

$dest = "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\al2dbml"
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path $dest | Out-Null
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://github.com/OGR-67/AL2DBML/releases/latest/download/al2dbml-win-x64.exe" -OutFile "$dest\al2dbml.exe"
$path = [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("Path", "User")
if ($path -notlike "*al2dbml*") {
    [Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("Path", "$path;$dest", "User")
}
Write-Host "Done. Restart your terminal."

macOS

curl -L https://github.com/OGR-67/AL2DBML/releases/latest/download/al2dbml-osx-arm64 -o al2dbml
chmod +x al2dbml
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine al2dbml
sudo mv al2dbml /usr/local/bin/al2dbml

Note: The xattr command removes the Gatekeeper quarantine flag that macOS sets on downloaded binaries. Without it, macOS will block the app on first run. If you downloaded the binary manually instead of using this script, go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Allow Anyway.

Linux

curl -L https://github.com/OGR-67/AL2DBML/releases/latest/download/al2dbml-linux-x64 -o al2dbml
chmod +x al2dbml
sudo mv al2dbml /usr/local/bin/al2dbml

Quick start

# 1. Initialize AL2DBML in your project (run once)
al2dbml init

# 2. Generate the DBML schema
al2dbml generate

Commands

generate

Parses AL files and generates a .dbml schema file.

al2dbml generate [-i <input>] [-o <output>] [-n <name>]

Option	Description	Default
-i, --input	Path to an AL project folder, .al file, or .code-workspace file	Value from config.local.json, then .
-o, --output	Output directory	Value from config.json, then .
-n, --name	Output file name (without extension)	Value from config.json, then schema

init

Initializes AL2DBML interactively in the current directory. Creates the .al2dbml/ config folder and optionally sets up a pre-commit hook.

al2dbml init

Re-running init on an existing config pre-fills the prompts with current values.

Configuration

init creates two files in .al2dbml/:

File	Versioned	Content
config.json	Yes	Output path and file name — shared across contributors
config.local.json	No (gitignored)	Input path — contributor-specific, useful for workspaces

config.json example:

{
  "Output": {
    "Path": "./docs/",
    "Name": "schema"
  }
}

config.local.json example:

{
  "Input": {
    "Path": "./MyProject.code-workspace"
  }
}

Pre-commit hook

When enabled during init, AL2DBML adds a section to .git/hooks/pre-commit that automatically regenerates the schema on each commit:

# [al2dbml-start]
if command -v al2dbml > /dev/null 2>&1; then
    al2dbml generate || printf "\033[33mWarning: al2dbml generate failed, skipping DBML update.\033[0m\n"
else
    printf "\033[33mWarning: al2dbml not found, skipping DBML update.\033[0m\n"
fi
# [al2dbml-end]

If al2dbml is not installed on a contributor's machine, the hook prints a warning and lets the commit proceed normally.

To remove the hook, run:

al2dbml remove-hook

Contributing

• Architecture — project structure, CLI design, DI setup
• AL Parsing — AL syntax specifics and parsing decisions