Before reaching for a GUI, the mysql command-line client is worth knowing well — faster for quick checks, and it’s the one tool guaranteed to be available on any server you SSH into.
mysql -u root -p -- Inside the client: SHOW DATABASES; USE mydb; SHOW TABLES; DESCRIBE products; SHOW CREATE TABLE products\G -- \G formats output vertically, readable for wide rows SHOW PROCESSLIST; -- see currently running queries SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'max_connections'; STATUS; -- connection and server info -- Run a query directly from the shell without an interactive session mysql -u root -p -e "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM orders" mydb
\G instead of a trailing semicolon is a small but genuinely useful habit — it prints each column on its own line instead of a wide table, which is far more readable for tables with many or long columns.