feat(cli)!: Extract CLI binary into separate prqlc-cli crate

.github/.codecov.yaml

@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ comment: false
 
 ignore:
   - "**/tests/**"
+  - "**/test_utils.rs"
+  - "**/build.rs"
 
 coverage:
   status:

.github/actions/build-prqlc/action.yaml → .github/actions/build-prqlc-cli/action.yaml

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
-name: build-prqlc
+name: build-prqlc-cli
 description: >
-  Build prqlc
+  Build prqlc CLI binary
 
   Note that much of this is copy/pasted into build-prqlc-c, so changes here
   should generally be copied into that file.
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ runs:
         args:
           --profile=${{ inputs.profile }} --locked --target=${{ inputs.target }}
           --no-default-features --features=${{ inputs.features }} ${{
-          contains(inputs.target, 'musl') && '--package=prqlc' ||
+          contains(inputs.target, 'musl') && '--package=prqlc-cli' ||
           '--all-targets' }}
 
     - name: Create artifact for Linux and macOS

.github/workflows/build-devcontainer.yaml

@@ -32,6 +32,11 @@ jobs:
     timeout-minutes: 240
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v5
+      - name: Log in to Docker Hub
+        uses: docker/login-action@v3
+        with:
+          username: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME }}
+          password: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_TOKEN }}
       - uses: docker/login-action@v3
         with:
           registry: ghcr.io

.github/workflows/release.yaml

@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ jobs:
               }
             })
 
-  build-prqlc:
+  build-prqlc-cli:
     runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
     strategy:
       fail-fast: false
@@ -57,18 +57,17 @@ jobs:
           # Intel macOS build
           - os: macos-15-intel
             target: x86_64-apple-darwin
-            features: default,test-dbs
     permissions:
       contents: write
     steps:
       - name: 📂 Checkout code
         uses: actions/checkout@v5
-      - uses: ./.github/actions/build-prqlc
+      - uses: ./.github/actions/build-prqlc-cli
         id: build-artifact
         with:
           target: ${{ matrix.target }}
           profile: release
-          features: cli
+          features: default
       - name: Upload release artifact
         if: github.event_name == 'release'
         uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v2
@@ -91,7 +90,7 @@ jobs:
           ./temp_path/prqlc --help
 
   build-prqlc-c:
-    # Mostly a copy/paste of `build-prqlc`.
+    # Mostly a copy/paste of `build-prqlc-cli`.
     runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
     strategy:
       fail-fast: false
@@ -124,7 +123,7 @@ jobs:
 
   publish-winget:
     runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
-    needs: build-prqlc
+    needs: build-prqlc-cli
     if: github.event_name == 'release'
     steps:
       - name: publish
@@ -144,7 +143,7 @@ jobs:
         target:
           - x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
           - aarch64-unknown-linux-musl
-    needs: build-prqlc
+    needs: build-prqlc-cli
     permissions:
       contents: write
     steps:
@@ -199,7 +198,7 @@ jobs:
         target:
           - x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
           #- aarch64-unknown-linux-musl # https://github.com/jiro4989/build-rpm-action/issues/6
-    needs: build-prqlc
+    needs: build-prqlc-cli
     permissions:
       contents: write
     steps:
@@ -412,5 +411,6 @@ jobs:
   push-devcontainer:
     if: github.event_name == 'release'
     uses: ./.github/workflows/build-devcontainer.yaml
+    secrets: inherit
     with:
       push: true

.github/workflows/test-rust.yaml

@@ -35,6 +35,12 @@ jobs:
         uses: actions/checkout@v5
         with:
           fetch-tags: true
+      - name: Log in to Docker Hub
+        if: ${{ contains(inputs.features, 'test-dbs-external') }}
+        uses: docker/login-action@v3
+        with:
+          username: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME }}
+          password: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_TOKEN }}
       - name: Run docker compose
         # This can go early because the DBs take a few seconds to start up.
         if: ${{ contains(inputs.features, 'test-dbs-external') }}

.github/workflows/tests.yaml

@@ -178,6 +178,7 @@ jobs:
     needs: rules
     if: needs.rules.outputs.rust == 'true' || needs.rules.outputs.main == 'true'
     uses: ./.github/workflows/test-rust.yaml
+    secrets: inherit
     strategy:
       matrix:
         include:
@@ -326,6 +327,7 @@ jobs:
           #   target: aarch64-unknown-linux-musl
 
     uses: ./.github/workflows/test-rust.yaml
+    secrets: inherit
     with:
       os: ${{ matrix.os }}
       target: ${{ matrix.target }}
@@ -534,6 +536,7 @@ jobs:
     needs: rules
     if: needs.rules.outputs.devcontainer-build == 'true'
     uses: ./.github/workflows/build-devcontainer.yaml
+    secrets: inherit
     # One problem with this setup is that if another commit is merged to main,
     # this workflow will cancel existing jobs, and so this won't get pushed. We
     # have another workflow which runs on each release, so the image should get
@@ -554,13 +557,10 @@ jobs:
       - uses: baptiste0928/cargo-install@v3
         with:
           crate: cargo-msrv
-          # TODO: remove this version pinning
-          # The latest 0.16 supports workspace inheritance, so the check will fail
-          version: "0.15"
         # Note this currently uses a manually maintained key in
         # `prqlc/prqlc/Cargo.toml`, because of
         # https://github.com/foresterre/cargo-msrv/issues/590
-      - name: Verify minimum rust version — prqlc
+      - name: Verify minimum rust version — prqlc library
         # Ideally we'd check all crates, ref https://github.com/foresterre/cargo-msrv/issues/295
         working-directory: prqlc/prqlc
         run: cargo msrv verify
@@ -664,7 +664,7 @@ jobs:
               "test-taskfile"
             ]
 
-  build-prqlc:
+  build-prqlc-cli:
     runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
     needs: rules
     if: needs.rules.outputs.rust == 'true' || needs.rules.outputs.main == 'true'
@@ -691,7 +691,7 @@ jobs:
     steps:
       - name: 📂 Checkout code
         uses: actions/checkout@v5
-      - uses: ./.github/actions/build-prqlc
+      - uses: ./.github/actions/build-prqlc-cli
         with:
           target: ${{ matrix.target }}
           profile: dev

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -16,6 +16,11 @@
 
 **Internal changes**:
 
+- Extract CLI binary into separate `prqlc-cli` crate. The `prqlc` crate is now a
+  pure library; the `cli` feature has been removed and replaced by a `display`
+  feature that gates ariadne/anstream. The CLI binary name remains `prqlc`.
+  Install with `cargo install prqlc-cli`. (@snth)
+
 **New Contributors**:
 
 ## 0.13.11 — 2026-03-19

Cargo.toml

@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ members = [
   "prqlc/bindings/js",
   "prqlc/bindings/prqlc-c",
   "prqlc/bindings/prqlc-python",
+  "prqlc/prqlc-cli",
   "prqlc/prqlc-macros",
   "prqlc/prqlc-parser",
   "prqlc/prqlc",

README.md

@@ -143,8 +143,8 @@ To stay in touch with PRQL:
 This repo is composed of:
 
 - **[prqlc](./prqlc/)** — the compiler, written in rust, whose main role is to
-  compile PRQL into SQL. Also contains the CLI and bindings from various
-  languages.
+  compile PRQL into SQL. Also contains the [CLI](./prqlc/prqlc-cli/) and
+  bindings from various languages.
 - **[web](./web/)** — our web content: the [Book][prql book],
   [Website][prql website], and [Playground][prql playground].
 

prqlc/Taskfile.yaml

@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ includes:
     dir: ./bindings/prqlc-python
 
 vars:
-  packages_core: -p prqlc-parser -p prqlc
+  packages_core: -p prqlc-parser -p prqlc -p prqlc-cli
   packages_addon: -p prqlc-macros -p compile-files
   packages_bindings: -p prql -p prql-java -p prqlc-js -p prqlc-c -p prqlc-python
 

prqlc/bindings/elixir/native/prql/Cargo.toml

@@ -20,5 +20,5 @@ path = "src/lib.rs"
 test = false
 
 [target.'cfg(not(any(target_family="wasm")))'.dependencies]
-prqlc = { path = "../../../../prqlc", default-features = false, version = "0.13.12" }
+prqlc = { path = "../../../../prqlc", version = "0.13.12" }
 rustler = "0.37.0"

prqlc/bindings/java/Cargo.toml

@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ test = false
 
 [dependencies]
 jni = "0.21.1"
-prqlc = {path = "../../prqlc", default-features = false}
+prqlc = {path = "../../prqlc"}
 
 [package.metadata.release]
 tag-name = "{{version}}"

prqlc/bindings/js/Cargo.toml

@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ test = false
 default = ["console_error_panic_hook"]
 
 [target.'cfg(target_family="wasm")'.dependencies]
-prqlc = {path = "../../prqlc", default-features = false}
+prqlc = {path = "../../prqlc"}
 wasm-bindgen = "0.2.114"
 
 # The `console_error_panic_hook` crate provides better debugging of panics by

prqlc/bindings/js/tests/test_all.mjs

@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ describe("prqlc-js", () => {
 
   describe("get_targets", () => {
     it("return a list of targets", () => {
-      const targets = new prqlc.get_targets();
+      const targets = prqlc.get_targets();
       assert(targets.length > 0);
       assert(targets.includes("sql.sqlite"));
     });

prqlc/bindings/prqlc-c/Cargo.toml

@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ test = false
 
 [dependencies]
 libc = "0.2.183"
-prqlc = {path = "../../prqlc", default-features = false}
+prqlc = {path = "../../prqlc"}
 serde_json = {workspace = true}
 
 [package.metadata.release]

prqlc/bindings/prqlc-python/Cargo.toml

@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ pyo3 = {workspace = true}
 
 [dependencies]
 # Renamed to avoid conflicts in lib.rs
-prqlc_lib = {package = "prqlc", path = "../../prqlc", default-features = false}
+prqlc_lib = {package = "prqlc", path = "../../prqlc"}
 
 [dev-dependencies]
 insta = {workspace = true}