Solve: Redshift Reporter: A CLI-Based Redshift Explorer for Engineers Who Need Answers

Redshift Reporter: A CLI-Based Redshift Explorer for Engineers Who Need Answers

The Redshift Console is powerful. SQL IDEs are flexible. But sometimes, engineers need something simpler—a terminal-native interface that just shows you what’s in the warehouse without ceremony or risk.

That’s what Redshift Reporter is.

This menu-driven Python tool gives you a read-only interface to your Amazon Redshift cluster. From any terminal—on your laptop, EC2 instance, Cloud9, or local dev box—you can inspect schemas, run queries, and sample tables without ever modifying data. Everything you do is logged.

Installation (Linux with Python 3)

You can install Redshift Reporter in two ways: using pip, or system-wide via apt.

Option 1: Pip install with requirements.txt

Bash

wget https://gist.github.com/roseaar42/6bd7836c9f7522799d4cdaa450f523b8#file-redshift_reporter-py

Bash

wget https://gist.github.com/roseaar42/6bd7836c9f7522799d4cdaa450f523b8#file-requirements-txt

Bash

pip install -r requirements.txt 

Option 2: Linux apt install (no venv required)

Bash

sudo apt update   

Bash

sudo apt install python3-psycopg2

Run the Script

Then run: 

Bash

python3 redshift_reporter.py

Main Menu

Here’s what you see when you launch the tool:

Bash

==============================
  Redshift Reporter CLI
==============================
Select an option:
1. List Schemas
2. List Tables in a Schema
3. Describe a Table
4. Run a Read-Only SQL Query
5. Show Table Sample (LIMIT 10)
6. View Session Log
7. Exit 

This menu is what makes the tool special. It’s like aws configure meets psql, but without the risk of a fat-fingered mutation or a clunky interface.

Sample Report (Abbreviated)

Once connected, you might generate a report like this: 

Bash

Schemas:
- public
- analytics

Tables in schema 'public':
- users
- orders
- products

Description of table 'public.orders':
- order_id (integer)
- user_id (integer)
- product_id (integer)
- created_at (timestamp)

Sample from 'public.orders':
(1, 101, 501, '2024-11-02 14:33:12')
(2, 102, 502, '2024-11-02 14:34:01')  

This gives engineers a quick, structured overview of what’s in a cluster—perfect for investigation, auditing, or just getting oriented.

Session Logs

All actions are logged automatically. Session logs are written to: 

Bash

~/.redshift_reporter/session_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.log 

Here’s a snippet: 

Bash

[2025-05-14T15:02:01] Connected to Redshift
[2025-05-14T15:02:13] Listed schemas
[2025-05-14T15:02:32] Described table: public.orders
[2025-05-14T15:03:10] Ran query: SELECT COUNT(*) FROM public.orders;  

Whether you're handing off findings to a teammate or retracing your own steps later, everything is preserved.

Read-Only by Design

Redshift Reporter is built to be safe:

• It only permits SELECT queries
• It logs all commands with timestamps
• It never modifies your Redshift data

This makes it ideal for production environments where visibility matters, but mutability is dangerous.

Use Cases

Redshift Reporter is useful when you want to:

• Quickly review cluster contents in a dev or staging account
• Provide a junior engineer a safe way to explore a Redshift setup
• Run lightweight audits or discovery tasks during troubleshooting
• Avoid dashboard overhead when you just want answers

Script + README on Github Gist

View the source on GitHub Gist

No login sessions. No cloud GUI. Just answers—from your terminal.

Need AWS Expertise?

We'd love to help you with your AWS projects.  Feel free to reach out to us at info@pacificw.com.

Written by Aaron Rose, software engineer and technology writer at Tech-Reader.blog.