// the find
jeffknupp/sandman2
Automatically generate a RESTful API service for your legacy database. No code required!
sandman2 points SQLAlchemy at any existing database and instantly exposes every table as a REST API, no code required. It's aimed at developers who need quick programmatic access to a legacy database without building a proper API layer. The admin UI is a bonus that makes it usable by non-developers too.
SQLAlchemy automap does the heavy lifting, so schema introspection actually works across MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, SQL Server, and more without per-database glue code. The escape hatch is clean — if the zero-code CLI isn't enough, you can import the library and register custom model classes with fine-grained control. Docker image is provided and parameterized, making it genuinely easy to drop in front of a remote database in minutes. Hypermedia support (links in responses) means clients can discover endpoints rather than hardcoding URL patterns.
No authentication or authorization whatsoever out of the box — you are one misconfigured firewall rule away from exposing your entire database to the internet, which is the opposite of what 'legacy database' scenarios usually need. The last real commit activity suggests the project is effectively dormant; Travis CI badges still point to travis-ci.com (the paid tier that killed open source builds), which likely means CI hasn't passed in years. Pagination, filtering, and sorting are basic — anything beyond simple CRUD on a well-structured schema will hit walls fast. Schema changes require a restart since automap runs at startup, so this is not suitable as a long-running service in front of a schema that evolves.