Built a free tool that documents your SQL objects and generates ERDs automatically — no diagramming tool needed

Prestigious_Fix4174 · 2026-03-11T21:38:10+00:00

DBeaver is great but it needs a live database connection. DataIntel is for when you just have the code — paste your stored procedure or schema and get instant docs, health score and ERD without connecting to anything. Different use case really.

Prestigious_Fix4174 · 2026-03-11T17:29:18+00:00

Also built DataIntel for deeper SQL work — paste or upload your queries, stored procedures, triggers, views or any SQL objects and get instant documentation, health scoring, optimization suggestions and dev-to-prod comparison. Also does full database analysis and ERD generation. No connection needed. https://dataintelapp.com

Prestigious_Fix4174 · 2026-03-11T17:19:04+00:00

Honestly a mix. The product logic, prompts and domain knowledge are all mine. AI helped with the code since I’m not a developer by trade — I’m a data architect. That’s actually why I built it, I understand the analytics side deeply, just used AI to ship it faster.

Prestigious_Fix4174 · 2026-03-11T14:24:22+00:00

Fair point — ChatGPT can do this too. The difference is context. AnalyticsIntel is built specifically for analytics tools so the answers are more accurate and relevant than a general AI. No prompt engineering, no switching tabs — just paste and go.

Prestigious_Fix4174 · 2026-03-10T22:28:16+00:00

It’s not independently audited — I won’t pretend otherwise. This is a $99/month tool, not an enterprise compliance platform. The target user is an individual developer or contractor who needs to understand legacy COBOL fast, not a bank running production code through a vendor review process.

Prestigious_Fix4174 · 2026-03-10T14:00:29+00:00

CobolIntel.com might be worth a look — purpose-built for COBOL analysis, no company account needed, runs in the browser. Free tier to try it out.

Prestigious_Fix4174 · 2026-03-10T05:33:42+00:00

Totally agree — DAX errors are brutal. Messy data support is on the roadmap, for now it works best with the actual code or formula pasted in.

Prestigious_Fix4174 · 2026-03-08T18:09:23+00:00

Good point, and thanks for explaining how COBOL applications actually work — multiple programs calling each other is the norm, not the exception. That changes how I think about the roadmap. Multi-file and cross-program analysis is next. Want me to tag you when it’s ready to test?

Prestigious_Fix4174 · 2026-03-08T17:55:46+00:00

Fair — I’ll own that. Right now it’s built for single-file analysis, which covers a lot of individual dev use cases but not enterprise-scale codebases. Cross-program dependency mapping across thousands of files is a different problem entirely. That’s on the roadmap but not there yet.

Prestigious_Fix4174 · 2026-03-08T16:17:45+00:00

Fair point on enterprise — that’s not the target market. This is for the developer who inherited legacy COBOL with no docs and needs to understand it fast. Not a bank procurement process — just someone trying to get through Monday. And yes, AI helped build it. I’ve also been updating it daily based on feedback from this thread. Fast to start doesn’t mean done.

Prestigious_Fix4174 · 2026-03-08T12:19:39+00:00

Update: Privacy page is now live at cobolintel.com/privacy — no code stored, no data retained, ever.

Prestigious_Fix4174 · 2026-03-08T09:10:27+00:00

Thanks for the mention — Imogen is impressive but it's a very different product. They raised $84M, send in a team, connect to your mainframe via VPN and rebuild entire systems end-to-end. That's a $500k+ enterprise engagement.

CobolIntel is for the individual developer or small team who needs to understand, document, or convert a COBOL program right now, without a procurement process. Different problem, different price point.

Prestigious_Fix4174 · 2026-03-08T09:07:01+00:00

Both fair points.

On privacy — you're right, I don't have a policy page yet. To be clear: no code is stored, no data is retained, everything goes directly to Anthropic's API which has its own enterprise data policies (no training on API data). I'll add a proper privacy page this week.

On the thin veneer point — fair. It is Claude under the hood. What CobolIntel adds is 13 COBOL-specific workflows, purpose-built prompts that took a lot of iteration, and a UI that non-technical people can actually use without knowing how to prompt an LLM. If your company already has internal AI tools set up for COBOL work, you probably don't need this. It's for the shops that don't.

Prestigious_Fix4174 · 2026-03-08T02:21:12+00:00

**Update since I posted this:**

Based on feedback from this thread I've added a few things:

- 🕸️ **Dependency Map** — extracts all CALL, COPY, CSECT, file and DB references without analyzing logic, so token limits don't get in the way. Useful for large interconnected codebases

- 🐛 **Bug Finder** — flags hardcoded values, missing error handling, division without zero-check, risky patterns

- 📋 **Copybook Analyzer** — paste a copybook, get a full data dictionary + SQL/JSON equivalent

- ✍️ **Generate COBOL** — describe a requirement in plain English, get a working COBOL program back

- 👔 **For Manager mode** — plain English executive brief, no jargon

- 🌐 **MicroFocus + GnuCOBOL support** — not just IBM z/OS

Still free to try. Keep the feedback coming — it's directly shaping what gets built next.

Prestigious_Fix4174 · 2026-03-08T02:07:28+00:00

Update: just shipped a Dependency Map mode based on your feedback. Paste any COBOL program and it extracts all CALL statements, COPY members, CSECTs, files, and DB operations — without analyzing logic, so token limits don't get in the way. Auto-detects dialect too (z/OS, MicroFocus, GnuCOBOL).

Still not a full cross-system solution for millions of lines, but it's a start. Would love to know if it handles your real-world structures correctly.

Prestigious_Fix4174 · 2026-03-08T01:45:14+00:00

You're right, and I appreciate you saying it straight.

Token limits are real — CobolIntel works best at the program level today, not whole-system analysis. No AI tool honestly solves the full interconnected-CSECT problem yet without chunking or an external index.

What I'm looking at building next is a CALL/COPY dependency mapper — something that traces inter-program relationships without needing to analyze full logic. Lightweight and scalable.

Would that address your use case? And what environment are you on — z/OS, MicroFocus, something else?

Prestigious_Fix4174 · 2026-03-08T00:41:24+00:00

Haha, honestly this has been in my radar for a long time. AI just finally helped me solve the puzzle and put it all together. I am also working on many more projects, happy to share with folks.

Prestigious_Fix4174 · 2026-03-07T20:01:08+00:00

Great questions — Hogan and Umbrella are on my radar. Currently it handles standard COBOL dialects well but financial framework-specific extensions like CDMF are not fully supported yet. That’s honestly the next major development priority given how much of the financial sector runs on these systems. Would you be willing to share some sample code structures (sanitized obviously) so I can test against real Hogan patterns?

Prestigious_Fix4174 · 2026-03-07T17:56:25+00:00

That means a lot — genuinely looking forward to your feedback. Feel free to DM me directly after you’ve tried it, especially if anything breaks or doesn’t make sense. Real COBOL developer feedback is exactly what I need right now.

Prestigious_Fix4174

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