If the resulting table is large and opens up a less-like mode where I can scroll and pan around, but if I quit this mode, the terminal is cleared and there seems to be no way to take a second look at the data.

Can you tell me which OS you're using?

In Linux and OS X the less command should keep the output in the screen after you press 'q'.

I am on Linux too and it doesn't. Not just this tool: in general.

If you have 'less' on your system then it should work because I'm manipulating the options that are passed into less. I'm setting the less options here: https://github.com/dbcli/mycli/blob/master/mycli/main.py#L42...

You can try that from the command line yourself. Try:

less -SRXF <filename.txt>

That should print the file and not clear the screen when you press 'q'.

You can also override the pager to change from less to something else right from inside mycli. For example:

amjith@localhost:(none)> pager cat

That will use cat instead of less for paging the output and that should keep the output in the screen but it won't page them like less.