Via the magic of Bash and Heroku CLI you can pull down your Heroku App's database, migrate it, sanitize it (an exercise for the reader), and get on with your life. `bin/import -h` for help.

bin-import.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash

set -euo pipefail

. ./bin/colors

heroku_app=your-app
capture=0
migrate=0
restore=0
sanitize=1
target_db=your-app_development

while getopts ":a:hmrcst:" opt; do
  case $opt in
    a)
      heroku_app=$OPTARG
      ;;
    c)
      capture=1
      ;;
    h)
      echo "Usage: bin/import [-h] [-m] [-r] [-c] [-s] [-a HEROKU_APP] [-t TARGET_DATABASE]" >&2
      echo "-h: Halp?! Shows this help text." >&2
      echo "-m: Migrate the DB via \`bin/rake db:migrate\`." >&2
      echo "-a: HEROKU_APP from which to pull the DB. (Default: $heroku_app)" >&2
      echo "-r: Restore a previously-captured DB dump." >&2
      echo "-c: Capture a new DB dump and store it locally (must be used with -r)." >&2
      echo "-s: Skip Sanitizing the imported DB records." >&2
      echo "-t: TARGET_DATABASE on the local machine where the import will be restored. (Default: $target_db)" >&2
      exit 0
      ;;
    m)
      migrate=1
      ;;
    r)
      restore=1
      ;;
    s)
      sanitize=0
      ;;
    t)
      target_db=$OPTARG
      ;;
    \?)
      echo "Invalid option: -$OPTARG" >&2
      exit 1
      ;;
  esac
done

if [[ "$capture" == "1" && "$restore" != "1" ]]; then
  printf "💀${RED}   Cannot capture a new backup (-c) unless also restoring (-r).\\n"
  exit 1
fi

printf "🔥   Dropping target DB: $target_db"
dropdb "$target_db" --if-exists

if [[ "$restore" == "1" ]]; then
  dump_file=tmp/"${heroku_app}".dump

  createdb "$target_db" --template=template0

  # Capture a new DB Backup dump if non exists, or if explictily capturing a new one
  if [[ ! -f "$dump_file" || "$capture" == "1" ]]; then
    # Create the backup on heroku
    printf "${CLEAR_LINE}💾    Capturing DB backup from $heroku_app"
    heroku pg:backups:capture -a "$heroku_app" > /dev/null

    # Download the backup
    printf "${CLEAR_LINE}☁️    Downloading DB backup from $heroku_app"
    heroku pg:backups:download -a "$heroku_app" -o tmp/"${heroku_app}".dump > /dev/null
  fi

  # Restore the backup
  printf "${CLEAR_LINE}🔂   Restoring DB from dump at ${dump_file}"
  pg_restore --verbose --no-acl --no-owner -h localhost -U "$(whoami)" -d "${target_db}" "${dump_file}" > /dev/null 2> >(sed -e '/^pg_restore/d' >&2 )
else
  # Pull the DB and restore it directly from Heroku, with no local copies in play.
  printf "${CLEAR_LINE}☁️    Pulling source DB from $heroku_app"
  heroku pg:pull DATABASE_URL "$target_db" -a "$heroku_app" > /dev/null 2> >(sed -e '/^pg_dump/d' -e '/^pg_restore/d' >&2 )
fi

if [[ "$migrate" == "1" ]]; then
  printf "${CLEAR_LINE}🔂   Migrating DB"
  bin/rake db:migrate > /dev/null
fi

if [[ "$sanitize" == "1" ]]; then
  printf "${CLEAR_LINE}🛁   Sanitizing records"
  bin/rake data:sanitize > /dev/null
fi

printf "${CLEAR_LINE}🎉${GREEN}   $target_db has been imported from $heroku_app. Happy hacking!${NO_COLOR}\\n"

colors.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash

RED='\033[0;31m'
GREEN='\033[0;32m'
YELLOW='\033[0;33m'
NO_COLOR='\033[0m'
CLEAR_LINE='\r\033[K'

Now with the ability to either heroku db:pull or do a heroku:backups:capture && heroku:backups:pull followed by a pg_restore!