SQL Server MCP - AI-Powered Database Integration

Connect AI assistants to your SQL Server databases with enterprise-grade security and performance.

🤖 AI-First Database Access: Enable GitHub Copilot, Warp AI, and other assistants to interact with your SQL Server databases through natural language queries, with comprehensive security controls and production-ready reliability.

🚀 Quick Start - Choose Your AI Assistant

New to this project? Get up and running in under 5 minutes!

🤖 GitHub Copilot in VS Code (⭐ Most Popular)

Perfect for developers who want AI-powered SQL assistance directly in their IDE.

→ 5-Minute VS Code Setup Guide

• ✅ GitHub Copilot can query your databases directly

• ✅ Context-aware suggestions based on your actual schema

• ✅ Natural language to SQL query generation

• ✅ Real-time insights while coding

💬 Warp Terminal

Ideal for terminal-based workflows and command-line database interactions.

→ 5-Minute Warp Setup Guide

• ✅ AI-powered terminal with SQL Server integration

• ✅ Natural language database queries

• ✅ Fast iteration for analysis and debugging

• ✅ Cross-platform terminal experience

🔧 Advanced Integration

Complete VS Code Integration Guide → - Advanced workflows and configuration

Using another AI assistant? This MCP server works with any MCP-compatible system.

Related MCP server: MariaDB MCP Server

✨ What You Get

• 🤖 Natural language to SQL - Ask questions, get queries

• 🔒 Enterprise security - Three-tier safety system with secure defaults

• 📊 Performance insights - Query optimization and bottleneck detection

• ☁️ Cloud-ready - AWS/Azure secret management

• 🚀 Streaming support - Memory-efficient handling of large datasets

• 📈 16 Database Tools - Complete database operations through AI

🔒 Security Levels (Quick Reference)

🔒 Maximum Security (Default - Production Recommended):

📋 Essential Environment Variables

📖 Complete Reference: See docs/ENV-VARS.md for comprehensive documentation of all environment variables, defaults, and context-aware behavior.

💡 Authentication: For Windows Authentication, leave SQL_SERVER_USER and SQL_SERVER_PASSWORD empty. 💡 SSL Certificates: SQL_SERVER_TRUST_CERT automatically adapts to your environment (trusts in development, requires valid certificates in production).

🛠️ Installation & Configuration

Note: As of v1.7.11 the package is published under the scoped name @egarcia74/warp-sql-server-mcp. The previous unscoped package remains temporarily and will be deprecated.

⭐ Recommended: Global npm Installation

Benefits:

• ✅ No manual path configuration

• ✅ Secure credential storage with file permissions (600)

• ✅ Easy configuration updates without touching AI assistant settings

• ✅ Password masking and validation

Alternative: Manual Installation

🎯 Use Cases

🔍 Database Analysis & Exploration

• Schema Discovery: Reverse engineer legacy databases without documentation

• Data Quality Assessment: Spot-check data integrity across tables

• New Team Onboarding: Rapidly explore unfamiliar database schemas

📊 Business Intelligence & Reporting

• Ad-hoc Analysis: Quick business questions through natural language

• Data Export: Export filtered datasets to CSV for analysis

• Revenue Analysis: AI-powered business insights

🛠️ Development & DevOps

• Query Performance Tuning: Execution plan analysis and optimization

• API Development: Quickly test database queries during development

• Database Troubleshooting: Debug slow queries and identify bottlenecks

🚀 AI-Powered Operations

• Natural Language to SQL: Ask questions like "Show me customers who haven't placed orders"

• Query Optimization: "Why is this query running slowly?"

• Automated Insights: Generate business reports through conversational queries

📚 Complete Documentation

📋 Complete Documentation Index - Navigate all documentation in one place

User Guides

• Environment Variables Reference - Complete environment variables documentation

• Security Guide - Comprehensive security configuration and threat model

• Security Threat Analysis Process - Workflows for reviewing and responding to security alerts

• Architecture Guide - Technical deep-dive and system design

• All MCP Tools - Complete API reference (16 tools)

Setup Guides

• VS Code Integration Guide - Advanced workflows and configuration

• Azure Key Vault Guide - Cloud secret management setup

• AWS Secrets Manager Guide - Enterprise credential management

Developer Resources

• Software Engineering Manifesto - Philosophy and engineering practices

• Quality No-Compromise Case Study - Real-world analysis of zero-tolerance quality standards

• Testing Guide - Comprehensive test documentation (535+ tests)

• Contributing Guide - Development workflow and standards

• Git Commit Checklist - Pre-commit quality gates and guidelines

• Git Push Checklist - Pre-push validation and deployment guidelines

• Git Release Checklist - Step-by-step release guide (automation + npm)

🧪 Production Validation

✅ PRODUCTION-VALIDATED: This MCP server has been fully tested through:

• 618+ Comprehensive Tests: All MCP tools, security boundaries, error scenarios (392 unit + 40 manual integration + 20 protocol tests)

• 40 Manual Integration Tests: Live database validation across all security phases

• 20 Protocol Tests: End-to-end MCP communication validation

• 100% Success Rate: All security phases validated in production scenarios

🐳 Quick Testing with Docker (Recommended for Development)

Benefits: ✨ Zero configuration, 🛡️ Complete isolation, ⚡ Fast setup, 📋 Consistent environment

Complete Docker Testing Guide →

🔧 Manual Setup Testing (Production Validation)

Security Phases Tested:

• Phase 1 (Read-Only): Maximum security - 20/20 tests ✅

• Phase 2 (DML Operations): Selective permissions - 10/10 tests ✅

• Phase 3 (DDL Operations): Full development mode - 10/10 tests ✅

🔧 Usage Examples

Once configured, you can use natural language with your AI assistant:

VS Code + GitHub Copilot

Warp Terminal

🚨 Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Connection Problems:

• Verify SQL Server is running on the specified port: telnet localhost 1433

• Check firewall settings on both client and server

• Enable TCP/IP protocol in SQL Server Configuration Manager

Authentication Issues:

• For SQL Server Auth: Verify SQL_SERVER_USER and SQL_SERVER_PASSWORD

• For Windows Auth: Leave user/password empty, optionally set SQL_SERVER_DOMAIN

• Ensure the connecting user has appropriate database permissions

Configuration Issues:

• Set SQL_SERVER_ENCRYPT=false for local development

• MCP servers require explicit environment variables (.env files are not loaded automatically)

• Check MCP server logs: npm run logs or npm run logs:tail for real-time monitoring

• View audit logs for security-related issues: npm run logs:audit

Platform-Specific

Windows:

• Enable TCP/IP in SQL Server Configuration Manager

• Start SQL Server Browser service for named instances

• Windows Authentication works seamlessly with domain accounts

macOS/Linux:

• Remote SQL Server connections often require SQL Server Authentication

• May need SQL_SERVER_ENCRYPT=true for remote connections

• Test connectivity: nc -zv localhost 1433 or nmap -p 1433 localhost

🤝 Contributing

This project demonstrates enterprise-grade software engineering practices. We welcome contributions that maintain our high standards:

1. Fork the repository and create a feature branch

2. Follow TDD practices - write tests first!

3. Maintain code quality - all commits trigger automated quality checks

4. Add comprehensive tests for new functionality

5. Update documentation as needed

6. Submit a pull request with detailed description

Development Commands:

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Copyright (c) 2025 Eduardo Garcia

🌟 About This Project

While this appears to be an MCP server for SQL Server integration, it's fundamentally a comprehensive framework demonstrating enterprise-grade software development practices. Every component, pattern, and principle here showcases rigorous engineering standards that can be applied to any production system.

Key Engineering Highlights:

• 🔬 618+ Comprehensive Tests covering all functionality and edge cases

• 🛡️ Multi-layered Security with defense-in-depth architecture

• 📊 Production Observability with structured logging and performance monitoring

• ⚡ Enterprise Reliability featuring connection pooling and graceful error handling

• 🏛️ Clean Architecture with dependency inversion and modular design

• 📚 Living Documentation that auto-syncs with code changes

→ Read the Complete Engineering Philosophy