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.

---

✨ 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
• 🚀 Streaming support - Memory-efficient handling of large datasets
• 📈 16 Database Tools - Complete database operations through AI

---

🔒 Security Levels (Quick Reference)

Security Level	Environment Variable	Default	Impact
🔒 Read-Only Mode	SQL_SERVER_READ_ONLY	true	Only SELECT queries allowed
⚠️ Destructive Operations	SQL_SERVER_ALLOW_DESTRUCTIVE_OPERATIONS	false	Controls INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE/MERGE/TRUNCATE, EXEC, WRITETEXT/UPDATETEXT, Service Broker RECEIVE, and administrative operations (SHUTDOWN, KILL, BACKUP/RESTORE, DBCC, RECONFIGURE, CHECKPOINT, SETUSER, xp_*/sp_*, linked-server rowset functions)
🚨 Schema Changes	SQL_SERVER_ALLOW_SCHEMA_CHANGES	false	Controls CREATE/DROP/ALTER, GRANT/REVOKE/DENY, ENABLE/DISABLE TRIGGER, and SELECT ... INTO

Every statement in a batch is checked against these tiers — T-SQL does not require ; between statements — and batches with unterminated string literals, identifiers, or comments are rejected.

🔒 Maximum Security (Default - Production Recommended):

SQL_SERVER_READ_ONLY=true                      # Only SELECT allowed
SQL_SERVER_ALLOW_DESTRUCTIVE_OPERATIONS=false  # No data modifications
SQL_SERVER_ALLOW_SCHEMA_CHANGES=false         # No schema changes

---

📋 Essential Environment Variables

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

Variable	Required	Default	Description
SQL_SERVER_HOST	No	localhost	SQL Server hostname
SQL_SERVER_PORT	No	1433	SQL Server port
SQL_SERVER_DATABASE	No	master	Initial database
SQL_SERVER_USER	For SQL Auth	-	Database username
SQL_SERVER_PASSWORD	For SQL Auth	-	Database password
SQL_SERVER_ENCRYPT	No	true	Enable SSL/TLS
SQL_SERVER_TRUST_CERT	No	context-aware	Trust server certificate

💡 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 warp-sql-server-mcp is deprecated: it was last published at 1.7.10 and predates the security fixes in 1.7.16-1.7.18, so installing it is not supported. Use the scoped name.

⭐ Recommended: Global npm Installation

# Install globally via npm (easiest method)
npm install -g @egarcia74/warp-sql-server-mcp

# Initialize configuration
warp-sql-server-mcp init

# Edit config file with your SQL Server details
# Config file location: ~/.warp-sql-server-mcp.json

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

# Clone and install manually
git clone https://github.com/egarcia74/warp-sql-server-mcp.git
cd warp-sql-server-mcp
npm install

---

🎯 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

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 (1,694 automated unit 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:

• 1,761 Tests: All MCP tools, security boundaries, error scenarios - every one of them runs automatically on every pull request (1,694 unit + 27 integration + 40 live-database against a Docker SQL Server CI starts itself)
• 40 Live-Database Integration Tests: Live database validation across all security phases, run in CI
• MCP Protocol Validation: test/protocol/mcp-server-startup-test.js checks server startup and the JSON-RPC initialize handshake. npm run test:integration:protocol runs it in CI; npm run docker:test -- protocol runs the same file against a container it starts for you
• 100% Success Rate: All security phases validated in production scenarios

🐳 Quick Testing with Docker (Recommended for Development)

# One-command testing with automated SQL Server container
npm run test:integration

# This will:
# 1. 🐳 Start SQL Server 2022 container
# 2. ⏱️ Wait for database initialization (2-3 minutes)
# 3. 🧪 Run all integration tests
# 4. 🔄 Clean up and stop container

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 ✅

# Quick Start - Get comprehensive help
npm run help               # Show all commands with detailed descriptions

# Run tests locally
npm test                   # All automated unit + integration tests
npm run test:coverage      # Coverage report with detailed metrics
npm run test:integration   # 🚀 Complete integration test suite with Docker
npm run test:integration:ci  # For CI environments with external database
npm run test:integration:performance  # ⭐ Fast performance validation (~2s)

# View logs and monitor activity
npm run logs               # Show recent server logs
npm run logs:tail          # Follow logs in real-time
npm run logs:audit         # Show security audit logs

---

🔧 Usage Examples

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

VS Code + GitHub Copilot

@sql-server List all databases
@sql-server Show me tables in the AdventureWorks database
@sql-server Generate a query to find the top 10 customers by sales
@sql-server Analyze the performance of this query: SELECT * FROM Orders WHERE OrderDate > '2023-01-01'

Warp Terminal

Please list all databases on the SQL Server
Execute this SQL query: SELECT TOP 10 * FROM Users ORDER BY CreatedDate DESC
Can you describe the structure of the Orders table?
Show me 50 rows from the Products table where Price > 100

---

🚨 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:

# Get comprehensive help for all available commands
npm run help               # Show organized command reference with descriptions

# Core development
npm run dev                # Development mode with auto-restart
npm test                   # Run all tests
npm run lint:fix          # Fix linting issues
npm run format            # Format code
npm run ci                 # Full CI pipeline locally

# Log viewing and monitoring
npm run logs               # Show recent server logs
npm run logs:tail          # Follow server logs in real-time
npm run logs:audit         # Show security audit logs
npm run logs:tail:audit    # Follow audit logs in real-time

# System maintenance and cleanup
npm run cleanup            # List leftover test processes (reports only)
npm run cleanup:processes  # Same as cleanup (alias)
npm run cleanup -- --kill <pid>   # Terminate a listed process by PID

---

📄 License

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

Copyright (c) 2025 Eduardo Garcia-Prieto

---

🌟 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:

• 🔬 1,761 Tests covering all functionality and edge cases - every one of them runs automatically on every pull request
• 🛡️ 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