Azure SQL Dev Corner
Voices from the Azure SQL PM Team, focusing on development and developers
Latest posts
MSSQL Extension for VS Code: Shortcuts Configuration, Enhanced Results Grid Experience, and More
The MSSQL extension for VS Code v1.44 continues to improve the SQL development experience with features that help you work faster and customize your workflow. In this release, we're introducing the Public Preview of Shortcuts Configuration and an Enhanced Results Grid experience. Together, these updates make it easier to personalize how you work with SQL and improve the performance and usability of query results directly inside Visual Studio Code. What's new in MSSQL extension for VS Code v1.44 Here's a summary of the key features in this release: Shortcuts Configuration (Preview) The new Shor...
Fundamentals of Azure DevOps with SQL projects
Building automated pipelines with your SQL database projects enables you to build a rich CI/CD ecosystem to ensure that your application is being deployed with good quality code and at high confidence of success. SQL Database Projects are compatible with just about every automation environment because fundamentally they're built on top of the .NET SDK, a free and cross-platform development platform. You can develop the Microsoft.Build.Sql projects in VS Code and SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). In this post, we'll take a look at the things you need to know to get started with building and deploying SQL projec...
Audit Frontier AI Agents with SQL MCP Server
With On-Behalf-Of authentication, SQL MCP Server lets agents access Microsoft SQL without losing the user identity behind the request. Azure SQL can audit the signed-in user who invoked the operation, not just the agent, app, or MCP server that carried it out.
What’s new across Microsoft SQL in 2026 so far (SQL Server, Azure SQL, and SQL database in Fabric)
We’re halfway through 2026, and Microsoft SQL has not slowed down. Since SQLCon/FabCon in March (where we released a ton of things, and those updates can be found in this udpates video), we shipped a wave of updates across SQL Server, Azure SQL, and SQL database in Fabric, with Microsoft Build 2026 as the centerpiece. If you want the details on Build, start with my recap blog, The Era of the Agentic Database Developer. This post collects everything new from mid-March through today, organized by service so you can find what matters to you. Every item is tagged Preview or Generally Available with a link. You can...
Compose your API surface with Data API builder custom paths
Data API builder (DAB) 2.0 adds compound paths for REST endpoints, giving developers more control over how their API surface is organized. Instead of mirroring database topology, endpoints can now reflect simple names, business areas, or schema ownership.
MSSQL Extension for VS Code: Azure SQL Database Provisioning and More
The MSSQL extension for VS Code v1.43 expands what’s possible inside Visual Studio Code with the General Availability of Schema Designer with GitHub Copilot, Data API builder, and SQL Notebooks. We’re also introducing the Public Preview of Azure SQL Database provisioning, giving developers a guided way to create Azure SQL databases directly from VS Code. What's new in MSSQL extension for VS Code v1.43 Here's a summary of the key features in this release: Azure SQL database Provisioning (Preview) The MSSQL extension for Visual Studio Code now introduces Azure SQL Database provisioning i...
SQL + AI, hands-on: Join a free workshop near you
If you work with Microsoft SQL regularly, the AI conversation right now probably feels a little exhausting. Every week brings a new platform, a new pattern, a new opinion about how you’re “supposed” to build AI apps. Most of it assumes you’ll start over. You don’t have to. We’re running SQL AI App in a Day workshops with Microsoft partners around the world. They’re free, hands-on, and built for developers who want to add AI to the apps they already own, using the data they already trust. You can browse upcoming sessions and register. Build on Microsoft SQL, not around it The question that keeps coming...
Regex support for LOB types in T-SQL—available in Azure SQL & SQL Server 2025
At a glance — Native regular expression (regex) functions in T-SQL now accept and inputs of up to 2 MB across all seven regex functions, including the two table-valued functions ( and ). This capability ships in SQL Server 2025 CU5 and is already available in Azure SQL Database, SQL Database in Fabric and Azure SQL Managed Instance configured with the Always-up-to-date update policy. It will reach Managed Instances on the SQL Server 2025 update policy as part of the CU5 rollout. You no longer need to split log files, HTML documents, or large JSON payloads into 8,000-byte chunks just to run a pattern match. 1. ...
Considering NL2SQL? Should your database really be the prompt? How can SQL MCP Server help?
You’ve probably experienced both of these, perhaps at the same time. First, that desire to let an agent get at your data. It’s driven by simplification and better experiences for the user and for you: fewer screens, fewer queries, fewer reports, and less code overall. Second, and perhaps more importantly, that unrelenting reluctance and reticence against all of it. The voice in your head that makes you seriously uneasy. Your reputation is at stake, yes, but to your enterprise, this might be existential. It has a name: NL2SQL. NL2SQL, or Natural Language to SQL, is where an AI agent turns a natural language ...
Microsoft SQL Security Across the MAESTRO Stack: Building Secure Agentic AI with Defense-in-Depth
Artificial Intelligence is evolving rapidly. What began as simple prompt-and-response systems is now transforming into fully autonomous, agentic AI architectures capable of reasoning, orchestrating tools, interacting with enterprise data, and invoking external systems dynamically. While these capabilities unlock enormous business potential, they also introduce an entirely new category of security challenges. Organizations are no longer asking only: “How do we build AI systems?” They are now asking: “How do we build AI systems securely, responsibly, and with governance built into every layer?” This ...
Generate Embeddings Function and External Model Object Support Are Now Generally Available in Azure SQL
We are excited to announce the General Availability (GA) of AI_GENERATE_EMBEDDINGS and CREATE EXTERNAL MODEL in Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance. These two T-SQL features — CREATE EXTERNAL MODEL and AI_GENERATE_EMBEDDINGS — work together as a single, integrated pipeline for generating vector embeddings directly from T-SQL. No data movement, no external orchestration, no application-layer pipeline required. EXTERNAL MODEL object defines where to get embeddings from and how to authenticate — registered once, reused everywhere. AI_GENERATE_EMBEDDINGS calls the external model to generate the ve...
SQL MCP Server as an App Service
Run SQL MCP Server on Azure App Service without containers. This walkthrough uses Data API builder to configure authentication, expose MCP, REST, and GraphQL endpoints, and deploy as code.
Azure Data Studio is retired: Move your Azure SQL workflow to VS Code in 10 minutes
Azure Data Studio (ADS) retired on February 6, 2025, and support ended on February 28, 2026. The recommended path forward is Visual Studio Code with the MSSQL extension. If you used ADS daily, this guide gets you productive quickly in VS Code. The focus is on importing your existing setup, restoring familiar shortcuts like F5, and getting SQL Database Projects working so you can build and publish schema changes confidently from the editor. TL; DR Why this matters for Azure SQL developers Running queries is only part of the job. Most teams need repeatable workflows for schema change review, ...
The Polyglot tax – Part 4
The Agent-Ready Database: Security, Backup, and MCP Part 4 of 4 – The Multi-Model Database Series This is the final post in a four-part series on multi-model databases in SQL Server 2025 and Azure SQL - exploring how the optimizer, storage engine, and security layer treat each data model as a first-class citizen under one roof. In Part 1: The Polyglot Tax, we described the trajectory: you spin up a database, point an agent at it, and start building fast. The complexity comes later - JSON, graph, vectors, analytics - and each new requirement tempts you to spin up another database. In Part 2: When JSON Met Gra...
Introducing SQL MCP Server
SQL MCP Server gives enterprises a secure, feature-rich way to enable agents to access data. This is accomplished without exposing the schema, risking consistency, or relying on fragile natural language parsing. SQL MCP Server is a feature of Data API builder, so deployments have a proven entity abstraction system, RBAC security at the API layer with Azure Key Vault integration, custom OAuth and Microsoft Entra support, first-level and second-level caching with integration with Redis and Azure Managed Redis, and complete instrumentation and telemetry with integration with Azure Log Analytics, Application Insights...
The Polyglot tax – Part 3
Vectors, Analytics, and the End of ETL Part 3 of 4 - The Multi-model Database Series In Part 1: The Polyglot Tax we laid out the fraud detection scenario: a transaction comes in, and before you approve or deny it you need five checks. Order history (relational). Device fingerprint (JSON). Connections to fraud rings (graph). Transactions that look like this one (vector similarity). Statistical baselines across millions of rows (analytics). Five data access patterns, five databases in the polyglot model, five sets of everything that can break. In Part 2: When JSON Met Graph we handled the first three. We store...
SQL code analysis in VS Code: Configure rules without editing your project file
SQL code analysis has been part of the SSDT workflow for a long time. Before deploying a schema change, you could run a set of static analysis rules against your project to catch potential issues, things like missing primary keys, deprecated syntax, or objects that could break under certain compatibility levels. It was one of those SSDT features that teams quietly relied on without thinking much about it. When developers started moving their SQL Database Projects workflow to VS Code, code analysis came with them. But configuring which rules to enable or disable required editing the .sqlproj file directly, not a ...
Manage SQL database schemas in VS Code: Publish dialog and item templates
Making schema changes often means jumping between tools. You write code in VS Code, then switch to a separate tool to deploy your changes : exporting a script, running it manually, or copy-pasting into a query editor. Either way, it pulls you out of your flow. With the latest updates to SQL Database Projects in VS Code, that context switching is no longer necessary. You can now manage and deploy schema changes to Azure SQL, SQL Server, or Fabric SQL databases without leaving your editor. What's new: Publish dialog and item templates We've added two features to the SQL Database Projects extension for VS Code th...