azure sql developer — Agent Skill

Azure SQL Database container

Run and build against Azure SQL Database, right on your local environment. Try it before you deploy, run your tests in CI, and ship with no code change. Free for development, with no Azure subscription and no credit card required.

▶ Watch the demo

The Azure SQL Database container is the Azure SQL Database engine, running locally. It runs on any modern container runtime (Docker, Podman, containerd, Rancher Desktop) on macOS, Linux, and Windows, and works with the drivers, ORMs, and editors developers already use. It supports the same AI-native capabilities as Azure SQL Database in the Microsoft Azure cloud: the native vector type, vector search with VECTOR_DISTANCE, in-database embeddings, and DiskANN vector indexes with CREATE VECTOR INDEX.

For the first time, developers can build, test, and ship applications against the Azure SQL Database engine without an Azure subscription and without a shared cloud instance. When you deploy to Azure SQL Database in the Microsoft Azure cloud, it is a connection-string change, not a code change.

[!IMPORTANT] The container image is in a private registry. [Sign up for the Private Preview](https://aka.ms/azuresqldb-container-signup) to get the registry username and password you need to pull it. Signing up is the only way to get access.

Global Table of Contents

• What is the Azure SQL Database container?
• Goals of the Private Preview
• Prerequisites
• Getting Started
• Agent skills
• Known limitations
• Feedback and how to engage

Agent skills

Point your AI coding agent at the container and let it start the engine, provision the database, scaffold the schema, write the migrations, and build the data layer. The repo ships 17 agent skills that work in Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and VS Code with GitHub Copilot:

npx skills add microsoft/azure-sql-database-container

Claude Code and Codex users can also install them as a native plugin (/plugin marketplace add microsoft/azure-sql-database-container). See the [Agent skills page](https://microsoft.github.io/azure-sql-database-container/agent-skills.html) for per-tool install and what each skill does, or browse the skill source.

Each skill carries its knowledge in layers (instructions, bundled references/ with version-pinned config shapes, and an optional live layer via the public Microsoft Learn MCP for the current docs on demand). The MCP is optional; the skills work without it. See Knowledge layers and Using the Microsoft Learn MCP.

Feedback