Microsoft SQL Agent Skills Preview: Install Azure SQL Plugins in VS Code and Copilot

What Microsoft announced​

Anna Hoffman, Principal Group Product Manager on Microsoft's SQL engineering team, announced the skills on September 29 in her roundup from SQLCon/FabCon Europe 2026 in Barcelona. Her post calls them packaged, reusable skills that give AI agents grounded knowledge of Azure SQL, and it lists them as a preview. The same post mentions a new Azure SQL Dev Hub. It also lists a separate preview, "Skills for SQL migration to Azure," which moves assessment, migration and validation into an agent-driven workflow instead of a checklist you work through by hand.

The easiest way to get them came a day earlier. On September 28, Microsoft's Yo-Lei Chen announced version 1.46 of the MSSQL extension for Visual Studio Code. That release adds a new Getting Started page, in public preview, which can install the latest Microsoft SQL agent skills into GitHub Copilot with one click. According to that post, the skills are available to all customers starting with the v1.46 release.

Two things are easy to mix up here:

• Who can install them: anyone. There is no enrollment gate.
• Support status: preview. Being open to everyone does not make them generally available.

The Azure Updates entry is also marked "In preview," which Azure defines as available to all Azure customers for non-production use and testing.

Section summary: The skills went into preview at SQLCon Europe on September 29. The MSSQL extension v1.46 for VS Code, released the day before, gives GitHub Copilot users a one-click way to install them.

What a skill actually is​

It's not a new model and it's not a new service. Microsoft's official microsoft/microsoft-sql GitHub repository says agent skills are folders of instructions and references that an agent discovers and loads when the task calls for them. Install a plugin once, then ask for what you need in your own words. The repository adds that there is no special prompt syntax to remember.

Microsoft's SQL Server Management Studio documentation, which covers user-authored skills in SSMS, offers a useful way to think about them: think of skills as a runbook, not one giant prompt. It also explains how skills differ from custom instructions. Unlike custom instructions, which set general preferences for every response, skills provide focused task-specific guidance that any agent can discover and use.

In short, Microsoft's SQL team has written the runbooks, and your agent reads the right one when a task calls for it.

The format isn't tied to one vendor either. The repository publishes portable Agent Plugins 1.0 packages for GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and Grok Build.

Five plugins, not one feature​

The v1.46 Getting Started page shows two cards:

• Microsoft SQL: connect apps, design schemas, write queries, add vector search and troubleshoot database issues.
• Microsoft SQL migration: assess, plan, run and validate migrations to Azure SQL.

The GitHub repository has a larger catalog. At the time of writing it lists five plugins:

The repository describes the full microsoft-sql plugin as covering:

• Connectivity: .NET, Python and TypeScript drivers, connection pooling, retry logic and Microsoft Entra authentication.
• Schema work: schema design, Entity Framework Core, Prisma, SQLAlchemy, database projects and safe migrations.
• T-SQL: correctness, JSON, safe upserts, SQL injection prevention and row-level security.
• Deployment: Azure Functions, Data API Builder, GitHub Actions and CI.
• AI features: vectors, embeddings, LangChain, LlamaIndex and retrieval-augmented generation.
• Troubleshooting: Query Store, execution plans, blocking, deadlocks, Extended Events and resource pressure.
• Data movement: bulk loading, SqlPackage import and export, restore and recovery.

According to the repository, the migration plugin can:

• recommend a target and a migration method
• run and evaluate Azure Arc migration assessments
• size Azure SQL targets from measured performance
• produce prerequisite plans for a specific migration path
• run migrations by backup/restore to SQL Server on Azure VM, by BACPAC to Azure SQL Database, or by Log Replay Service to Azure SQL Managed Instance
• validate source and target data afterward

One detail about the container plugin: the repository says the container is for local development and CI, not production hosting. It runs the Azure SQL Database engine, not the SQL Server container image.

Which ones to install​

The repository notes that some plugins overlap:

• Pick one of microsoft-sql or microsoft-sql-vscode. Use the general plugin for a terminal or coding agent. Choose microsoft-sql-vscode for the MSSQL extension. It omits Data API Builder skills that overlap with agent tools supplied by the extension.
• Don't install the container plugin with the general one. Its capabilities are already included in microsoft-sql, so do not install those two together when testing routing. It can be installed alongside the VS Code plugin when that host also needs container workflows.
• Add the workflow plugins as needed. microsoft-sql-migration and microsoft-sql-fdh are separate workflow plugins and can be installed alongside any Azure SQL bundle.

Section summary: "SQL Agent Skills" is a family of five focused plugins. Choose one core bundle, then add migration or Fabric Database Hub skills if you need them.

How to install them​

Option 1: The MSSQL extension's Getting Started page (easiest)​

1. Update the MSSQL extension for VS Code to v1.46.
2. Open the new Getting Started page. It's in preview.
3. On the Microsoft SQL or Microsoft SQL migration card, select Add to GitHub Copilot.
4. Each card lists its skills and includes sample prompts that you can copy or open in GitHub Copilot Chat. Add your own application or database details before you send one.

Microsoft's sample prompts include:

• Scaffold the schema, migrations and data layer for this app.
• Add native vector search and verify the index is used.
• Assess my database for migration to Azure SQL.
• Validate my migration before I cut over.

Microsoft's posts don't list a minimum VS Code version, Copilot plan or operating system, so check your own setup before assuming one.

Option 2: Plugin marketplace in VS Code​

The repository describes a manual route through the plugin marketplace:

1. Enable Agent Plugins and add the repository as a marketplace in your settings: set chat.plugins.enabled to true and add microsoft/microsoft-sql to chat.plugins.marketplaces.
2. Run Chat: Open Customizations from the Command Palette, open Plugins, select Browse Marketplace, and install the plugin you want.
3. You can also search for @agentPlugins in the Extensions view. If you use the MSSQL extension, the repository suggests starting with microsoft-sql-vscode.

Option 3: Command-line agents​

The repository gives these commands for the full bundle. Replace the plugin ID if you want a different one:

• GitHub Copilot CLI: copilot plugin marketplace add microsoft/microsoft-sql, then copilot plugin install microsoft-sql@microsoft-sql. Inside a session, /plugin manages plugins and /skills shows the available skills.
• Claude Code: /plugin marketplace add microsoft/microsoft-sql, then /plugin install microsoft-sql@microsoft-sql.
• OpenAI Codex CLI: codex plugin marketplace add microsoft/microsoft-sql --ref main, then codex plugin add microsoft-sql@microsoft-sql.

The repository says none of these hosts require you to clone it. Cursor has its own marketplace command. Its advice before any of this is to review the plugins before installing them.

How to check it worked: in Copilot CLI, /skills should list the Microsoft SQL skills. In any host, a relevant request, such as a migration assessment, should draw on the packaged guidance rather than generic advice. Microsoft's SSMS documentation says that when a skill is active, its name appears in the chat so you know it's being applied. That note is about SSMS, so other hosts may show active skills differently.

The fine print​

The repository is clear about the preview status: This repository and its plugins are currently in preview. Plugin contents, capabilities, packaging, and installation instructions may change before general availability. Review and validate the guidance before using it in production workflows. Microsoft hasn't given a GA date, pricing or a service-level commitment. Treat the plugin list above as a snapshot of a repository that is still changing.

Skills don't grant any permissions themselves. They tell the agent how to approach a task. What the agent can actually run depends on the host. In the MSSQL extension, Microsoft's documentation says Copilot's agent mode can list Microsoft SQL Server connections, connect to a server and database, retrieve schema metadata, and execute queries, all from natural-language prompts, with your approval on each action. It also notes that agent mode doesn't introduce another authentication or permission changes. So the account you connect with sets the damage limit, and a read-only login is still a good idea while you experiment.

Analysis: why this matters, and what to watch​

This section is our analysis, based on general industry knowledge.

Generic coding agents have mostly learned SQL from public code, which mixes SQL Server versions, Azure SQL and other database engines. Microsoft is betting that expert, engine-specific runbooks loaded on demand will produce better agent output than training alone. The advice in these skills, like parameterized queries, Entra authentication, validating before cutover and using Query Store, is what an experienced DBA would tell a junior colleague. Packaging it so agents apply it consistently makes sense.

It also serves Microsoft commercially. Guidance that steers agents toward Azure SQL, native vector search and Microsoft's migration paths helps the company win workloads, since agents increasingly choose the database. That doesn't make the guidance wrong, but it isn't neutral either. If you're choosing between platforms, weigh that.

There are practical risks too:

• Contents can change. A preview skill may behave differently next month. Pin versions or re-review after updates if the output matters.
• Better instructions don't guarantee better results. A skill can tell an agent to validate a migration, but you still have to check the validation yourself before cutover.
• Plugins are trusted input. They shape what your agent does, so review them the way you would a third-party dependency, as the repository itself advises.

The bottom line​

Microsoft SQL Agent Skills put Microsoft's SQL guidance into your AI agent: five plugins covering app development, local containers, VS Code workflows, SQL Server-to-Azure migrations and Fabric Database Hub, and they work in more than just Copilot. The quickest way in is the Add to GitHub Copilot card in MSSQL extension v1.46. They're worth trying in dev and test environments now, but they're still in preview. Keep a person approving every query, and use a login that can't drop your production tables.