SQL developer tools at SQL Modernization Day

SQL developers can now do most of their database work without leaving VS Code. The MSSQL extension ships updates every month, GitHub Copilot understands your schema, and the Microsoft SQL drivers keep pace with SQL Server 2025. And new Microsoft SQL skills, now in public preview, let your coding agent assess and migrate SQL Server to Azure SQL.

Here's what's new across the toolchain, and where to see it in action at SQL Modernization Day on October 20.

What's new in the MSSQL extension for VS Code

The MSSQL extension connects to SQL Server, Azure SQL and SQL database in Fabric from the editor you already use. It now covers far more than connecting and running queries. Versions 1.40 and 1.41 added the following.

Generally available

• Database management. Backup and restore, plus dialogs to create, rename and drop databases.
• View and edit data directly in the table view.
• DACPAC and BACPAC extract, deploy, import and export for moving databases between environments.
• Fabric integration to browse workspaces and provision SQL databases in Fabric.
• SQL database projects with a publish dialog and code analysis.
• Azure Data Studio migration toolkit that brings over your connections, settings and key bindings.

Public preview

• Query Profiler for real-time activity monitoring with Extended Events.
• Flat file import to turn a CSV or TXT file into a new table.
• Database object search across tables, views, stored procedures and more, with scripting options.
• SQL Notebooks that mix SQL and Python kernels in one notebook.
• Schema Designer and data API design with GitHub Copilot, plus an application quickstart.

Need a local database? The extension can spin up a SQL Server 2025 container in a few clicks. It checks prerequisites, sets up the container and adds the connection to Object Explorer for you.

Build with GitHub Copilot and your schema

GitHub Copilot is built into the MSSQL extension. In agent mode it reads your actual tables, columns and relationships, along with your workspace and open files. It uses the same connection and permissions as the extension, and it asks you to approve tool actions before they run.

Here's some of what you can hand off:

• Chat with the mssql participant for SQL guidance, or let agent mode connect, list servers and run queries.
• Generate tables and relationships, then review them as a diff before anything reaches the database.
• Write T-SQL or ORM queries from plain language, and get explanations of stored procedures, views and complex joins.
• Generate realistic test data from your current schema.
• Configure Data API builder in natural language to expose tables as REST, GraphQL or MCP endpoints.

Try it: from idea to an AI-ready app

The library app sample walks through a full build in three steps:

1. Spin it up. Create a local SQL Server 2025 container from the extension and seed the database.
2. Wire it up. Have Copilot turn hardcoded app data into new tables and relationships, generate test data, and stand up a read-only REST API with Data API builder.
3. Light it up. Add a native VECTOR column, generate embeddings, and use VECTOR_DISTANCE for semantic search behind a RAG chatbot.

The repo includes a PRD and GitHub Copilot custom instructions, so Copilot follows your naming conventions and targets SQL Server without repeating yourself in every prompt.

Coming next: Azure SQL Developer runs the Azure SQL Database engine locally for development, so you can build in your inner loop and deploy to Azure with no code changes. It's in gated preview, and you can sign up at aka.ms/azuresql-developer.

Assess and migrate with Microsoft SQL skills

Microsoft SQL skills, now in public preview, bring SQL Server migration expertise to the coding agent you already use. Skills are packaged instructions and scripts that an agent loads when a task calls for them. You ask for an assessment or a migration in plain language, and the agent picks the right skill for each step.

The skills live in one central library, so they work the same way in GitHub Copilot, VS Code, Claude and Cursor. They cover the whole journey:

1. Assess readiness, blockers and dependencies.
2. Recommend a target, SKU and cost.
3. Plan prerequisites and remediation.
4. Migrate with BACPAC, or with Log Replay Service (LRS) and managed identity.
5. Validate with post-move checks and guided fixes.

You stay in control the whole way. The agent asks before it runs commands, and you approve its recommendation before anything moves.

An assessment you can act on

The assessment skills look at your estate through four lenses and turn discovery data into an Azure SQL recommendation you can defend.

Here's how that plays out. Ask GitHub Copilot in VS Code to assess a SQL Server 2016 instance for Azure SQL Database Hyperscale. The agent checks that the Azure CLI and its data migration extension are installed, runs the assessment and reports readiness database by database. A database that uses Service Broker gets flagged, since Azure SQL Database doesn't support it, along with the fix. You also get an HTML report that compares Hyperscale, Azure SQL Managed Instance and SQL Server on Azure VMs, with a monthly cost estimate and a SKU recommendation for each database.

A migration that picks up where it left off

Next, ask the agent to migrate one of those databases. It confirms SqlPackage is installed, checks that the source is online and builds a migration plan. The plan names the source and target servers and the method, an offline BACPAC export and import. It creates a new database and never overwrites an existing one, and the source isn't modified.

If the export fails, the agent saves a checkpoint and diagnostics. Once you fix the source, it retries only the failed step instead of starting over, then validates the result.

Explore the skills at aka.ms/microsoftsql-skills. For the full set of migration tools, including Azure Migrate, Azure Database Migration Service and migration through Azure Arc, see the database migration guide.

Microsoft SQL skills are in public preview. Preview features are provided without a service level agreement and aren't recommended for production workloads.

Put your database under source control with SQL projects

SDK-style SQL projects (Microsoft.Build.Sql) treat your database like any other codebase. A build produces a .dacpac you can deploy to new or existing databases across SQL Server, Azure SQL and SQL database in Fabric. You can work with SQL projects in VS Code, SSMS and Visual Studio.

• Cross-platform builds with plain dotnet build. Every .sql file in the folder is included by default.
• Code analysis on build with 14 default rules. Add custom rule sets as package references, and promote any rule to a build error.
• Package references for shared objects and cross-database references, so objects that rarely change don't slow down every build.
• Extract an existing database into a SQL project with SqlPackage, installed as a dotnet tool.
• Schema compare across databases, SQL projects and .dacpac files.

A typical pipeline looks like this:

1. A developer proposes a change in a pull request.
2. CI builds the project and runs code analysis.
3. The team approves and merges to main.
4. The pipeline calculates a deployment plan against staging or production.
5. Someone reviews the plan as a script or deploy report and approves the release.

GitHub environments and Azure DevOps approvals handle that last gate. SQL projects also help as AI agents write more of your code. Every database change lands as a reviewable diff, and changes from several agents or teammates merge like any other code.

Get started at aka.ms/sqlprojects or work through the SQL DevOps workshop.

What's new in the Microsoft SQL drivers

The Microsoft SQL drivers all shipped new releases, including several of the fixes the community asked for most.

New to the Python driver? Start with the mssql-python quickstart.

See it live at SQL Modernization Day

Amit Khandelwal's session, Migrate to Azure SQL. Then Build Something New., puts these tools together at 10:00 AM PT on Tuesday, October 20. He covers the path off on-premises SQL Server, then builds on Azure SQL Database with VS Code, GitHub Copilot, the latest drivers and the SQL MCP Server. Expect demos of the developer workflow, not only the migration.

SQL Modernization Day is a free livestream on Microsoft Reactor with eight sessions from the Microsoft SQL team. Register at aka.ms/SQLModernizationDay2026.