azuresql-db-from-sql-server

A migration guide for replacing a local SQL Server Docker setup with the local Azure SQL Database container. SQL Server and Azure SQL Database are related products but use different database engines and behaviors.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when a Dockerfile, Compose file, or script uses the SQL Server image and the project is intended to run on Azure SQL Database.
Why use it?
It helps local development match Azure SQL Database instead of testing against a different engine with different rules.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/microsoft/azure-sql-database-container/azuresql-db-from-sql-server
Any agent
npx skills add microsoft/azure-sql-database-container --skill azuresql-db-from-sql-server
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/microsoft/azure-sql-database-container

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 200 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,816 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00200 $0.02816
Opus 5 $0.00100 $0.01408
Sonnet 5 $0.00040 $0.00563
Haiku 4.5 $0.00020 $0.00282

Measured 2d ago against content hash 9c7760a29d4a, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

azuresql-db-from-sql-server scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

skills/azuresql-db-from-sql-server/SKILL.md · 194 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 194 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Migrate from the SQL Server image to the Azure SQL Database container

This skill converts an existing local SQL Server setup (the SQL Server image mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server) into the Azure SQL Database container so local dev matches Azure SQL Database behavior. The two are not the same engine:

SQL Server image Azure SQL Database container
Image mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server sqldbpreview-dpgaeqhmgphzd4bk.azurecr.io/azure-sql/db-dev:latest
SERVERPROPERTY('EngineEdition') 2/3/4/8 5
SERVERPROPERTY('Edition') e.g. 'Developer Edition' 'SQL Azure'
DB model one instance, many DBs, USE works master for provisioning only; user DB for work; a user-database session returns Msg 40508 on USE, exactly as in the cloud; a master connection is a provisioning session where the filter is not enforced

If a project is using the SQL Server image but wants Azure-faithful local dev, stop and switch to the container. This skill is self-contained; for full container detail see the azuresql-db-container skill.

When to use

  • The project Dockerfile, compose file, or run script references mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server or mssql/server.
  • There is an sqlcmd plus SA password setup, or someone says "SQL Server in Docker" / "a local mssql container".
  • The user asks for "SQL Server locally" but actually targets Azure SQL Database.

Migration steps

1. Detect SQL Server usage

Search the repo for the SQL Server image and the patterns that move with it:

grep -rniE 'mcr\.microsoft\.com/mssql/server|mssql/server|ACCEPT_EULA|MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD|SA_PASSWORD|sqlcmd|Server=localhost,1433|Database=master' . 2>/dev/null

Anything that hits is a candidate for rewrite below.

2. Sign in to the preview registry

The image is in a private preview registry; sign in once with the shared pull-only credentials provided when you sign up at https://aka.ms/sqldbcontainerpreview-signup (they may be rotated during the preview):

Read the full file on GitHub · 194 lines

Files

What ships with it

2 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 194 lines · 200 tokens per session scan A 9c7760a29d4a

Subscribe to this mod's changes

azuresql-db-from-sql-server is a skill published in the GitHub repository microsoft/azure-sql-database-container (16 stars, last pushed yesterday), licensed MIT. It adds 200 tokens to every session and 2,816 once invoked, about $0.0010 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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