Since version 1.7, Data API builder ships an MCP server that turns entities from dab-config.json into tools AI agents can call. The roles and permissions already applied to REST and GraphQL access govern it too.
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Each book explains SQL MCP Server in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- Data API builder
Turns tables, views and stored procedures into secured REST, GraphQL and MCP endpoints (the last as SQL MCP Server). It's open source, you host it yourself, and a JSON file sets it up, permissions by role included.
- MCP
Model Context Protocol, an open standard for making tools and data available to models. To use one, a Foundry agent points at a remote MCP server, naming it with a server label and giving its URL.
- AGDLP
Nesting pattern: users go into global groups, which go into domain local groups, which receive the permissions. AGUDLP adds universal groups for forests with several domains.
- REST
Short for representational state transfer, the style of HTTP API that Azure services expose.
- Govern
The part of the Cloud Adoption Framework concerned with keeping cloud use under control by setting guardrails made of policies, procedures and tools. It runs continuously across the estate alongside Secure and Manage.
Related terms
- NL2SQL
Natural language to SQL: writing a query from a question asked in everyday words. Copilot tools do this; SQL MCP Server avoids it on purpose and instead builds its queries in a predictable way from the entities set up in its configuration.
- stdio
A way for MCP to work locally: the client launches the server as a process and they communicate via stdin and stdout. Data API builder's SQL MCP Server can run like this.