Six steps to take before letting an AI agent query your production database

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An AI agent that answers plain-English questions from live data can save hours of analyst time, but it also means giving software that writes its own SQL access to your database. The article recommends six safeguards, starting with a dedicated read-only database role limited to a single schema. It advises exposing only curated views that omit personal data and documenting them with clear column names and comments to improve query accuracy. Further protections include statement timeouts, row limits, a read replica to keep analytics from slowing the application, and logging so incorrect answers can be traced. The examples are written for PostgreSQL 16, though the author says the principles apply to other databases such as MySQL and SQL Server.

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