NovaSql

NovaSql is a fast SQL Server client for developers: a server view with filters, a Monaco editor with a linter, execution plans with concrete suggestions, schema compare and AI assistance — via Claude or entirely local. This is how it all works.

Setting up

Getting started

First stepsNovaSql is a client for Microsoft SQL Server and Azure SQL. Your first query runs within five minutes. InstallationNovaSql comes in three forms. All three contain the same program and share your data.

Configuration

Setting up connectionsA connection describes a SQL Server and how to sign in to it. Connections are managed via Manage connections in the sidebar or under Settings → Connections. Setting up AINovaSql can have an AI improve your queries (see Improving queries with AI). There are three providers to choose from, under Settings → General → AI provider. SettingsThe gear icon at the top right opens the settings. They have three tabs: General, Connections and Über NovaSql (About). Save stores your changes.

Background

Privacy and your dataNovaSql works locally. There is no account, no telemetry and no usage statistics. TroubleshootingThe most common problems and what helps.

Working with NovaSql

Queries

Server view and object explorerThe sidebar on the left shows the open connections, each with every database on its server below it. The query editorThe editor is based on Monaco, the editor of Visual Studio Code. Every query lives in its own tab. ResultsThe results of the last run appear below the editor. Keyboard shortcutsShortcut

Analysis

Execution plansAn execution plan shows how SQL Server processes a query: which indexes it uses, where it reads whole tables, where rows get sorted. NovaSql displays plans graphically and tells… IO and time statisticsNovaSql runs every query with SET STATISTICS IO, TIME ON. Instead of the long text output this produces in Management Studio, the Statistics tab presents the numbers as tables. The T-SQL linterWhile you type, NovaSql checks the query and underlines places that are dangerous or slow, before you even press F5. Hovering over an underline shows the explanation. Improving queries with AINovaSql can have an AI rework a query: more readable, faster, more robust. Which AI does it, Claude in the cloud or a local model, is set up in Setting up AI.

Schema and workflow

Creating and changing objectsThe + on a group in the explorer, or right-clicking a database, opens a commented template in a new tab: for views, procedures, table-valued and scalar-valued functions, aggregate… Schema CompareSchema Compare compares two databases, say development and production, and generates a script that brings one in line with the other. Schema Compare in the header opens it. Source control and change trackingSource Control in the header opens a side panel with two tools: change tracking for the database and a Git integration for script folders. Both work with the connection of the… Database testsNovaSql runs tests that live in the database as stored procedures. Tests in the header opens the test explorer; it works with the connection of the active tab. Query historyNovaSql remembers every query it runs: server, database, SQL, duration, row count and, if any, the error. So even last week's query that was never saved can be found again.