# dbcli/mssql-cli

A command-line client for SQL Server with auto-completion and syntax highlighting

Repository: https://github.com/dbcli/mssql-cli
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/mssql-cli
Language: Python
License: BSD-3-Clause
License Family: permissive
Topics: sqlserver, cli, python, database
Last push: 2024-02-26T20:08:44+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3247, "days_push": 919, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1412, forks 191 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:39.122708+00:00)

## What it is
mssql-cli is an interactive command-line query tool for SQL Server with auto-completion, syntax highlighting, and query history. It is part of the dbcli community and is being deprecated in favor of Microsoft's go-sqlcmd.

## Use cases
- query sql server from the terminal
- interactive t-sql client with autocomplete
- run ad-hoc queries against mssql database
- syntax highlighted sql repl for sql server
- execute sql server queries non-interactively in scripts
- browse database tables and columns from command line

## When to choose
- you want a rich interactive T-SQL REPL with auto-completion and syntax highlighting
- you need a cross-platform pip-installable SQL Server client
- you want query history and multi-line editing for SQL Server work

## When to avoid
- starting a new toolchain - the project is deprecated in favor of go-sqlcmd
- you need a GUI database client
- you work with databases other than SQL Server

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: maintenance
- function: database-driver, cli, developer-tools
- domain: databases, developer-tools
- platform: cli, python, windows, cross-platform
- tags: sql-server, tsql, autocomplete, syntax-highlighting, dbcli, deprecated, command-line, macos, linux

## Member repositories
- dbcli/mssql-cli (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:39.122708+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T04:38:20.032604+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/dbcli/mssql-cli (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:39.122708+00:00, sha 7833f4a893ae)
  - registry_pypi: https://pypi.org/pypi/mssql-cli/json (fetched 2026-08-29T11:51:30.035320+00:00, sha 40b3bbeb7f16)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.