By name: querying-the-database
description: "Query the local or production database from the CLI via the agent:db artisan command. Activates when the user asks to inspect, count, look up, or run a query against the database; asks 'how many X', 'what's in prod', 'check the prod DB', 'query the database'; or mentions production data, the prod database, or running SQL."
metadata:
author: whisper-money
Querying the Database
When to Apply
Activate this skill whenever you need to read data from the database to answer a
question — especially anything about production data. Prefer this command over
the tinker, database-query, or database-schema Boost tools when the user asks
about prod, since those default to the local connection.
The agent:db command
Runs a query (SELECT, SHOW, DESCRIBE, DELETE, etc.) and prints the result.
php artisan agent:db "<query>"
Options
--format=json(default) — pretty-printed JSON, best for parsing the result yourself.--format=table— classic console table, best when showing the result to the user.--prod— run against the production database (theprodconnection backed byPROD_DB_URL). Without this flag the query runs against the local DB.
Examples
# Local, JSON (default)
php artisan agent:db "select id, email from users limit 5"
# Local, human-readable table
php artisan agent:db --format=table "select count(*) as total from transactions"
# Production
php artisan agent:db --prod "select count(*) from users"
php artisan agent:db --prod --format=table "select status, count(*) from subscriptions group by status"
Guidelines
- Be careful with
--prod: this is live customer data. Only run prod queries the user explicitly asked for, keep them scoped (addLIMIT, filter by id), and never dump large or sensitive datasets unprompted. This app is privacy-first. - Use
--format=jsonwhen you need to read the values to continue working; use--format=tablewhen presenting results back to the user. - Inspect schema first with
database-schema(local) when you're unsure of column names before writing a query.