Build a SQL agent

In this tutorial, you will learn how to build an agent with minimal code that can answer questions about a SQL database.

At a high level, the agent will:

1. Fetch the available tables and schemas from the database
2. Decide which tables are relevant to the question
3. Generate a query based on the question and information from the schemas
4. Safety-check the query to limit the impact of LLM-generated queries
5. Execute the query and return the results
6. Correct mistakes surfaced by the database engine until the query is successful
7. Formulate a response based on the results

Building Q&A systems of SQL databases requires executing model-generated SQL queries. There are inherent risks in doing this. Make sure that your database connection permissions are always scoped as narrowly as possible for your agent’s needs. This will mitigate, though not eliminate, the risks of building a model-driven system.

Before you begin

1. Install dependencies:

   npm

   npm i langchain @langchain/core typeorm sqlite3 zod
   

2. Set up LangSmith to inspect what is happening inside your chain or agent. Then set the following environment variables:

   export LANGSMITH_TRACING="true"
   export LANGSMITH_API_KEY="..."
   

Build an agent with minimal code

1. Select an LLM

Select a model that supports tool-calling:

OpenAI

npm

npm i @langchain/openai

OPENAI_API_KEY=your-api-key

import { ChatOpenAI } from "@langchain/openai";

const llm = new ChatOpenAI({
  model: "gpt-4o-mini",
});

The output shown in the examples below used OpenAI.

2. Configure the database

You will be creating a SQLite database for this tutorial. SQLite is a lightweight database that is easy to set up and use. We will be loading the chinook database, which is a sample database that represents a digital media store.

For convenience, we have hosted the database (Chinook.db) on a public GCS bucket.

import fs from "node:fs/promises";
import path from "node:path";

const url = "https://storage.googleapis.com/benchmarks-artifacts/chinook/Chinook.db";
const localPath = path.resolve("Chinook.db");

async function resolveDbPath() {
  if (await fs.exists(localPath)) {
    return localPath;
  }
  const resp = await fetch(url);
  if (!resp.ok) throw new Error(`Failed to download DB. Status code: ${resp.status}`);
  const buf = Buffer.from(await resp.arrayBuffer());
  await fs.writeFile(localPath, buf);
  return localPath;
}

3. Add tools for database interactions

Use the SqlDatabase wrapper available in the langchain/sql_db to interact with the database. The wrapper provides a simple interface to execute SQL queries and fetch results:

import { SqlDatabase } from "langchain/sql_db";
import { DataSource } from "typeorm";

let db: SqlDatabase | undefined;
async function getDb() {
  if (!db) {
    const dbPath = await resolveDbFile();
    const datasource = new DataSource({ type: "sqlite", database: dbPath });
    db = await SqlDatabase.fromDataSourceParams({ appDataSource: datasource });
  }
  return db;
}

async function getSchema() {
  const db = await getDb();
  return await db.getTableInfo();
}

Show output

CREATE TABLE "Album" (
	"AlbumId" INTEGER NOT NULL,
	"Title" NVARCHAR(160) NOT NULL,
	"ArtistId" INTEGER NOT NULL,
	PRIMARY KEY ("AlbumId"),
	FOREIGN KEY("ArtistId") REFERENCES "Artist" ("ArtistId")
)

/*
3 rows from Album table:
AlbumId	Title	ArtistId
1	For Those About To Rock We Salute You	1
2	Balls to the Wall	2
3	Restless and Wild	2
*/


CREATE TABLE "Artist" (
	"ArtistId" INTEGER NOT NULL,
	"Name" NVARCHAR(120),
	PRIMARY KEY ("ArtistId")
)

/*
3 rows from Artist table:
ArtistId	Name
1	AC/DC
2	Accept
3	Aerosmith
*/


CREATE TABLE "Customer" (
	"CustomerId" INTEGER NOT NULL,
	"FirstName" NVARCHAR(40) NOT NULL,
	"LastName" NVARCHAR(20) NOT NULL,
	"Company" NVARCHAR(80),
	"Address" NVARCHAR(70),
	"City" NVARCHAR(40),
	"State" NVARCHAR(40),
	"Country" NVARCHAR(40),
	"PostalCode" NVARCHAR(10),
	"Phone" NVARCHAR(24),
	"Fax" NVARCHAR(24),
	"Email" NVARCHAR(60) NOT NULL,
	"SupportRepId" INTEGER,
	PRIMARY KEY ("CustomerId"),
	FOREIGN KEY("SupportRepId") REFERENCES "Employee" ("EmployeeId")
)

/*
3 rows from Customer table:
CustomerId	FirstName	LastName	Company	Address	City	State	Country	PostalCode	Phone	Fax	Email	SupportRepId
1	Luís	Gonçalves	Embraer - Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica S.A.	Av. Brigadeiro Faria Lima, 2170	São José dos Campos	SP	Brazil	12227-000	[phone]	[phone]	[e-mail]	3
2	Leonie	Köhler	None	Theodor-Heuss-Straße 34	Stuttgart	None	Germany	70174	[phone]	None	[e-mail]	5
3	François	Tremblay	None	1498 rue Bélanger	Montréal	QC	Canada	H2G 1A7	[phone]	None	[e-mail]	3
*/


CREATE TABLE "Employee" (
	"EmployeeId" INTEGER NOT NULL,
	"LastName" NVARCHAR(20) NOT NULL,
	"FirstName" NVARCHAR(20) NOT NULL,
	"Title" NVARCHAR(30),
	"ReportsTo" INTEGER,
	"BirthDate" DATETIME,
	"HireDate" DATETIME,
	"Address" NVARCHAR(70),
	"City" NVARCHAR(40),
	"State" NVARCHAR(40),
	"Country" NVARCHAR(40),
	"PostalCode" NVARCHAR(10),
	"Phone" NVARCHAR(24),
	"Fax" NVARCHAR(24),
	"Email" NVARCHAR(60),
	PRIMARY KEY ("EmployeeId"),
	FOREIGN KEY("ReportsTo") REFERENCES "Employee" ("EmployeeId")
)

/*
3 rows from Employee table:
EmployeeId	LastName	FirstName	Title	ReportsTo	BirthDate	HireDate	Address	City	State	Country	PostalCode	Phone	Fax	Email
1	Adams	Andrew	General Manager	None	1962-02-18 00:00:00	2002-08-14 00:00:00	11120 Jasper Ave NW	Edmonton	AB	Canada	T5K 2N1	[phone]	[phone]	[e-mail]
2	Edwards	Nancy	Sales Manager	1	1958-12-08 00:00:00	2002-05-01 00:00:00	825 8 Ave SW	Calgary	AB	Canada	T2P 2T3	[phone]	[phone]	[e-mail]
3	Peacock	Jane	Sales Support Agent	2	1973-08-29 00:00:00	2002-04-01 00:00:00	1111 6 Ave SW	Calgary	AB	Canada	T2P 5M5	[phone]	[phone]	[e-mail]
*/


CREATE TABLE "Genre" (
	"GenreId" INTEGER NOT NULL,
	"Name" NVARCHAR(120),
	PRIMARY KEY ("GenreId")
)

/*
3 rows from Genre table:
GenreId	Name
1	Rock
2	Jazz
3	Metal
*/


CREATE TABLE "Invoice" (
	"InvoiceId" INTEGER NOT NULL,
	"CustomerId" INTEGER NOT NULL,
	"InvoiceDate" DATETIME NOT NULL,
	"BillingAddress" NVARCHAR(70),
	"BillingCity" NVARCHAR(40),
	"BillingState" NVARCHAR(40),
	"BillingCountry" NVARCHAR(40),
	"BillingPostalCode" NVARCHAR(10),
	"Total" NUMERIC(10, 2) NOT NULL,
	PRIMARY KEY ("InvoiceId"),
	FOREIGN KEY("CustomerId") REFERENCES "Customer" ("CustomerId")
)

/*
3 rows from Invoice table:
InvoiceId	CustomerId	InvoiceDate	BillingAddress	BillingCity	BillingState	BillingCountry	BillingPostalCode	Total
1	2	2009-01-01 00:00:00	Theodor-Heuss-Straße 34	Stuttgart	None	Germany	70174	1.98
2	4	2009-01-02 00:00:00	Ullevålsveien 14	Oslo	None	Norway	0171	3.96
3	8	2009-01-03 00:00:00	Grétrystraat 63	Brussels	None	Belgium	1000	5.94
*/


CREATE TABLE "InvoiceLine" (
	"InvoiceLineId" INTEGER NOT NULL,
	"InvoiceId" INTEGER NOT NULL,
	"TrackId" INTEGER NOT NULL,
	"UnitPrice" NUMERIC(10, 2) NOT NULL,
	"Quantity" INTEGER NOT NULL,
	PRIMARY KEY ("InvoiceLineId"),
	FOREIGN KEY("TrackId") REFERENCES "Track" ("TrackId"),
	FOREIGN KEY("InvoiceId") REFERENCES "Invoice" ("InvoiceId")
)

/*
3 rows from InvoiceLine table:
InvoiceLineId	InvoiceId	TrackId	UnitPrice	Quantity
1	1	2	0.99	1
2	1	4	0.99	1
3	2	6	0.99	1
*/


CREATE TABLE "MediaType" (
	"MediaTypeId" INTEGER NOT NULL,
	"Name" NVARCHAR(120),
	PRIMARY KEY ("MediaTypeId")
)

/*
3 rows from MediaType table:
MediaTypeId	Name
1	MPEG audio file
2	Protected AAC audio file
3	Protected MPEG-4 video file
*/


CREATE TABLE "Playlist" (
	"PlaylistId" INTEGER NOT NULL,
	"Name" NVARCHAR(120),
	PRIMARY KEY ("PlaylistId")
)

/*
3 rows from Playlist table:
PlaylistId	Name
1	Music
2	Movies
3	TV Shows
*/


CREATE TABLE "PlaylistTrack" (
	"PlaylistId" INTEGER NOT NULL,
	"TrackId" INTEGER NOT NULL,
	PRIMARY KEY ("PlaylistId", "TrackId"),
	FOREIGN KEY("TrackId") REFERENCES "Track" ("TrackId"),
	FOREIGN KEY("PlaylistId") REFERENCES "Playlist" ("PlaylistId")
)

/*
3 rows from PlaylistTrack table:
PlaylistId	TrackId
1	3402
1	3389
1	3390
*/


CREATE TABLE "Track" (
	"TrackId" INTEGER NOT NULL,
	"Name" NVARCHAR(200) NOT NULL,
	"AlbumId" INTEGER,
	"MediaTypeId" INTEGER NOT NULL,
	"GenreId" INTEGER,
	"Composer" NVARCHAR(220),
	"Milliseconds" INTEGER NOT NULL,
	"Bytes" INTEGER,
	"UnitPrice" NUMERIC(10, 2) NOT NULL,
	PRIMARY KEY ("TrackId"),
	FOREIGN KEY("MediaTypeId") REFERENCES "MediaType" ("MediaTypeId"),
	FOREIGN KEY("GenreId") REFERENCES "Genre" ("GenreId"),
	FOREIGN KEY("AlbumId") REFERENCES "Album" ("AlbumId")
)

/*
3 rows from Track table:
TrackId	Name	AlbumId	MediaTypeId	GenreId	Composer	Milliseconds	Bytes	UnitPrice
1	For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)	1	1	1	Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Brian Johnson	343719	11170334	0.99
2	Balls to the Wall	2	2	1	None	342562	5510424	0.99
3	Fast As a Shark	3	2	1	F. Baltes, S. Kaufman, U. Dirkscneider & W. Hoffman	230619	3990994	0.99
*/

4. Execute SQL queries

Before running the command, do a check to check the LLM generated command in _safe_sql:

const DENY_RE = /\b(INSERT|UPDATE|DELETE|ALTER|DROP|CREATE|REPLACE|TRUNCATE)\b/i;
const HAS_LIMIT_TAIL_RE = /\blimit\b\s+\d+(\s*,\s*\d+)?\s*;?\s*$/i;

function sanitizeSqlQuery(q) {
  let query = String(q ?? "").trim();

  // block multiple statements (allow one optional trailing ;)
  const semis = [...query].filter((c) => c === ";").length;
  if (semis > 1 || (query.endsWith(";") && query.slice(0, -1).includes(";"))) {
    throw new Error("multiple statements are not allowed.")
  }
  query = query.replace(/;+\s*$/g, "").trim();

  // read-only gate
  if (!query.toLowerCase().startsWith("select")) {
    throw new Error("Only SELECT statements are allowed")
  }
  if (DENY_RE.test(query)) {
    throw new Error("DML/DDL detected. Only read-only queries are permitted.")
  }

  // append LIMIT only if not already present
  if (!HAS_LIMIT_TAIL_RE.test(query)) {
    query += " LIMIT 5";
  }
  return query;
}

Then, use run from SQLDatabase to execute commands with an execute_sql tool:

import { tool } from "langchain"
import { z } from "zod";

const executeSql = tool(
  async ({ query }) => {
    const q = sanitizeSqlQuery(query);
    try {
      const result = await db.run(q);
      return typeof result === "string" ? result : JSON.stringify(result, null, 2);
    } catch (e) {
      throw new Error(e?.message ?? String(e))
    }
  },
  {
    name: "execute_sql",
    description: "Execute a READ-ONLY SQLite SELECT query and return results.",
    schema: z.object({
      query: z.string().describe("SQLite SELECT query to execute (read-only)."),
    }),
  }
);

5. Use createAgent

Use createAgent to build a ReAct agent with minimal code. The agent will interpret the request and generate a SQL command. The tools will check the command for safety and then try to execute the command. If the command has an error, the error message is returned to the model. The model can then examine the original request and the new error message and generate a new command. This can continue until the LLM generates the command successfully or reaches an end count. This pattern of providing a model with feedback - error messages in this case - is very powerful.

Initialize the agent with a descriptive system prompt to customize its behavior:

import { SystemMessage } from "langchain";

const getSystemPrompt = async () => new SystemMessage(`You are a careful SQLite analyst.

Authoritative schema (do not invent columns/tables):
${await getSchema()}

Rules:
- Think step-by-step.
- When you need data, call the tool \`execute_sql\` with ONE SELECT query.
- Read-only only; no INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE/ALTER/DROP/CREATE/REPLACE/TRUNCATE.
- Limit to 5 rows unless user explicitly asks otherwise.
- If the tool returns 'Error:', revise the SQL and try again.
- Limit the number of attempts to 5.
- If you are not successful after 5 attempts, return a note to the user.
- Prefer explicit column lists; avoid SELECT *.
`);

Now, create an agent with the model, tools, and prompt:

import { createAgent } from "langchain";

const agent = createAgent({
  model: "openai:gpt-5",
  tools: [executeSql],
  prompt: getSystemPrompt,
});

5. Run the agent

Run the agent on a sample query and observe its behavior:

const question = "Which genre, on average, has the longest tracks?";
const stream = await agent.stream(
  { messages: [{ role: "user", content: question }] },
  { streamMode: "values" }
);
for await (const step of stream) {
  const message = step.messages.at(-1);
  console.log(`${message.role}: ${JSON.stringify(message.content, null, 2)}`);
}

human: Which genre, on average, has the longest tracks?
ai:
tool: [{"Genre":"Sci Fi & Fantasy","AvgMilliseconds":2911783.0384615385}]
ai: Sci Fi & Fantasy — average track length ≈ 48.5 minutes (about 2,911,783 ms).

The agent correctly wrote a query, checked the query, and ran it to inform its final response.

You can inspect all aspects of the above run, including steps taken, tools invoked, what prompts were seen by the LLM, and more in the LangSmith trace.

(Optional) Use Studio

Studio provides a “client side” loop as well as memory so you can run this as a chat interface and query the database. You can ask questions like “Tell me the scheme of the database” or “Show me the invoices for the 5 top customers”. You will see the SQL command that is generated and the resulting output. The details of how to get that started are below.

Run your agent in Studio

In addition to the previously mentioned packages, you will need to:

npm i -g langgraph-cli@latest

In directory you will run in, you will need a langgraph.json file with the following contents:

{
  "dependencies": ["."],
  "graphs": {
      "agent": "./sqlAgent.ts:agent",
      "graph": "./sqlAgentLanggraph.ts:graph"
  },
  "env": ".env"
}

import fs from "node:fs/promises";
import path from "node:path";
import { SqlDatabase } from "langchain/sql_db";
import { DataSource } from "typeorm";
import { SystemMessage, createAgent, tool } from "langchain"
import { z } from "zod";

const url = "https://storage.googleapis.com/benchmarks-artifacts/chinook/Chinook.db";
const localPath = path.resolve("Chinook.db");

async function resolveDbPath() {
  if (await fs.exists(localPath)) {
    return localPath;
  }
  const resp = await fetch(url);
  if (!resp.ok) throw new Error(`Failed to download DB. Status code: ${resp.status}`);
  const buf = Buffer.from(await resp.arrayBuffer());
  await fs.writeFile(localPath, buf);
  return localPath;
}

let db: SqlDatabase | undefined;
async function getDb() {
  if (!db) {
    const dbPath = await resolveDbPath();
    const datasource = new DataSource({ type: "sqlite", database: dbPath });
    db = await SqlDatabase.fromDataSourceParams({ appDataSource: datasource });
  }
  return db;
}

async function getSchema() {
  const db = await getDb();
  return await db.getTableInfo();
}

const DENY_RE = /\b(INSERT|UPDATE|DELETE|ALTER|DROP|CREATE|REPLACE|TRUNCATE)\b/i;
const HAS_LIMIT_TAIL_RE = /\blimit\b\s+\d+(\s*,\s*\d+)?\s*;?\s*$/i;

function sanitizeSqlQuery(q) {
  let query = String(q ?? "").trim();

  // block multiple statements (allow one optional trailing ;)
  const semis = [...query].filter((c) => c === ";").length;
  if (semis > 1 || (query.endsWith(";") && query.slice(0, -1).includes(";"))) {
    throw new Error("multiple statements are not allowed.")
  }
  query = query.replace(/;+\s*$/g, "").trim();

  // read-only gate
  if (!query.toLowerCase().startsWith("select")) {
    throw new Error("Only SELECT statements are allowed")
  }
  if (DENY_RE.test(query)) {
    throw new Error("DML/DDL detected. Only read-only queries are permitted.")
  }

  // append LIMIT only if not already present
  if (!HAS_LIMIT_TAIL_RE.test(query)) {
    query += " LIMIT 5";
  }
  return query;
}

const executeSql = tool(
  async ({ query }) => {
    const q = sanitizeSqlQuery(query);
    try {
      const result = await db.run(q);
      return typeof result === "string" ? result : JSON.stringify(result, null, 2);
    } catch (e) {
      throw new Error(e?.message ?? String(e))
    }
  },
  {
    name: "execute_sql",
    description: "Execute a READ-ONLY SQLite SELECT query and return results.",
    schema: z.object({
      query: z.string().describe("SQLite SELECT query to execute (read-only)."),
    }),
  }
);

const getSystemPrompt = async () => new SystemMessage(`You are a careful SQLite analyst.

Authoritative schema (do not invent columns/tables):
${await getSchema()}

Rules:
- Think step-by-step.
- When you need data, call the tool \`execute_sql\` with ONE SELECT query.
- Read-only only; no INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE/ALTER/DROP/CREATE/REPLACE/TRUNCATE.
- Limit to 5 rows unless user explicitly asks otherwise.
- If the tool returns 'Error:', revise the SQL and try again.
- Limit the number of attempts to 5.
- If you are not successful after 5 attempts, return a note to the user.
- Prefer explicit column lists; avoid SELECT *.
`);

export const agent = createAgent({
  model: "openai:gpt-5",
  tools: [executeSql],
  prompt: getSystemPrompt,
});

Next steps

Check out the Evaluate a graph guide for evaluating LangGraph applications, including SQL agents like this one, using LangSmith.