Ppds query

Skill joshsmithxrm/ppds-skills/skills/ppds-query

PPDS Skills — knowledge layer teaching AI coding agents to drive the Power Platform Developer Suite

Install

npx -y skills add joshsmithxrm/ppds-skills --skill ppds-query

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Query and modify Microsoft Dataverse data with PPDS — SQL (transpiled to FetchXML) with joins, CTEs, aggregates and window functions, raw FetchXML, guarded DML, execution plans, TDS endpoint routing, and query history. Use when the user wants to read, filter, join, aggregate, count, or analyze Dataverse records, run INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE statements, inspect a query plan, convert SQL to FetchXML, or recall a previous query. Read ppds-core first for auth and safety rules.

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SKILL.md

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PPDS Query — SQL over Dataverse, with guardrails

ppds query sql parses real T-SQL and transpiles it to FetchXML (with client-side fallback for what FetchXML can't express). You almost never need to hand-write FetchXML. Exact flags for every command: references/cli-query.md. Dialect boundaries — what is and is not supported: references/sql-dialect.md.

Surface routing: CLI ppds query sql ↔ MCP ppds_query_sql; CLI ppds query fetch ↔ MCP ppds_query_fetch. Prefer the CLI in a terminal; prefer MCP when the host has no shell or the session should be protocol-level read-only (ppds-mcp-server --read-only). Explain and history are CLI-only.

Reading data

ppds query sql "SELECT TOP 10 name, revenue FROM account WHERE statecode = 0 ORDER BY revenue DESC"
ppds query sql "SELECT a.name, c.fullname FROM account a JOIN contact c ON c.parentcustomerid = a.accountid"
ppds query sql "SELECT ownerid, COUNT(*) AS total FROM account GROUP BY ownerid HAVING COUNT(*) > 10"
ppds query sql --file ./report.sql -f json     # SQL from file, JSON to stdout

Paging: --top, --page, --paging-cookie; --count adds total count.
Big SELECTs: route through the TDS endpoint with --tds when the query is compatible; on Query.TdsIncompatible rerun without --tds.
Cross-environment reads: SELECT COUNT(*) FROM [prod-org].[account] (bracket syntax, see dialect reference).

FetchXML fallback

For FetchXML-specific features or verbatim reuse of existing queries:

ppds query fetch "<fetch top='5'><entity name='account'><attribute name='name'/></entity></fetch>"
ppds query sql "SELECT name FROM account" --show-fetchxml   # see the transpilation

DML — the safety contract

INSERT / UPDATE / DELETE work through the same command and are guarded by the engine (details in references/sql-dialect.md): WHERE-less UPDATE/DELETE are blocked, >10,000 affected rows fail without --no-limit, and Production/Unknown environments force confirmation.

The agent loop for any DML:

ppds env who                                   # 1. name the target environment
ppds query sql "UPDATE contact SET jobtitle = 'Senior Developer' WHERE jobtitle = 'Developer'" --dry-run   # 2. preview plan + row estimate
# 3. show the user the preview and the environment; get approval
ppds query sql "UPDATE contact SET jobtitle = 'Senior Developer' WHERE jobtitle = 'Developer'" --confirm   # 4. execute

Exit code 11 means a confirmation prompt fired non-interactively — that is your cue for step 3, never a cue to retry with bypass flags. TRUNCATE is not SQL here; full-table clears route to ppds data truncate (ppds-data skill).

Explain, history, debugging

ppds query explain "SELECT name FROM account WHERE revenue > 1000000"  # plan without executing
ppds query sql "<sql>" --explain          # same, inline
ppds query history list                   # recall past queries
ppds query history execute <id>           # rerun one

Use --show-fetchxml when a query behaves unexpectedly — the transpiled FetchXML is the ground truth of what Dataverse was asked.

Common mistakes (do not invent these)

Wrong	Correct
`LIMIT 10`	`SELECT TOP 10 ...` or `--top 10`
`--limit 10` / `--max-rows 10`	`--top 10` (alias `-t`)
`ppds query sql --fetchxml "<fetch>...""`	`ppds query fetch "<fetch>..."`
`ppds sql "..."`	`ppds query sql "..."`
`--format json`	`-f json` / `--output-format Json`
`BEGIN TRAN ... COMMIT`	not supported — statements run independently
`--force` on `query sql`	the DML flags are `--confirm`, `--dry-run`, `--no-limit`

Skill boundaries

Need	Use instead
Bulk export/import/copy between environments, CSV load, truncate	ppds-data
Entity/attribute structure (what columns exist, types, option sets)	ppds-metadata (`ppds metadata attributes <entity>`) or MCP `ppds_data_schema`
Why a plugin fired / failed during my DML	ppds-plugins (trace recipe)
Auth, environment selection, error-code meanings	ppds-core