phpMyAdmin Ask AI

Adds an Ask AI button next to the existing Get auto-saved query button on the phpMyAdmin SQL tab. Click it, describe what you want in natural language, and the model returns a SQL query you can review and run.

No phpMyAdmin core files are modified. The plugin uses phpMyAdmin's official customFooterFile extension point.

Features

• One-click button on the SQL tab. Works at server, database, and table levels.
• Survives phpMyAdmin's internal AJAX navigation (clicking SQL from another tab, switching tables, etc.).
• Schema-aware prompts: sends the full database schema plus full SHOW CREATE TABLE and 3 sample rows for the currently open table, with a hint that the open table is just where the user happened to be.
• The model can return either SQL or a clarification question. If it asks a question, you reply inline and the conversation continues until you get SQL.
• Multi-provider settings UI with curated SQL-strong model dropdowns per provider, plus a Custom tab for anything else.
  • Anthropic Claude (native API)
  • OpenAI
  • OpenRouter
  • Groq
  • DeepSeek
  • Ollama (local) with auto-detection of installed models
  • Custom (any OpenAI-compatible or Anthropic-shaped endpoint - LM Studio, vLLM, Azure OpenAI, etc.)
• Per-provider profile storage. Switching tabs doesn't wipe your saved API keys.
• Generated SQL drops straight into phpMyAdmin's SQL editor (CodeMirror-aware).

Requirements

• phpMyAdmin 5.x (tested on 5.2.1)
• PHP 7.2.5+ with the curl extension enabled
• A web server (Apache, Nginx, etc.). The .htaccess uses Apache directives; on Nginx see Security for the equivalent location block.

Install

The plugin lives entirely inside its own subdirectory inside your phpMyAdmin install. Only one tiny stub file needs to sit at phpMyAdmin's root, because phpMyAdmin hardcodes the path <phpmyadmin>/config.footer.inc.php for its footer extension point.

1. Place the plugin folder

Clone or copy this repository so the folder phpMyAdmin-Ask-AI/ lives inside your phpMyAdmin install root.

<phpmyadmin>/
    index.php
    config.inc.php
    libraries/
    ...
    phpMyAdmin-Ask-AI/        <-- this folder
        ai_query.php
        main.php
        install/
            config.footer.inc.php
        .htaccess
        README.md

For XAMPP on Windows that's typically C:\xampp\phpMyAdmin\phpMyAdmin-Ask-AI\. On Linux it's commonly /usr/share/phpmyadmin/phpMyAdmin-Ask-AI/ or /var/www/html/phpmyadmin/phpMyAdmin-Ask-AI/.

2. Install the stub at phpMyAdmin's root

Copy phpMyAdmin-Ask-AI/install/config.footer.inc.php to your phpMyAdmin root (next to index.php and config.inc.php).

That's the entire install. Reload phpMyAdmin and the Ask AI button appears on any SQL editor view.

If you already have a config.footer.inc.php at the root

phpMyAdmin only loads one footer file. Don't overwrite an existing one - just append this line to it:

include __DIR__ . '/phpMyAdmin-Ask-AI/main.php';

Nginx instead of Apache

The bundled .htaccess denies web access to ai_query.config.json (which holds your API key). On Nginx, add an equivalent block to your phpMyAdmin server block:

location ~ /phpMyAdmin-Ask-AI/ai_query\.config\.json$ {
    deny all;
    return 403;
}

Usage

1. Open any database in phpMyAdmin and click the SQL tab.
2. Click Ask AI. On first run, the settings panel auto-opens.

3. Pick a provider tab, choose a model, paste an API key (Ollama needs no key), click Save settings.
4. Type what you want, e.g. "List the 10 customers with the most orders in the last 30 days", and click Generate SQL.
5. Review the SQL in the editor area. Edit it if needed, then click Insert into editor - the SQL drops into phpMyAdmin's main query editor.

6. Use phpMyAdmin's existing Go button to run it.

7. If the model needs more information, it returns a QUESTION: instead of SQL. Type your reply in the same prompt area and click Send reply. The full conversation is shown above. Click Start over to reset.

Configuration

API keys and provider settings are stored in phpMyAdmin-Ask-AI/ai_query.config.json. The file is created on first save, is gitignored, and is blocked from direct web access by the .htaccess in the same folder.

To switch providers, open the settings (gear icon in the modal header), pick another tab, and save. Each provider tab has its own saved profile, so flipping between providers doesn't lose your keys.

Ollama setup

The Ollama tab pre-fills http://localhost:11434/v1 as the base URL. Click Detect installed to see exactly what models you've pulled - the dropdown is replaced with only what's available on your machine.

If no models are installed yet, pull one in a terminal first:

ollama pull qwen2.5-coder:7b

Then click Detect installed again. Recommended SQL-strong local models: qwen2.5-coder:7b, sqlcoder, deepseek-coder-v2.

Security

• API key storage: keys are stored in plaintext in phpMyAdmin-Ask-AI/ai_query.config.json. The file is gitignored and .htaccess-blocked. On Linux the install applies 0600 permissions automatically; on Windows file ACLs are at the OS default.
• CSRF: the AJAX endpoint validates phpMyAdmin's session CSRF token on every request.
• Auth: the endpoint requires an active phpMyAdmin login - it bootstraps phpMyAdmin and inherits the existing session. Anonymous requests are rejected.
• Schema disclosure: the database schema and 3 sample rows from the currently open table are sent to your configured AI provider on every Generate. Be mindful for sensitive data; prefer a local provider (Ollama) for confidential schemas.
• SQL execution: the plugin never auto-executes queries. Generated SQL only runs when the user clicks phpMyAdmin's own Go button.

MySQL privileges and what the AI sees

The plugin always sends a request, degrading gracefully based on what the logged-in MySQL user is allowed to see. information_schema is privilege-filtered by the server, so the AI only ever receives schema for objects the user already has access to.

User's MySQL privileges	What the AI receives
Full DB access	Complete schema + DDL for the open table + 3 sample rows
Partial (some tables grant-visible)	Privilege-filtered schema (only visible tables) + DDL/samples if the open table is readable, silently skipped otherwise
Open table not readable	Filtered schema for other tables; DDL and sample rows for the open table are dropped (best effort)
Zero readable objects in the active DB	Context block carries a sentinel: (no tables visible to current MySQL user in 'X' - database may be empty, or user lacks privileges on its objects). Request is still sent.
Active database is actually empty	Same sentinel as above. Request is still sent; the model will typically reply with a QUESTION: asking for table details.

Updating

Pull the latest changes inside phpMyAdmin-Ask-AI/. Your ai_query.config.json is gitignored and left untouched. If the stub file at the phpMyAdmin root changes, copy the new one from install/config.footer.inc.php.

Uninstalling

1. Delete <phpmyadmin>/phpMyAdmin-Ask-AI/ entirely.
2. Delete <phpmyadmin>/config.footer.inc.php (or, if you'd merged it with your own, just remove the include __DIR__ . '/phpMyAdmin-Ask-AI/main.php'; line).

No phpMyAdmin core files were touched, so there's nothing else to revert.

Renaming the plugin folder

If you want a different folder name than phpMyAdmin-Ask-AI:

1. Rename the folder on disk.
2. Update the include __DIR__ . '/phpMyAdmin-Ask-AI/main.php'; line in your root-level config.footer.inc.php to match the new folder name.
3. Update the fetch('phpMyAdmin-Ask-AI/ai_query.php', ...) call inside the plugin's main.php to match.

How it works

• config.footer.inc.php (at root) is just a 3-line stub that includes the real file from this plugin's subfolder. phpMyAdmin reads this path from its hardcoded customFooterFile setting in libraries/vendor_config.php.
• phpMyAdmin-Ask-AI/main.php outputs a hidden Bootstrap modal plus an inline <script> that injects the Ask AI button into the SQL toolbar and wires up the modal handlers. A MutationObserver on document.body reattaches the button whenever phpMyAdmin AJAX-replaces #page_content.
• phpMyAdmin-Ask-AI/ai_query.php is the AJAX endpoint. It bootstraps phpMyAdmin via Common::run() so it inherits the session, CSRF token, and $dbi handle. Three actions: get_config, save_config, and generate. Schema collection uses INFORMATION_SCHEMA plus SHOW CREATE TABLE for the focused table. Provider calls go via cURL.
• phpMyAdmin-Ask-AI/.htaccess denies direct web access to ai_query.config.json in the same folder.

Troubleshooting

The button doesn't appear

• Check that the stub config.footer.inc.php exists at the phpMyAdmin root.
• Check that the phpMyAdmin-Ask-AI/ folder is a sibling of index.php.
• Open browser devtools console and look for [AI Query] messages.
• Confirm $cfg['customFooterFile'] hasn't been overridden in your config.inc.php.

The endpoint returns HTML instead of JSON

• Earlier versions could hit this when phpMyAdmin's ResponseRenderer tried to render a full page; the plugin now forces AJAX mode early. If you still see it, check Apache/PHP error log for fatal errors in phpMyAdmin-Ask-AI/ai_query.php.

"CSRF token mismatch" errors

• Your phpMyAdmin session probably expired. Reload phpMyAdmin and try again.

Ollama "cannot reach Ollama at ..."

• Verify Ollama is running: ollama list in a terminal.
• Verify the URL: curl http://localhost:11434/api/tags should return JSON.

Model returns prose alongside SQL

• The plugin extracts the first ```sql fenced block from the response. If the model refuses to fence its SQL and only emits prose, you'll see prose in the editor. Try a stronger model.

License

MIT. The plugin lives in phpMyAdmin/'s directory but is otherwise independent of phpMyAdmin's own license.