Add comprehensive authentication documentation and multi-auth support

[Holger Reinhardt (hlgr360)]

Summary

This PR adds comprehensive authentication documentation and enhances the MCP server to support multiple authentication methods for connecting to MSSQL databases.

Changes Made

Documentation (README.md)

• Added detailed "Authentication Configuration" section with three supported methods:
  • Azure Active Directory (default) - for Azure SQL Database
  • SQL Server Authentication - for traditional SQL Server instances
  • Windows Authentication (NTLM) - for on-premises domain authentication
• Provided complete configuration examples for each authentication method
• Organized configuration parameters into "Common" and "Authentication-Specific" sections
• Updated all MCP configuration examples to be consistent
• Added environment variable documentation for all authentication methods

Code Enhancement (src/index.ts)

• Enhanced createSqlConfig() function to support multiple authentication methods
• Added configurable authentication via AUTH_METHOD environment variable
• Implemented proper token management and connection reuse for Azure AD
• Added support for SQL Server and Windows authentication methods
• Improved connection handling for different authentication types

Environment Variables Added

• AUTH_METHOD: Specifies authentication method (azure-ad, sql, windows)
• SQL_USERNAME & SQL_PASSWORD: For SQL Server authentication
• USERNAME, PASSWORD & DOMAIN: For Windows authentication

Benefits

• Provides flexibility for different deployment scenarios
• Maintains backward compatibility (defaults to Azure AD)
• Improves security by supporting appropriate auth methods per environment
• Clear documentation for easy setup and configuration

Testing

• Tested with MS SQL Server for SQL Server Auth
• Code structure supports SQL Server and Windows auth (requires appropriate environment for testing)

[maxtheobaldd]

thank you so much i was extremely confused

[Jakob Stadlhuber (JakobStadlhuber)]

please merge

[Copilot]

Pull Request Overview

This PR adds comprehensive authentication documentation and enhances the MCP server to support multiple authentication methods (Azure Active Directory, SQL Server Authentication, and Windows Authentication) for connecting to MSSQL databases.

• Enhanced authentication system to support three different methods with configurable selection
• Added comprehensive documentation with detailed configuration examples for each authentication method
• Implemented proper token management and connection reuse logic for different authentication types

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 5 comments.

File	Description
src/index.ts	Enhanced createSqlConfig() function to support multiple authentication methods and improved connection handling
README.md	Added detailed authentication configuration section with examples for all three supported methods

---

_{Tip: Customize your code reviews with copilot-instructions.md. Create the file or learn how to get started.}

[infobric-stanislav-kondriukov]

Holger Reinhardt (@hlgr360) please fix Copilot comments. I hope that after this person who maintain Azure-Samples will review and approve this change. We realy need this mcp to be able to connect to local instances of mssql server.

[laureanraybahala]

Hi Stuart Padley (@stuartpa) Arun Vijayraghavan (@AV25242)

Are there any plans of accepting this specific PR contribution? Could you please review?

Many thanks!

[Holger Reinhardt (hlgr360)]

I will see that I can do it this week

…

On 13. Sep 2025, at 08:58, infobric-stanislav-kondriukov ***@***.***> wrote: infobric-stanislav-kondriukov left a comment (Azure-Samples/SQL-AI-samples#57) <#57 (comment)> @hlgr360 <https://github.com/hlgr360> please fix Copilot comments. I hope that after this person who maintain Azure-Samples will review and approve this change. We realy need this mcp to be able to connect to local instances of mssql server. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#57 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABNRTXFN73XVF7IQU3E76AT3SO6BDAVCNFSM6AAAAACBHM2UH2VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZTEOBXG4YDGMJXGU>. You are receiving this because you were mentioned.

[Holger Reinhardt (hlgr360)]

All comments resolved

[Holger Reinhardt (hlgr360)]

Please merge pull request

[adminIngentis]

I did my part laureanraybahala :)

[adminIngentis]

Stuart Padley (@stuartpa) Arun Vijayraghavan (@AV25242), can you please review and merge?