SQL Explainer Skill

Overview

Supports SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE, and other SQL statements. Choose brief, standard, or detailed explanation depth.

Live Test SQL Explainer Skill Skill →

The tool

Once your client is connected to the VerveKit server, this appears in its tool list as SQLExplainerSkill. It is read-only and open-world — it fetches and never mutates anything on your side — so most clients call it without asking you to confirm.

Tool call

{
  "name": "SQLExplainerSkill",
  "arguments": {
    "query": "SELECT * FROM users WHERE age > 18"
  }
}

You do not name the tool yourself; the model picks it. Asking about SELECT * FROM users WHERE age > 18 in the terms this skill covers is enough for it to reach for SQLExplainerSkill on its own — naming it explicitly also works, and is the way to force the call.

Connecting

One server URL covers every skill in the catalog, including this one. Authorization is OAuth: the client opens a browser once, and there is no key to paste into a config file.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vervekit": {
      "url": "https://api.vervekit.com/v1/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Per-client setup — Claude, Cursor, VS Code, ChatGPT — is on the MCP setup page.

Arguments

These are the properties on the tool's inputSchema, so a well-behaved client validates them before the call is made. Premium arguments are accepted on every plan but only take effect on plans that include them.

Argument	Type	Description
`query`Required	string	The SQL query to explain length 0–50000
`detail`OptionalPremium	string	Explanation detail level: brief, standard, or detailed default brief

What the model gets back

The result carries a structuredContent object matching the tool's declared outputSchema, so a client reads fields without parsing prose. status is "ok" and error is null on success; a null field means the value was not available for that input, not that the call failed.

Result

{
  "status": "ok",
  "error": null,
  "data": {
    "explanation": "This SQL query retrieves the names of users and the number of orders they have placed. It filters users who were created after January 1, 2024. The query then groups the results by user ID and only includes users who have placed more than 5 orders, finally ordering the results by the order count in descending order.",
    "operation": "SELECT",
    "tables": [
      "users",
      "orders"
    ],
    "complexity": "moderate"
  }
}

Response fields

Paths are relative to data. Premium fields are absent rather than zeroed on plans that do not include them, so check for presence instead of comparing to 0.

Field	Type	Example	Description
`explanation`	string	`This SQL query retrieves the names of users and the number of orders they have placed. It filters users who were created after January 1, 2024. The query then groups the results by user ID and only includes users who have placed more than 5 orders, finally ordering the results by the order count in descending order.`	Plain English explanation of what the SQL query does
`operation`	string	`SELECT`	The type of SQL operation performed by the query
`tables`	array	`["users","orders"]`	List of database tables referenced in the query
`complexity`Premium	string	`moderate`	The estimated complexity level of the SQL query

Failure modes

Errors come back as tool errors carrying a sentence the model can act on, not a bare status code. Error handling covers the full list.

Status	What it means
`400` / `422`	The arguments did not validate. The message names the offending one.
`401`	The OAuth session is invalid or expired — reconnect the server.
`403`	Blocked by a key restriction or an IP allow-list. Never a bad identity.
`404`	This skill is not part of VerveKit. Check the catalog.
`429`	Out of credits, or a brief rate limit. The message tells them apart.

A call costs 10 credits each time the tool actually runs; a model that reasons about the tool without calling it costs nothing.

Use cases

Learning SQL: Understand complex queries while learning database concepts
Code Reviews: Quickly grasp what SQL queries do during reviews
Documentation: Generate explanations for query documentation
Debugging: Understand legacy or unfamiliar queries

Other ways to use SQL Explainer Skill

Set up SQL Explainer Skill on VerveKit, or reach the same source a different way. Your VerveKit account and credits work on all of them — one key, one balance.

Call it as a REST APIOne HTTPS endpoint and an x-api-key header, with SDKs for Node, Python and .NET.APIVerve →Reference →

Google Sheets or ExcelA =VERVE() formula fills a column — no script, no export, recalculates in place.VerveSheets →Reference →

Ground an agent on itA cited, machine-checkable fact your model can't produce on its own.VerveContext →Reference →