# pg-aiguide
**AI-optimized PostgreSQL expertise for coding assistants**
pg-aiguide helps AI coding tools write dramatically better PostgreSQL code. It provides:
- **Semantic search** across the official PostgreSQL manual (version-aware)
- **AI-optimized “skills”** — curated, opinionated Postgres best practices used automatically by AI agents
- **Extension ecosystem docs**, starting with TimescaleDB, with more coming soon
Use it as:
- **Agent Skills** via `npx skills` — works with Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI, and 40+ other agents
- a **public MCP server** that can be used with any AI coding agent, or
- a **Claude Code plugin** optimized for use with Claude's native skill support.
## ⭐ Why pg-aiguide?
AI coding tools often generate Postgres code that is:
- outdated
- missing constraints and indexes
- unaware of modern PG features
- inconsistent with real-world best practices
pg-aiguide fixes that by giving AI agents deep, versioned PostgreSQL knowledge and proven patterns.
### See the difference
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/5a426381-09b5-4635-9050-f55422253a3d
<details>
<summary>Video Transcript </summary>
Prompt given to Claude Code:
> Please describe the schema you would create for an e-commerce website two times, first with the tiger mcp server disabled, then with the tiger mcp server enabled. For each time, write the schema to its own file in the current working directory. Then compare the two files and let me know which approach generated the better schema, using both qualitative and quantitative reasons. For this example, only use standard Postgres.
Result (summarized):
- **4× more constraints**
- **55% more indexes** (including partial/expression indexes)
- **PG17-recommended patterns**
- **Modern features** (`GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY`, `NULLS NOT DISTINCT`)
- **Cleaner naming & documentation**
Conclusion: _pg-aiguide produces more robust, performant, maintainable schemas._
</details>
## 🚀 Quickstart
### Agent Skills
Install curated PostgreSQL best-practice skills for your AI coding agent:
```bash
npx skills add timescale/pg-aiguide --skill postgres
```
Or install the schema exploration skill to investigate an existing PostgreSQL database:
```bash
npx skills add timescale/pg-aiguide --skill schema-exploration
```
Or pick individual skills interactively:
```bash
npx skills add timescale/pg-aiguide
```
Works with Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI, VS Code, and [40+ other agents](https://agentskills.io).
For even deeper PostgreSQL knowledge, also add the [MCP server](#mcp-server) to give your agent semantic search over the official PostgreSQL, TimescaleDB, and PostGIS manuals.
### MCP Server
For semantic search over PostgreSQL, TimescaleDB, and PostGIS documentation, add the **public MCP server**:
[https://mcp.tigerdata.com/docs](https://mcp.tigerdata.com/docs)
<details>
<summary>Manual MCP configuration using JSON</summary>
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"pg-aiguide": {
"url": "https://mcp.tigerdata.com/docs"
}
}
}
```
</details>
Or it can be used as a **Claude Code Plugin**:
```bash
claude plugin marketplace add timescale/pg-aiguide
claude plugin install pg@aiguide
```
#### Install by environment
[](https://cursor.com/en/install-mcp?name=pg-aiguide&config=eyJuYW1lIjoicGctYWlndWlkZSIsInR5cGUiOiJodHRwIiwidXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9tY3AudGlnZXJkYXRhLmNvbS9kb2NzIn0=)
[](https://vscode.dev/redirect/mcp/install?name=pg-aiguide&config=%7B%22type%22%3A%22http%22%2C%22url%22%3A%22https%3A%2F%2Fmcp.tigerdata.com%2Fdocs%22%7D)
[](https://insiders.vscode.dev/redirect/mcp/install?name=pg-aiguide&config=%7B%22type%22%3A%22http%22%2C%22url%22%3A%22https%3A%2F%2Fmcp.tigerdata.com%2Fdocs%22%7D&quality=insiders)
[](https://vs-open.link/mcp-install?%7B%22type%22%3A%22http%22%2C%22url%22%3A%22https%3A%2F%2Fmcp.tigerdata.com%2Fdocs%22%7D)
[](https://goose-docs.ai/extension?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmcp.tigerdata.com%2Fdocs&type=streamable_http&id=pg-aiguide&name=pg-aiguide&description=MCP%20Server%20for%20pg-aiguide)
[](https://lmstudio.ai/install-mcp?name=pg-aiguide&config=eyJuYW1lIjoicGctYWlndWlkZSIsInR5cGUiOiJodHRwIiwidXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9tY3AudGlnZXJkYXRhLmNvbS9kb2NzIn0=)
<details>
<summary>Claude Code</summary>
This repo serves as a claude code marketplace plugin. To install, run:
```bash
claude plugin marketplace add timescale/pg-aiguide
claude plugin install pg@aiguide
```
This plugin uses the skills available in the `skills` directory as well as our
publicly available MCP server endpoint hosted by TigerData for searching PostgreSQL documentation.
</details>
<details>
<summary> Codex </summary>
Run the following to add the MCP server to codex:
```bash
codex mcp add --url "https://mcp.tigerdata.com/docs" pg-aiguide
```
</details>
<details>
<summary> Cursor </summary>
One-click install:
[](https://cursor.com/en-US/install-mcp?name=pg-aiguide&config=eyJ1cmwiOiJodHRwczovL21jcC50aWdlcmRhdGEuY29tL2RvY3MifQ%3D%3D)
Or add the following to `.cursor/mcp.json`
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"pg-aiguide": {
"url": "https://mcp.tigerdata.com/docs"
}
}
}
```
</details>
<details>
<summary> Gemini CLI </summary>
Run the following to add the MCP server to Gemini CLI:
```bash
gemini mcp add -s user pg-aiguide "https://mcp.tigerdata.com/docs" -t http
```
</details>
<details>
<summary> OpenCode </summary>
Add the following to your global OpenCode config file (`~/.config/opencode/opencode.json`), or to a
project level `opencode.json`. See the [OpenCode config docs](https://opencode.ai/docs/config/) for
more about file locations, and the [MCP server docs](https://opencode.ai/docs/mcp-servers/) for more
about the `mcp` options.
```json
{
"$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
"mcp": {
"pg-aiguide": {
"type": "remote",
"url": "https://mcp.tigerdata.com/docs"
}
}
}
```
Add `use pg-aiguide` to your prompts to use the pg-aiguide tools.
</details>
<details>
<summary> Visual Studio </summary>
Click the button to install:
[](https://vs-open.link/mcp-install?%7B%22type%22%3A%22http%22%2C%22url%22%3A%22https%3A%2F%2Fmcp.tigerdata.com%2Fdocs%22%7D)
</details>
<details>
<summary> VS Code </summary>
Click the button to install:
[](https://vscode.dev/redirect/mcp/install?name=pg-aiguide&config=%7B%22type%22%3A%22http%22%2C%22url%22%3A%22https%3A%2F%2Fmcp.tigerdata.com%2Fdocs%22%7D)
Alternatively, run the following to add the MCP server to VS Code:
```bash
code --add-mcp '{"name":"pg-aiguide","type":"http","url":"https://mcp.tigerdata.com/docs"}'
```
</details>
<details>
<summary> VS Code Insiders </summary>
Click the button to install:
[](https://insiders.vscode.dev/redirect/mcp/install?name=pg-aiguide&config=%7B%22type%22%3A%22http%22%2C%22url%22%3A%22https%3A%2F%2Fmcp.tigerdata.com%2Fdocs%22%7D&quality=insiders)
Alternatively, run the following to add the MCP server to VS Code Insiders:
```bash
code-insiders --add-mcp '{"name":"pg-aiguide","type":"http","url":"https://mcp.tigerdata.com/docs"}'
```
</details>
<details>
<summary> Windsurf </summary>
Add the following to `~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json`
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"pg-aiguide": {
"serverUrl": "https://mcp.tigerdata.com/docs"
}
}
}
```
</details>
### 💡 Your First Prompt
Once installed, pg-aiguide can answer Postgres questions or design schemas.
**Simple schema example prompt**
> Create a Postgres table schema for storing usernames and unique email addresses.
**Complex schema example prompt**
> You are a senior software engineer. You are given a task to generate a Postgres schema for an IoT device company.
> The devices collect environmental data on a factory floor. The data includes temperature, humidity, pressure, as
> the main data points as well as other measurements that vary from device to device. Each device has a unique id
> and a human-readable name. We want to record the time the data was collected as well. Analysis for recent data
> includes finding outliers and anomalies based on measurements, as well as analyzing the data of particular devices for ad-hoc analysis. Historical data analysis includes analyzing the history of data for one device or getting statistics for all devices over long periods of time.
## Features
### Documentation Search (MCP Tools)
- [**`search_docs`**](API.md#search_docs)
Unified search tool supporting semantic (vector similarity) and keyword (BM25) search across multiple documentation sources:
- `postgres` - Official PostgreSQL manual, scoped by version
- `tiger` - Tiger Data's documentation (TimescaleDB and ecosystem)
- `postgis` - PostGIS spatial extension documentation
### Skills (AI-Optimized Best Practices)
- **[`view_skill`](API.md#view_skill)**
Exposes curated, opinionated PostgreSQL best-practice skills used automatically by AI coding assistants.
These skills provide guidance on:
- Exploring existing PostgreSQL schemas and objects
- Schema design
- Indexing strategies
- Data types
- Data integrity and constraints
- Naming conventions
- Performance tuning
- Modern PostgreSQL features
## 🔌 Ecosystem Documentation
Supported today:
- **TimescaleDB** (docs + skills)
- **PostGIS** (docs)
Coming soon:
- **pgvector**
We welcome contributions for additional extensions and tools.
## 🛠 Development
See [DEVELOPMENT.md](DEVELOPMENT.md) for:
- running the MCP server locally
- adding new skills
- adding new docs
## 🤝 Contributing
We welcome:
- new Postgres best-practice skills
- additional documentation corpora
- search quality improvements
- bug reports and feature ideas
## 📄 License
Apache 2.0