data-api-builder-auto-config

name	data-api-builder-auto-config
description	Use Data API Builder autoentities to discover and expose database objects by pattern instead of hand-listing every entity.
license	MIT

Data API Builder Auto Config

Use when

• A database has many tables/views and listing each entity by hand is tedious.
• New tables matching a naming convention should appear automatically on DAB restart.
• Bootstrapping a config for a predictable schema (e.g. all of dbo.%).

Workflow

1. Add an autoentities block with a named definition (e.g. "public-tables").
2. Set patterns.include (T-SQL LIKE syntax against schema.object) and optional patterns.exclude.
3. Optionally set patterns.name to template entity names (e.g. "{schema}_{object}").
4. Provide a shared template (rest/graphql/mcp/health/cache) and permissions for matched objects.
5. Restart DAB; matched objects are re-evaluated and exposed each startup.
6. Use dab auto-config-simulate --config <file> to preview matches; add --output <csv> for review.

Guardrails

• MSSQL only — autoentities are not supported on other providers today.
• Shared permissions apply to every matched object; never use anonymous:* in production.
• Always exclude staging, migration, and internal tables (e.g. %_staging, dbo.__migration%).
• Prefer explicit entities for sensitive objects that need bespoke rules; they take precedence over same-name autoentities matches.

Example

"autoentities": {
  "public-tables": {
    "patterns": { "include": [ "dbo.%" ], "exclude": [ "dbo.__migration%" ] },
    "template": { "rest": { "enabled": true }, "graphql": { "enabled": true } },
    "permissions": [ { "role": "authenticated", "actions": [ { "action": "read" } ] } ]
  }
}

Related skills

• data-api-builder-config
• data-api-builder-auth
• data-api-builder-cli

Microsoft Learn

• https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/data-api-builder/concept/config/auto-config