Analytics Helper

Help write and run database queries from the terminal.

Usage

/analytics "show user signups by month"    # Natural language query
/analytics explore users                    # Explore table schema
/analytics psql                             # Set database context
/analytics connect mydb                     # Connect to named database

Supported Databases

Type	CLI	Connection Source
PostgreSQL	psql	$DATABASE_URL or connection string
BigQuery	bq	gcloud auth (project from $GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT)
MySQL	mysql	$MYSQL_HOST, $MYSQL_USER, $MYSQL_PASSWORD
SQLite	sqlite3	File path

Commands

Natural Language Queries

Describe what you want in plain English:

/analytics "count users by country"
/analytics "show orders over $100 from last month"
/analytics "find duplicate emails in customers table"

I'll:

1. Generate appropriate SQL
2. Show it for your approval
3. Run via CLI
4. Format output as a table

Schema Exploration

/analytics explore              # List all tables
/analytics explore users        # Describe users table
/analytics explore users.email  # Show column details

PostgreSQL

psql -c "\dt"                   # List tables
psql -c "\d+ tablename"         # Describe table with details
psql -c "\di"                   # List indexes

BigQuery

bq ls dataset                   # List tables
bq show dataset.table           # Describe table
bq show --schema dataset.table  # Show schema only

MySQL

mysql -e "SHOW TABLES"
mysql -e "DESCRIBE tablename"
mysql -e "SHOW INDEX FROM tablename"

Database Context

Set which database you're working with:

/analytics psql              # Use PostgreSQL
/analytics bq                # Use BigQuery
/analytics mysql             # Use MySQL
/analytics sqlite mydb.db    # Use SQLite file

Context persists for the session.

Query Templates

Time Series

SELECT
  DATE_TRUNC('month', created_at) as month,
  COUNT(*) as count
FROM table
GROUP BY 1
ORDER BY 1;

Top N

SELECT column, COUNT(*) as count
FROM table
GROUP BY 1
ORDER BY 2 DESC
LIMIT 10;

Duplicates

SELECT email, COUNT(*) as count
FROM users
GROUP BY email
HAVING COUNT(*) > 1
ORDER BY count DESC;

Recent Records

SELECT *
FROM table
WHERE created_at >= NOW() - INTERVAL '7 days'
ORDER BY created_at DESC
LIMIT 100;

Join Pattern

SELECT
  u.name,
  COUNT(o.id) as order_count,
  SUM(o.total) as total_spent
FROM users u
LEFT JOIN orders o ON o.user_id = u.id
GROUP BY u.id, u.name
ORDER BY total_spent DESC;

Safety Rules

1. Show before run: Always display the generated SQL before execution
2. Read-only default: SELECT queries run immediately after approval
3. Mutation warning: UPDATE/DELETE require explicit confirmation
4. No destructive DDL: Never run DROP, TRUNCATE without explicit user request
5. Timeout: Queries timeout after 30 seconds by default
6. Row limit: Add LIMIT 1000 to unbounded SELECTs to prevent memory issues

Configuration

Create ~/.claude/skills/analytics/config.yaml:

# Named connections
connections:
  prod:
    type: psql
    url: postgres://user:pass@host:5432/dbname
  staging:
    type: psql
    url: postgres://user:pass@staging:5432/dbname
  analytics:
    type: bq
    project: my-gcp-project
    dataset: analytics

# Default connection
default: staging

# Query timeout (seconds)
timeout: 30

# Max rows to return
max_rows: 1000

# Save query history
history: true
history_file: ~/.claude/analytics_history.sql

Output Formatting

Results are formatted as markdown tables:

| id | name | created_at |
|----|------|------------|
| 1 | Alice | 2026-01-15 |
| 2 | Bob | 2026-01-16 |

(2 rows, 0.045s)

For large results, offer to:

• Export to CSV
• Paginate output
• Summarize with counts

Error Handling

• Connection failures: Show connection string (redacted) and suggest fixes
• Syntax errors: Show error position and suggest corrections
• Timeout: Offer to increase timeout or add LIMIT
• Permission denied: Suggest checking credentials or role