# BigQuery agent skills

BigQuery provides agent skills that can help your agent accomplish
common tasks. Agents that use these skills can then accomplish tasks with
higher fidelity than an agent without the skills.

Agent skills are a standardized way to give AI agents specific knowledge and
instructions they can reuse. They contain resources like scripts,
reference materials, and templates that help the agent complete tasks accurately
and reliably. For more information about skills, see [Agent Skills
Overview](https://agentskills.io/home).

## The BigQuery basics skill

The BigQuery basics skill, [`bigquery-basics`](https://github.com/google/skills/tree/main/skills/cloud/bigquery-basics), contains instructions for
completing basic tasks in BigQuery, such as creating a dataset or running a query.

### Install the BigQuery basics skill

To install the `bigquery-basics` skill, run the following command in your
agentic client or terminal:

    npx skills add google/skills --skill bigquery-basics

### BigQuery basics reference files

The BigQuery basics agent skill includes several reference files that
provide technical depth. These references let the skill execute functions
or commands accurately by providing specific context to the underlying model. By
default, the BigQuery basics skill includes the following reference
files:

- [bq command-line tool usage](https://github.com/google/skills/blob/main/skills/cloud/bigquery-basics/references/cli-usage.md)
- [Cloud Client Libraries usage](https://github.com/google/skills/blob/main/skills/cloud/bigquery-basics/references/client-library-usage.md)
- [Core concepts](https://github.com/google/skills/blob/main/skills/cloud/bigquery-basics/references/core-concepts.md)
- [Infrastructure as code (IAC) usage](https://github.com/google/skills/blob/main/skills/cloud/bigquery-basics/references/iac-usage.md)
- [Identity and Access Management (IAM) security](https://github.com/google/skills/blob/main/skills/cloud/bigquery-basics/references/iam-security.md)
- [Model Context Protocol (MCP) usage](https://github.com/google/skills/blob/main/skills/cloud/bigquery-basics/references/mcp-usage.md)

## The BigQuery AI \& ML skill

The BigQuery AI \& ML skill, [`bigquery-ai-ml`](https://github.com/google/skills/tree/main/skills/cloud/bigquery-ai-ml), contains instructions
for completing data science, machine learning, and AI tasks in BigQuery.

### Install the BigQuery AI \& ML skill

To install the `bigquery-ai-ml` skill, run the following command in your
agentic client or terminal:

    npx skills add google/skills --skill bigquery-ai-ml

### BigQuery AI \& ML reference files

The BigQuery AI \& ML agent skill includes reference files that
provide technical depth. By default, the BigQuery AI \& ML skill includes the
following reference files:

- [`AI.DETECT_ANOMALIES`](https://github.com/google/skills/blob/main/skills/cloud/bigquery-ai-ml/references/ai_detect_anomalies.md)
- [`AI.FORECAST`](https://github.com/google/skills/blob/main/skills/cloud/bigquery-ai-ml/references/ai_forecast.md)
- [`AI.GENERATE`](https://github.com/google/skills/blob/main/skills/cloud/bigquery-ai-ml/references/ai_generate.md)

## Ground your agent in official documentation

The [Developer Knowledge MCP server](https://developers.google.com/knowledge/mcp) is a remote server that searches
current Google developer documentation, including the BigQuery
documentation on `docs.cloud.google.com`, so your agent can verify SQL syntax,
function signatures, and bq command-line tool flags against the published documentation
rather than relying only on its training data. It provides the
`search_documents`, `get_documents`, and `answer_query` tools and complements
the BigQuery skills: the `bigquery-basics` skill instructs
your agent to search the official documentation when it needs product
information that isn't in its reference files, and the Developer Knowledge MCP
server gives your agent that capability.

To add it to your agent, follow
[Configure your IDE or coding agent](https://developers.google.com/knowledge/mcp#configure-ide) and select your client. To teach your
agent when to search the documentation and which Developer Knowledge tool to
use, also install the companion
[`retrieving-developer-knowledge` agent skill](https://developers.google.com/knowledge/mcp#agent-skill) alongside the
BigQuery skills.

With both installed, your agent can combine a documentation lookup with a
BigQuery task. For example:

- "Look up the current syntax for `AI.FORECAST` in the BigQuery documentation, then write a query that forecasts the next 30 days of <var translate="no">`COLUMN_NAME`</var> in <var translate="no">`PROJECT_ID`</var>.<var translate="no">`DATASET_ID`</var>.<var translate="no">`TABLE_ID`</var>."

## What's next

- To view the BigQuery basics `SKILL.md` file, see [`SKILL.md` (basics)](https://github.com/google/skills/blob/main/skills/cloud/bigquery-basics/SKILL.md).
- To view the BigQuery AI \& ML `SKILL.md` file, see [`SKILL.md` (AI \& ML)](https://github.com/google/skills/blob/main/skills/cloud/bigquery-ai-ml/SKILL.md).
- To learn more about agent skills, see [Agent Skills Overview](https://agentskills.io/home).
- To view `SKILL.md` files for other Google Cloud products, see [`google/skills`](https://github.com/google/skills#agent-skills).
- To learn how your agent can search official Google developer documentation, refer to the [Developer Knowledge API overview](https://developers.google.com/knowledge).