Large Language Models (LLMs) are transforming database interaction paradigms, evolving from simple query translators to autonomous database administrators (DBAs). However, current evaluation benchmarks remain disproportionately fixated on Text-to-SQL tasks, neglecting the holistic Database Lifecycle-from initial schema design to post-deployment maintenance. This narrow focus fails to capture the diverse capabilities required for real-world database management. To bridge this gap, we introduce DBLifeBench, the first benchmark to evaluate LLMs across five critical lifecycle phases: Design, Implementation, Operation, Debugging, and Maintenance. Furthermore, addressing the cognitive mismatch between ambiguous natural language and complex SQL logic, we propose Progressive-Text2SQL, a novel task utilizing structured reasoning graphs to mimic human iterative problem-solving. Our extensive evaluation reveals a critical insight: while general-purpose models demonstrate balanced performance, specialized Text-to-SQL models suffer from ``catastrophic forgetting'' in non-coding phases like design and maintenance. DBLifeBench serves as a foundational step toward evaluating and building true full-stack database intelligence.
Large Language Models (LLMs) are increasingly used to generate structured outputs, but their reliability remains unclear when those outputs must satisfy database-level constraints. We study this issue through database normalization, involving reasoning about functional dependencies, lossless join decompositions, and inter-table constraints. We introduce a Database Normalization Benchmark (DNBENCH), comprising 3,275 samples for evaluating LLM-driven database normalization from 1NF to BCNF. DNBENCH uses a three-axis protocol to measure semantic equivalence, structural accuracy, and logical validity. Across Single, Complex, and Real World levels, DNBENCH uncovers recurring failures in dependency inference, schema decomposition, and inter-table constraint reconstruction. We further propose Multi-Agent Reasoning for Schemas (MARS), which separates evidence extraction, violation diagnosis, and decomposition planning from schema generation and verification. MARS improves the DNB-SCORE by 82.0% over the single-prompt baseline. All artifacts will be released upon acceptance.
LLM-based database agents show promise, but differing task scopes, testbeds, and metrics hinder comparison. We identify four gaps between evaluation and production operations: live-environment fidelity (multi-turn read-write interaction with a running database); observation-space scale and complexity (causal diagnosis across thousands of time series, business logs, and concurrent activity); solution-space openness (multiple remediations with different operational trade-offs); and scenario complexity and coverage (faults cascading across internal mechanisms and operational domains). We present DBA-Bench, a benchmark addressing these gaps through production fidelity, outcome-first evaluation, and controlled scenario reproducibility. It uses instrumented PostgreSQL environments with active workloads, persistent state, and multi-source observations; defines success by measurable recovery or fault elimination under safety constraints; and restores snapshots with scenario-specific checks before each run. The benchmark contains 106 scenarios across seven task domains, with two public difficulty labels based on reference-path diagnostic depth and environmental complexity. We evaluate nine baseline groups, including six foundation-model systems, two GPT-5.5-backed database agents, and a Human DBA reference. Across 848 automated runs, Diagnosis, Outcome, and Safe Pass rates are 32.7%, 19.6%, and 12.4%; the best automated baseline reaches 17.9% Safe Pass versus 93.4% for the Human DBA reference. Automated Safe Pass falls from 19.6% on Easy scenarios to 7.6% on Hard scenarios, underscoring the difficulty of safe end-to-end remediation.
Large language models (LLMs) have advanced Text-to-SQL by enabling natural language interfaces to databases without task-specific fine-tuning. However, existing LLM-based systems remain unreliable, often generating SQL queries that are invalid under the database schema, referencing non-existent tables, attributes, functions, or values. Such errors persist because interactions with the database management system (DBMS) are typically limited to error messages, leaving it in a largely passive role during query refinement. This paper proposes SafeQL, \textit{a search-based refinement paradigm that redefines the role of the DBMS as an active guide in the refinement process}. Instead of regenerating entire queries after execution failure, SafeQL interprets DBMS feedback to incrementally repair only the erroneous components. Each refinement step is formulated as a guided search within a \textit{safe query space}, where candidate queries are progressively validated through DBMS execution, thereby converging to an executable query and preventing repeated regeneration of errors. Experiments on the Bird and Spider benchmarks show that SafeQL significantly improves execution accuracy and efficiency compared to regeneration-based methods.