Database Drivers

Driver	DB_CONNECTION	PHP extension
SQLite	sqlite	pdo_sqlite
MySQL / MariaDB	mysql	pdo_mysql
PostgreSQL	pgsql	pdo_pgsql
SQL Server / Azure SQL	sqlsrv	pdo_sqlsrv + Microsoft ODBC driver

SQL differences (identifier quoting, upsert syntax, LIMIT / OFFSET, RETURNING, auto-increment types) are handled in Query\Grammar and Schema\Schema, so your code does not change between drivers.

What is verified

The automated test suite runs against SQLite (and a real Redis server). The MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQL Server grammars are verified by SQL-generation tests only, and there is no live SQL Server in CI. Run your own test suite against your target database before relying on it in production.

SQLite

The default. DB_DATABASE is a path relative to the project (default storage/database.sqlite) or :memory:. Foreign keys are enabled for you. Good for development, tests and small deployments.

MySQL and MariaDB

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_DATABASE=myapp
DB_USERNAME=myapp
DB_PASSWORD=secret

The connection uses utf8mb4, real server-side prepared statements, and a strict SQL mode. MySQL implicitly commits DDL, so migrations on MySQL are not wrapped in a transaction (they are on SQLite and PostgreSQL).

PostgreSQL

DB_CONNECTION=pgsql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_DATABASE=myapp
DB_USERNAME=postgres
DB_PASSWORD=secret

Supports RETURNING, and migrations run inside a transaction.

SQL Server

DB_CONNECTION=sqlsrv
DB_HOST=sql.example.com
DB_PORT=1433
DB_DATABASE=myapp
DB_USERNAME=sa
DB_PASSWORD=secret
DB_ENCRYPT=true                      # default: true
DB_TRUST_SERVER_CERTIFICATE=false    # default: false; set true only for a self-signed dev server

Requires pdo_sqlsrv and the Microsoft ODBC driver. What the SQL Server dialect handles:

• identifiers are quoted with [ ]; values with N'…'
• pagination uses OFFSET … FETCH (adding ORDER BY (SELECT 0) when you did not order); limit(0) uses TOP (0)
• upserts use MERGE; IDENTITY columns; NVARCHAR, BIT and DATETIME2 column types
• ALTER TABLE … ADD (no COLUMN keyword) and DROP ordering that removes foreign keys first for migrate:fresh
• savepoints use SAVE TRANSACTION / ROLLBACK TRANSACTION
• bulk insert / upsert are split into chunks that respect SQL Server’s limits (1000 rows, 2100 parameters)
• whereIn with more than 2000 values throws instead of failing at the database
• insert($row, ignore: true) is not supported and throws

The connection string rejects values containing ;, { or }, so configuration cannot inject extra connection options. Read-only replicas use ApplicationIntent=ReadOnly; see Read/write connections.

Adding a driver

Extend Query\Grammar and Schema\Schema for the new dialect and add a factory in DatabaseManager.