Integrating GitHub Copilot CLI with Amazon Athena data via CData CLI

Justin Floyd
Product Business Analyst

CData CLI gives AI coding agents direct, command-line-native access to CData Drivers across hundreds of data sources, allowing agents to manage licenses, configure connections, run SQL queries, and explore schema metadata, all without leaving the terminal.

GitHub Copilot CLI is the terminal interface for GitHub Copilot, giving developers direct access to an AI agent without leaving the command line. It can autonomously complete multi-step tasks driven by natural language instructions, including reading and modifying files, running shell commands, managing pull requests on GitHub, and delegating work to specialized custom agents. Its support for agent skills and custom instructions makes it well-suited for structured, tool-driven workflows, making it a natural fit for connecting to external data sources through CData CLI.

By describing your data goals in plain language, GitHub Copilot CLI can handle the full setup process, from driver configuration and license activation to connection creation and query execution, without manual intervention at each step.

This article details step-by-step directions for how to connect Amazon Athena data to GitHub Copilot CLI through CData CLI.

Prerequisites

About Amazon Athena Data Integration

CData provides the easiest way to access and integrate live data from Amazon Athena. Customers use CData connectivity to:

Authenticate securely using a variety of methods, including IAM credentials, access keys, and Instance Profiles, catering to diverse security needs and simplifying the authentication process.
Streamline their setup and quickly resolve issue with detailed error messaging.
Enhance performance and minimize strain on client resources with server-side query execution.

Users frequently integrate Athena with analytics tools like Tableau, Power BI, and Excel for in-depth analytics from their preferred tools.

To learn more about unique Amazon Athena use cases with CData, check out our blog post: https://www.cdata.com/blog/amazon-athena-use-cases.

Getting Started

Step 1: Download the skill (one-time setup)

Always use CData CLI with the official skill.

The official CData CLI Skill is available on GitHub and installs through npx skills in the terminal:
```
npx skills add CDataSoftware/cli-skills
```
Follow the prompts in the terminal to install for GitHub Copilot.

Step 2: Set up the project directory

Create a project directory to contain all project files.

Navigate to the directory within the terminal and start a session with the copilot command:

Step 3: Establish the driver and connection

Describe what you want to accomplish in this session with the CLI and Amazon Athena data.

I would like to build a command line app that connects to Amazon Athena data and checks for updates from Customers. Make sure to include data from important columns like Name and TotalDue.

This prompt automatically loads the skill and kicks off the following process. You can always manually prompt the agent for each of the following steps.

Driver setup: GitHub Copilot CLI checks for an existing CData Amazon Athena driver, or searches and downloads a new one:

```
cdatacli drivers list
```
```
cdatacli drivers search Amazon Athena
```

cdatacli drivers download --artifact-id

Activation: Activate the Amazon Athena driver with a single command for a trial or full license:

cdatacli drivers activate Amazon Athena --name "" --email "" --trial

cdatacli drivers activate Amazon Athena --name "" --email "" --key ""

Establish the Amazon Athena connection: Check for existing Amazon Athena connections or create a new one:

```
cdatacli connection list
```

cdatacli connection create --driver Amazon Athena --name  --connectionstring

Create a Amazon Athena skill (if applicable): CData provides driver instructions for popular sources. You can use these to generate a source-specific skill file that guides the agent through best practices for the driver.

Run the following command and save the output to your skills directory, either at the project level or globally. (Note: If you receive a "No instructions available for Amazon Athena" message, no driver instructions exist for this source. You can continue using the main driver skill.)
```
cdatacli drivers skill Amazon Athena > ~/skills/cdata-Amazon Athena/SKILL.md
```

Step 4: Query Amazon Athena data

With the CData driver fully configured, your agent can now execute queries and write code against live Amazon Athena data:

cdatacli query sql --connection  --sql

Query Amazon Athena data directly from your terminal with CData CLI

GitHub Copilot CLI and CData CLI together give your AI coding agent a direct path to live Amazon Athena data without custom middleware, scheduled syncs, or manual setup at each step. Describe your goal in plain language, and the agent handles driver configuration, connection setup, and query execution from start to finish in the terminal.

Download the free CData CLI and start a free, 30-day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for Amazon Athena today.

Ready to get started?

Download a free trial of the Amazon Athena Driver to get started:

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Learn more:

Amazon Athena JDBC Driver

Rapidly create and deploy powerful Java applications that integrate with Amazon Athena.

CData is the data layer that makes AI work in production—live connectivity and replication across hundreds of the most critical enterprise sources, semantic context, and built-in governance. Powering AI for Databricks, Microsoft, Google, Palantir, and 10,000+ customers worldwide.