Read-only access is necessary for AI database agents. It is not enough. A read-only agent can still: scan too much data run expensive queries return more rows than needed touch sensitive tables answer from a scope the user did not intend That is why production natural language SQL needs query budgets. What is a query budget? A query budget defines what an AI database workflow is allowed to spend or touch before a query runs. It can include: maximum rows returned maximum runtime approved tables or views allowed columns maximum date range cost or warehouse limits rate limits per user/workflow approval requirements for exceptions The point is not to make agents less useful. The point is to make useful access predictable. Natural language hides query shape A user asks: Which customers are at risk this quarter? That may be a perfectly reasonable business question. But the generated query might be much broader than the user expected. So the system needs boundaries outside the model’s wording.…