Enabling the Plugin

Step 1 — Package Reference

<!-- Add to your Octopus host project's .csproj -->
<PackageReference Include="BizFirst.Octopus.SqlServerPlugin" Version="*" />

Step 2 — Register in Program.cs

// Program.cs
var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

builder.Services.AddOctopus(config =>
{
    // SqlServerPlugin MUST be the first plugin registered.
    // All other plugins depend on the services it provides
    // (OctopusDbContext, IAgentStore, IEpisodicMemoryStore, etc.)
    config.AddPlugin<SqlServerPlugin>();

    // Other plugins follow
    config.AddPlugin<SemanticKernelPlugin>();
    config.AddPlugin<ChatbotUIPlugin>();
    config.AddPlugin<ProcessPlugin>();
});

var app = builder.Build();
app.UseOctopus();
app.Run();

Step 3 — appsettings.json Configuration

{
  "SqlServerPlugin": {
    "ConnectionStringCredentialId": 1,
    "CommandTimeoutSeconds": 30,
    "EnableRetryOnFailure": true,
    "MaxRetryCount": 3,
    "MaxRetryDelaySeconds": 30,
    "RunMigrationsOnStartup": true,
    "MigrationTimeout": 120
  }
}

Credential Setup

The connection string is stored as a credential — never in appsettings.json directly. Register it once via the Octopus admin API:

POST /api/credentials
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "name":        "OctopusSqlServer",
  "description": "Connection string for Octopus SQL Server database",
  "type":        "ConnectionString",
  "value":       "Server=sql.internal.company.com;Database=OctopusAI;Integrated Security=True;TrustServerCertificate=True;"
}

// Response:
{
  "id":   1,
  "name": "OctopusSqlServer"
}

// Use the returned id as ConnectionStringCredentialId in appsettings.json

Verifying the Setup

On a successful startup, the application log will contain the following lines in order:

[SqlServerPlugin] Resolving connection string from credential 1
[SqlServerPlugin] Connection to OctopusAI verified
[SqlServerPlugin] Running pending EF Core migrations...
[SqlServerPlugin] Applied migration: 20240101_InitialOctopusSchema
[SqlServerPlugin] Applied migration: 20240615_AddAreaTables
[SqlServerPlugin] Database schema is up to date
[SqlServerPlugin] Startup complete — all Octopus SQL services available