# MySQL Reference

MySQL is an open source, object-relational database built with speed and reliability in mind. Its large and active developer community has created many third-party applications, tools, and libraries that expand MySQL’s functionality.

### The DigitalOcean API

You can use the API to [manage database clusters, database pools, replicas, and users](https://docs.digitalocean.com/reference/api/digitalocean/index.html.md#tag/Databases).

### The DigitalOcean Command Line Client, doctl

[`doctl`](https://github.com/digitalocean/doctl) is the command-line interface for the DigitalOcean API. It supports most of the same actions available in the API and DigitalOcean Control Panel.

[`doctl`](https://github.com/digitalocean/doctl) supports managing database clusters, database pools, replicas, and users, and more from the command line. See the [`doctl` documentation](https://docs.digitalocean.com/reference/doctl/reference/registry/index.html.md) or use `doctl databases --help` for more information.

### The DigitalOcean MCP Server

The [DigitalOcean Model Context Protocol (MCP) server](https://docs.digitalocean.com/reference/mcp/index.html.md) lets you use natural language prompts to interact with DigitalOcean Managed Databases to create, resize, configure, migrate, and inspect clusters across all supported engines. All operations use argument-based input, and no resource URIs are used. The tools also support pagination, configuration management, firewall updates, user management, topic operations for Kafka, and other engine-specific settings where applicable.

## Official MySQL Documentation

- The [MySQL documentation](https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/)
- The [`mysql` command-line client documentation](https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/mysql.html)
- The [`mysqlsh` command-line client documentation](https://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql-shell/8.0/en/mysql-shell-commands.html)