Feature Request: Add encoding options (UTF-8) for SSMS execution plan export to improve AI/LLM compatibility
**Problem:**
SSMS exports execution plans as UTF-16 LE with BOM. This is the XML standard, but modern LLM tools (Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot) and static analysis tools overwhelmingly expect UTF-8. When you paste a .sqlplan file for AI analysis, you find:
File is 2x larger than necessary (UTF-16 doubles every ASCII char)
AI tools show `NodeId=` null-byte separators, making the plan unreadable
Users must manually convert encoding before sharing — friction every single time for DBA workflows
**Request:**
Add a dropdown or checkbox in the "Save Execution Plan As..." dialog:
- [ ] Save as UTF-8 or UTF-8 BOM
- [ ] Save as UTF-16 LE (default, current behavior)
Or a global option in Tools → Options → Query Results → SQL Server → Execution Plan:
- Default export encoding: [UTF-16 LE | UTF-8]
**Why now:**
AI-assisted query tuning is now mainstream. DBAs paste execution plans into LLMs daily. Every major AI platform prefers UTF-8.
Azure Data Studio already defaults to UTF-8 for most outputs. SSMS should align.
**Workaround (current):**
Open .sqlplan in VS Code → "Save with Encoding" → UTF-8. Then share.
**Impact:** Low-risk change (one additional XML serialization option), high-ROI (every DBA using AI tools hits this).
**SQL Server version:** SSMS 20.x / SQL Server 2017+