The routing of commands within a database cluster is managed by a proxy server. The database cluster is comprised of a master database and at least one read-replica database. When the proxy server receives a database command, the proxy server determines whether the command is capable of being translated into an alternate command that can be executed on the read-replica database. If the command is not capable of being reliably translated, the database command is executed on the master database. If the command is capable of being executed on a read-replica database, the proxy server translates the database command into an alternate command that is compatible with the read-replica database, and executes the alternate command on the read-replica database. If results are returned from the read-replica database, the results may be converted into a format produced by the master database.