# Excel and Power BI (OData)

> Open your semantic fluid in Excel or Power BI as live, refreshable tables. Nothing to install: paste one address and a token.

Your semantic fluid is also a live data feed that Excel, Power BI and Power Query read without an add-in, a driver or a database connection. You paste an address and a token, choose the tables you want, and they arrive as refreshable tables in the words your business agreed on, not in the warehouse's column names.

The feed uses OData, an open standard that Excel and Power BI already understand. It is on every edition.

```text
https://console.sanda-os.com.au/api/odata/
```

The trailing slash matters to some clients.

## How it works

:::steps
1. **Create an integration token.** An owner or admin creates one under **Settings · Integrations**. The token needs no switches: asking questions is all a feed does. See [agent tokens](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/mcp/agent-tokens).
2. **Paste the address into Excel or Power BI.** Both have an OData feed connector. See [Connect Excel](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/odata/excel) and [Connect Power BI](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/odata/power-bi).
3. **Sign in with the token.** Excel takes it as the password of a Basic credential.
4. **Choose tables.** Load them, and refresh whenever you like.
:::

Nothing is installed, and the feed stores no copy of your data. Each refresh reads your warehouse live.

## What the feed offers

For each table on your semantic map, the feed offers up to two tables:

| Table | What it holds | When it exists |
|---|---|---|
| `invoices` | The rows. Every column the fluid can see, named the way your business named it | Every table on the map |
| `invoices_summary` | That table's metrics, grouped by its dimensions | Only where the table has a metric |

For example, a workspace with an `invoices` table, a `region` dimension, an `issue date` dimension and a `net revenue` metric offers `invoices` with the columns `issue_date`, `region` and the rest, and `invoices_summary` with `region`, `issue_date` and `net_revenue`. The names here are examples. Yours come from your own fluid.

**Use the summary tables for numbers.** `net revenue` in a summary is the definition your business signed off, composed by the same engine that answers it in sanda's own workbench. It is not a `SUM` somebody wrote in a cell and nobody reviewed. Use the rows table when you need the detail.

A few things to know about the tables:

- **Names are folded into identifiers a URL can carry.** `order details` is `order_details`, and `on-time delivery %` is `on_time_delivery`. Two names that fold to the same identifier both stay reachable, and the second gets a numeric suffix.
- **A column with a dimension takes the dimension's name.** Your header row reads `region` and `issue date`, not `cust_ctry_cd` and `issued_at`.
- **Only what is on the map.** A table that is not on the semantic map is not in the feed. A view you build under **Data · Modelling** and put on the map appears as a table like any other. See [views](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/modelling/views).
- **Every row has a `_row` column.** It is the row's position in that read, and OData needs every row to have a key. It is not a business key and it does not survive a refresh. Ignore it, or remove the column in Power Query.

If your map is empty, the feed has no tables. Import a table under **Intelligence · Semantic fluid** and it appears.

## Signing in

An integration token is the only credential a feed needs, and it needs no special switches.

- **Excel:** choose **Basic**, and paste the token as the password. The user name is ignored.
- **Power BI:** the same Basic credential.
- **A script:** send `Authorization: Bearer bat_...`.

The token identifies the workspace, not the person holding it. An owner or admin creates it and can revoke it at any time under **Settings · Integrations**. Details are in the [feed reference](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/odata/reference#authentication).

## Refreshing and what it costs

Every refresh is a live read of your warehouse, through the same read-only role that answers questions. It is billed to your workspace like any other query, and it is subject to the same compute budget. A workbook set to refresh every five minutes is a query every five minutes, indefinitely, so choose a schedule somebody will actually look at. See [usage](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/billing/usage).

A page is 1,000 rows. When a table has more, sanda hands the client a link to the next page, and Excel and Power BI follow it without being asked, so a 40,000-row table simply takes a moment.

## What the feed does not do

The feed is read only and deliberately small.

- **It cannot write.** Anything other than a read is refused.
- **`or` and `not` in a filter are refused.** sanda combines conditions with `and` only, and says so when a filter asks for more.
- **`$count`, `$expand`, `$apply` and `$search` are refused by name.** A filter that was silently ignored would hand you a bigger number than you asked for, so nothing is dropped quietly.
- **A metric cannot be filtered on.** It is worked out from the rows a query reads. Filter on a dimension.
- **It pages up to 1,000,000 rows into a table and no further.** After that, narrow the read with a filter, or build a view.

The [feed reference](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/odata/reference) has the details.

## Next steps

:::links
- [Connect Excel](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/odata/excel): Data, Get Data, From OData Feed, step by step.
- [Connect Power BI](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/odata/power-bi): Power BI Desktop, a Power Query snippet and scheduled refresh in the service.
- [OData feed reference](https://docs.sanda-os.com.au/odata/reference): Addresses, tables, query options, paging, limits and errors.
:::