Glossary

Terms are listed alphabetically. Names inside the semantic fluid, such as a table, metric or dimension, are always lowercase. For a guided introduction to the main ideas, read core concepts.

Admin

A member role that can do everything an owner can except the owner's decisions: closing, reopening, deleting or handing over the workspace, changing or removing an owner, switching sanda search on or off, and requiring two-step sign-in. Admins provision warehouses, connect systems, manage the team, set budgets, and create agent tokens. See members and roles.

Agent token

A secret that lets a program read your workspace without a person signing in, such as Claude Code, an agent of your own, Excel or Power BI. Owners and admins create one under Settings · Integrations, where it is called an integration token. sanda shows it once, its optional permissions start off, and it can expire or be revoked. See agent tokens.

Alias

What your team calls a table or column. An alias maps a hard-to-read column name to a business term, and can carry synonyms and value labels, such as a stored value AUTHORISED shown as Approved. See naming.

Approval

On the Agents page, an owner or admin can turn on Ask before an agent acts. An agent's risky actions, such as committing SQL, dropping a derived view or removing a search service, then wait for approval instead of running. Anything not decided within 24 hours expires without running. See MCP permissions.

Ask first

The default cherry permission mode. Every change cherry proposes waits as a card with Confirm and Decline, and nothing runs until you press one. Compare autonomous and held action. See actions and approvals.

Autonomous

A cherry permission mode. cherry defines semantics, builds views, schedules tasks, starts syncs and loads rows as soon as it decides to. It still asks before emailing a report, dropping a view, retiring a table, or deleting a definition or a delivery. Set it under Settings · cherry. See actions and approvals.

sanda search

Search over the text inside your own tables, by meaning as well as by words. You define a search service, sanda builds an index in your warehouse, and a query returns the records that match. An owner must switch it on first, and it is included from Standard. The console calls its page Vector search. See search.

sanda sql

The name for SQL that runs against your warehouse, whether from the SQL shell or written by cherry. It is PostgreSQL-compatible. See SQL reference.

Block

One piece of a report: a figure (kpi), a bar chart, a line chart, a table, a written analysis, or a header. A block stores the question it asks, not the rows, and asks again each time the report opens. See blocks.

Budget

A monthly ceiling on metered spend that an owner or admin sets under Settings · Plan & budget, in Budget & alerts. Reminder emails go out as the month fills, and at 100% the warehouse is suspended until an owner or admin resumes it. A trial can set one too, and until it does, its only ceiling is its free credit. See budgets and limits.

Category

One word for a way of slicing, across every column that carries it, such as region or product line. See dimensions and filters.

cherry

sanda's AI data agent. It answers questions, defines metrics and relationships, builds views and reports, starts syncs, and walks a new workspace through setup. It lives in a pane beside your work, and on its own page. See cherry.

cherry chat

The full-screen page for cherry, in the left navigation. It is the same conversation as the cherry pane. See a tour of the console.

Closed workspace

A workspace an owner has closed. It is read-only for 90 days, so every page still opens and an export can still be taken. After that, the warehouse and its contents are destroyed. An owner can reopen it at any point before then. See close or delete.

Compute

The processing your warehouse does when queries run. It scales automatically, drops to zero when idle, and is billed by the hour it works. A question wakes it for a minute, so several questions inside that minute count once. See usage.

Connected app

An AI assistant, most often Claude, that a person has connected by approving sanda's consent screen. It acts as that person, with the permissions they ticked. Owners and admins see every connected app under Settings · Integrations, beside the agent tokens, and can disconnect any of them. See connect Claude.

Connection

A link between one source system and one warehouse. It records the connector, the streams to sync and the schedule. You add one from Data · Connections. See connections.

Connector

A supported kind of source system, such as Xero, Shopify or PostgreSQL. The connector catalogue lists every one. See connectors.

Console

The signed-in web app where you work in sanda, at console.sanda-os.com.au. See a tour of the console.

Cursor

The column an incremental stream uses to tell which rows are new or changed since the last run, such as an updated-at timestamp. See sync modes.

Daily AI limit

The most AI a workspace can use in a day. It starts at A$5, and owners and admins can raise it to A$50 under Budget & alerts. Every AI call counts, including sanda's own work such as learning and search indexing. At the limit, AI waits until midnight UTC and nothing else stops. See models and usage.

Data region

Where a workspace's data is held: its warehouses, and the loading, staging and modelling of what you sync. You choose it when you sign up, and the workspace stays in it, so it cannot be changed later. Workspaces can be created in Australia (Sydney). AI features, and sanda search if an owner switches it on, send some data outside the region, as how sanda works explains. See workspace settings.

Data rules

Rules that limit which rows a reader sees on the reports portal, such as only their own region. They apply to readers, whose only door to the data is the portal. See the reports portal.

Dataset

A group of tables in the semantic fluid. By default it is every stream from one connector, and it tints those tables on the map. See tables.

Delivery

A schedule that sends a report by email, or posts a summary to Slack, or posts each run as JSON to a webhook. You manage them on the Report schedules page. See report delivery.

Dimension

In the semantic fluid, a way to slice a number, such as customer, region or month. A time dimension has a grain such as day and rolls up to month, quarter and year. See dimensions and filters.

Edition

Basic, Standard or Enterprise. An edition sets the platform fee, how many warehouses you can hold, how large each can grow, and whether sanda search and included support are on. A trial has every feature. See editions.

Explorer

A read-only tree of every schema, table, view and procedure in a warehouse, with columns and the first rows of each. You reach it from Data · Explorer. See the explorer.

Fact

A kind of table. A fact table records something that happened and carries measures, such as invoices, payments or orders. The other kind is a dimension table, which records something that exists, such as customers or products. See tables.

Filter

A named condition that says which rows count, such as approved invoices. You write it once and reuse it. See dimensions and filters.

Frozen workspace

A trial whose free credit is used up, or whose 7 days are over. Queries, reports, AI, syncs and scheduled runs wait, and your data is kept. Moving to an edition lifts the freeze, and the workspace carries on where it stopped. Resume warehouse does not lift it. See the trial.

Full refresh

A sync mode family that reads the whole table on every run. It comes as Overwrite, which replaces what landed last time, Overwrite + Deduped, which also keeps one row per primary key, and Append, which keeps a snapshot of each run. It needs no cursor. See sync modes.

Glue

How two source systems join to each other, for example matching a store code in one system to a site id in another. It is one of the definitions on the map's rail. See relationships.

Healing

When a source changes, such as a renamed column, sanda notices the drift, remaps the definitions that used it, and logs it. The Semantic fluid page lists these under "The fluid at work", each marked healed or open. See semantic fluid.

Held action

A change cherry has proposed that is waiting for you. In ask first mode it shows as a card with Confirm and Decline. When several are waiting, Confirm all runs them in the order cherry proposed them. See actions and approvals.

Incremental

A sync mode family that reads only the rows whose cursor has moved since the last run. It comes as Append, which adds them, and Append + Deduped, which keeps the latest version of each primary key. See sync modes.

Intake table

A table opened so that a connected assistant holding the intake permission can add rows to it, matching its columns, and do nothing else to it. It suits a log somebody keeps by talking. You open one when you upload a CSV, and close it in the Intake tables panel under Settings · Integrations. See upload a CSV.

Integration token

The name Settings · Integrations uses for an agent token.

Learn from my data

Asking cherry to read your warehouse and propose the tables, relationships, metrics and dimensions it holds. It ends by telling you what stood out and what it could not settle, and opens the suggestions for you to review. See learn from my data.

Learning dataset

A sample dataset you can add from the Warehouse page: a specialty-foods importer with ten years of trading, already modelled. It is free and read-only, and it lets you ask questions before your own data lands. See warehouse.

Map

The canvas view of the semantic fluid. Tables are cards, relationships are lines, and a rail down the left opens each kind of definition: new table, datasets, relationships, aliases, categories, metrics, filters and glue. See the map.

Materialized view

A view whose rows are stored and refreshed on demand or on a schedule, so queries read the stored result. You build one in Modelling, and can give it a unique key so a refresh does not block readers. See views.

MCP

The Model Context Protocol, an open standard for letting AI assistants use tools. sanda is an MCP server, so an assistant such as Claude can search your definitions and query your data through the semantic fluid, with only the permissions you grant. It is included from Standard. See MCP.

Member

A person with a seat in a workspace. Seats are not priced. A member's role decides what they can do. See members and roles.

Memory

What cherry keeps across conversations: facts about your business that you have told it, and how you like to work. Every line is read into every conversation, so remove a wrong one. You manage it under Settings · cherry. See memory and history.

Metering

How sanda measures what you use: storage in gigabyte-months held, compute in hours, AI by the token, and managed sync by the run. Each edition adds a flat platform fee. The console shows usage as it accrues. See usage.

Metric

A number defined once, with a name, a definition and optional conditions, such as net revenue. Every answer that uses it uses the same definition, and one metric can build on another. See metrics.

Modelling

The area of the console where you build views, materialized views and procedures in your warehouse, and the tasks that keep them fresh. What you build lives in the derived schema. See modelling.

OData feed

A read-only feed of your semantic fluid that Excel, Power BI and Power Query read with nothing installed. It uses an agent token, and it works on every edition. See OData.

Optimise

A page reached from a warehouse's card that finds ways to speed up queries and reclaim storage. Review the evidence and the SQL before applying a change, because each statement uses billed compute. See warehouse.

Owner

The role you have when you sign up. An owner can do everything, including closing or deleting the workspace and handing ownership to an admin. See members and roles.

Pipeline

The console page that shows one timeline of what runs and when: syncs, task runs and report deliveries. You reach it from Monitor · Pipeline. See pipeline.

Platform fee

The flat monthly fee for a workspace, set by its edition. A trial pays none. It is separate from what you use. See editions.

Primary key

The column, or columns together, that identify one row of a table. The sync modes that deduplicate need one. When you add a table to the map, sanda guesses its key and checks the guess against a sample of the rows. See sync modes.

Procedure

A stored routine, written in SQL or PL/pgSQL, that you build in Modelling and can run on demand or as a step in a task. See modelling.

Provisioning

Creating your warehouse. sanda does it in under a minute, from Data · Warehouse. See provision a warehouse.

Public link

A link that lets anyone who holds it read one report, with no account. The link is the whole credential, so treat it like a password. You can set an expiry and revoke it. See sharing.

Reader

A member role for people you build reports for. A reader signs in to the reports portal, reads what you publish, and can ask cherry about it. They have no console, and data rules can limit their rows. See the reports portal.

Read-only

A member role that can open every page and ask every question but changes nothing. See members and roles.

Relationship

How two tables join. You draw it between two columns on the map, and it records which side holds a single row. Any other table that carries the same key becomes joinable too. See relationships.

Report

A canvas of blocks that you arrange on a page. A report stores the questions its blocks ask, so it shows current numbers each time it opens. See reports.

Reports portal

A place for the people you build reports for. They sign in, read the reports you publish to them, and can ask cherry about the numbers. They never see the console. See the reports portal.

Role

What a member can do in a workspace: owner, admin, read-only or reader. See members and roles.

Schedule

When something runs: a connection's sync, a task in Modelling, or the delivery of a report. You pick a time of day in your own timezone, and runs fall on a 15 minute grid. See schedules.

Schemas

The groups of tables inside your warehouse. raw holds data as it landed. derived holds the views and procedures you build in Modelling. mapping holds what the semantic fluid publishes for reading, one view per table on the map. search holds sanda search indexes. See how sanda works.

Scope

A permission an agent token or connected app holds, such as reading the fluid, running queries or starting a sync. Every token can ask questions, and every other scope is off until someone switches it on. See scopes.

Search service

The definition behind sanda search. It names one table on your map, a key column that identifies each row, and the text columns to search. sanda builds the index in your warehouse and can refresh it after the connection that feeds it lands rows. See create a search service.

Semantic fluid

The shared business language on top of your warehouse: the tables you allow, how they join, and what your numbers mean. cherry, sanda search, MCP, reports and the Excel feed all read through it, so they agree. See semantic fluid.

Sheet

The instructions that shape a table block's rows once they arrive: formula columns, formats, totals, a sort, and hidden columns. A sheet stores instructions, never rows. See sheets.

Short name

The workspace's short name (its slug), shown in Settings · Workspace and typed to confirm closing or deleting the workspace. See close or delete.

Sign-in link

The single-use link sanda emails you to sign in. It works once and expires after 30 minutes, and asking for a new one cancels the earlier ones. There are no passwords. See sign-in.

SQL shell

A page for running one SQL statement at a time directly on a warehouse. Only owners and admins can use it. It is read-only unless you switch to read-write, results are capped and timed, every statement is recorded, and there is no undo. See SQL.

Stream

One table or object that a connection syncs from its source, such as invoices or contacts. See choose streams.

Suggestion

What learning proposes and cherry offers for you to accept: a table, relationship, metric or dimension. Nothing reaches an answer until you accept it. You can accept it as it is, correct it first, or reject it. Also called a proposal. See review suggestions.

Support ticket

A message you send from System · Support. It reaches sanda's team with your workspace's record attached, and appears under Your tickets with a status. See getting help.

Suspended

The state of a warehouse whose month's metered spend has reached your budget. Queries, reports, chat, syncs and scheduled runs wait, and your data is kept. An owner or admin resumes it with Resume warehouse once the budget is raised or a new month begins. A trial that runs out of credit or reaches its end date is frozen instead. See usage and suspension.

Sync

One run of a connection: it reads the source and lands the rows in your warehouse. It runs on the connection's schedule, or when you press Sync now. See monitor syncs.

Sync mode

How a stream is read and written on each run. There are five: three full refresh modes and two incremental modes. Each stream has its own. See sync modes.

Table

In the semantic fluid, a table or view from your warehouse that you have put on the map. It is either a fact or a dimension. Adding a table publishes it as a view in the mapping schema. See tables.

Task

An ordered list of steps on one warehouse, such as refreshing a materialized view or calling a procedure. It runs on a schedule, after a named connection lands rows, or by hand, and it pauses itself after repeated failures. You manage tasks on the Tasks tab in Modelling. See modelling.

Thread

One conversation with cherry. Threads are yours, and you can rename, archive and search them. See memory and history.

Trial

A trial has every feature and lasts 7 days, after which the workspace is frozen until it moves to an edition. It comes with A$10 of free credit and needs no card. See the trial.

Trial credit

The free credit a trial comes with, A$10. Compute, storage, AI and sync runs draw it down at the published rates, and nothing is billed. When it is used up, the workspace is frozen. The top bar shows the balance. See the trial.

Two-step sign-in

A code from an authenticator app, asked for after your email link or your Google or Apple sign-in. Anyone can turn it on for themselves, and an owner can require it of everyone. 10 recovery codes cover a lost phone. See two-step sign-in.

Vector search

The label for sanda search in the console's left navigation, under Intelligence. See sanda search.

View

A saved query in your warehouse, built in Modelling. A view can be put on the map, and cherry and reports then read it like any other table. See views.

Warehouse

Your sanda warehouse: a dedicated PostgreSQL database that belongs to your workspace, held in its data region. Every connection and CSV lands in it. See warehouse.

Workspace

Your business's home in sanda. It holds your warehouse, connections, semantic fluid, reports, cherry conversations, settings and team, and it is what you are billed for. An email address belongs to one workspace. See workspace.