Quick Tour
This page gives you a guided walkthrough of every major section of the Datafi interface. After signing in at home.datafi.us, you land on the Home page. From there, the left-hand navigation gives you access to all the pages described below.
The best way to learn Datafi is to have the platform open in another tab while you read this guide. Sign in at home.datafi.us and click through each page as you go.
Home
The Home page is your personalized launchpad. It is the first thing you see after signing in and is designed to get you to the right data as quickly as possible.
Quick Access
The Quick Access panel sits at the top of the Home page. It contains your pinned and frequently used data objects -- datasources, Data Views, Data Apps, and datasets. You can pin up to 10 items for instant access, and Datafi also surfaces items you use often based on frequency.
See Quick Access for full details on pinning and managing this panel.
Recommendations
Below Quick Access, Datafi displays personalized recommendations based on your usage patterns, your role, and what is popular within your workspace. This helps you discover data sources and views that are relevant to your work but that you may not have found on your own.
Action Center
The Action Center consolidates notifications, pending tasks, and alerts into a single feed. Examples of what appears here:
- Policy approval requests.
- Data source connection status changes.
- Alerts from Insights or AI agents.
- Invitations and sharing notifications.
The Action Center ensures that you never miss something that requires your attention.
Discover
The Discover page is your gateway to every data source connected to your Datafi workspace. Think of it as a unified catalog that spans all of your databases, warehouses, lakes, SaaS platforms, and file stores.
On this page you can:
- Browse data sources by name, type, or tag.
- Search across all connected sources to find specific tables, columns, or datasets.
- Preview schema information, metadata, and sample records before writing a query.
- Connect new data sources (if you have administrator permissions).
You only see data sources and objects that your account is authorized to access. If a source you expect to see is missing, check with your workspace administrator to verify your permissions.
Data Views
Data Views are the primary workspace for hands-on data exploration. When you open a Data View, you get a rich interface for examining schema, writing and running queries, and exporting results.
Key capabilities of Data Views:
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Schema browser | Explore tables, columns, data types, and relationships within a data source. |
| Query editor | Write SQL queries with syntax highlighting, autocompletion, and error checking. |
| Result grid | View query results in a sortable, filterable table. |
| Export | Download results as CSV, JSON, or other formats for offline use. |
| Save and share | Save a Data View for reuse and share it with teammates. |
Data Views respect all active policies, so exported or displayed data automatically reflects row-level and column-level restrictions.
Data Apps
Data Apps are purpose-built web applications that deliver live, governed data to end users through custom dashboards and interactive experiences. While Data Views are designed for exploration and ad-hoc querying, Data Apps are designed for consumption -- presenting data in a specific, curated layout.
Use Data Apps when you want to:
- Build a dashboard that non-technical stakeholders can use without writing SQL.
- Create an interactive report that refreshes automatically from live data.
- Share a governed, read-only view of key metrics with a broad audience.
Data Apps are built and published within Datafi. They can be accessed through the platform or shared via a direct URL.
Datasets
The Datasets page provides a structured view of curated, reusable data collections within your workspace. A dataset is a logical grouping -- it might represent a cleaned, transformed, or joined version of data from one or more underlying sources.
On this page you can:
- Browse available datasets across your workspace.
- View metadata including descriptions, owners, tags, and lineage.
- Open a dataset in a Data View for querying and exploration.
- Understand how a dataset relates to its underlying data sources.
A data source is a raw connection to an external system (a database, warehouse, API, etc.). A dataset is a curated, governed collection of data that may draw from one or more data sources. Datasets add context, documentation, and policy on top of raw connections.
Policies
The Policies page is where governance rules are defined and managed. Policies control who can access what data, at what level of granularity, and under what conditions.
Types of policies you can manage:
- Object-level -- control access to entire data sources, tables, or datasets.
- Row-level -- restrict which rows a user can see based on attribute values.
- Column-level -- mask, redact, or hide specific columns from unauthorized users.
- Usage policies -- define rules around data export, sharing, and retention.
Policies are enforced platform-wide, across the web interface, ODBC, CLI, SDK, Data Views, and Data Apps. There is no way to bypass a policy through a different access method.
Insights
The Insights page surfaces automated analytics, trends, and anomaly detection across your data and platform usage.
What Insights provides:
- Usage analytics -- which data sources, views, and apps are most active.
- Trend detection -- patterns in query volume, data growth, and user activity.
- Anomaly alerts -- unusual spikes or drops in data values or access patterns.
- Recommendations -- suggestions to optimize queries, consolidate data sources, or adjust policies.
Insights runs continuously in the background. You do not need to configure anything to start receiving basic insights -- they appear automatically as the platform gathers usage data.
Chat
The Chat page provides a natural-language interface to your data. Instead of writing SQL, you describe what you want in plain English, and Datafi translates your request into a federated query, executes it, and returns the results.
Example interactions:
- "Show me total revenue by region for Q4 2025."
- "Which customers placed more than 10 orders last month?"
- "Compare average delivery time across warehouses."
Chat is powered by Datafi's AI layer and is aware of your schema, metadata, and active policies. Results respect all governance rules, just like any other access method.
Chat uses your workspace's schema and metadata to resolve ambiguity. The more descriptive your data catalog (column descriptions, table documentation, tags), the more accurate Chat's responses become.
Agent Catalog
The Agent Catalog is where you discover, configure, and deploy AI agents that monitor and act on your data autonomously.
Agents differ from Chat in a key way: Chat responds to questions you ask in the moment, while agents run on schedules or triggers and take action without your direct involvement.
Examples of what agents can do:
- Monitor a data source for new records matching specific criteria and send an alert.
- Run a daily quality check and flag rows that violate validation rules.
- Aggregate data from multiple sources on a schedule and update a dataset.
- Detect drift in key metrics and notify stakeholders.
On the Agent Catalog page you can:
- Browse pre-built agents organized by category and use case.
- Configure an agent's data source, schedule, and notification targets.
- Deploy, pause, and monitor active agents.
- Review an agent's execution history and results.
Navigation Summary
| Page | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Home | Personalized launchpad with Quick Access, recommendations, and Action Center |
| Discover | Browse and search all connected data sources |
| Data Views | Explore schema, run queries, and export results |
| Data Apps | Consume data through curated dashboards and interactive apps |
| Datasets | Manage curated, reusable data collections |
| Policies | Define and enforce governance rules |
| Insights | View automated analytics, trends, and anomalies |
| Chat | Query data using natural language |
| Agent Catalog | Deploy AI agents that act on data autonomously |
Next Steps
Now that you know your way around, learn how to personalize your Home page by setting up Quick Access to pin your most important data objects.