Getting Started
Core concepts
Everything in DataSquares hangs off a small set of objects. Understanding how they relate makes the rest of the product predictable.
The object model
Section titled “The object model”| Object | What it is |
|---|---|
| Workspace | The top-level container. Members, roles, settings, and everything below live inside one. |
| Data source | A connection to where your data lives — a database, warehouse, uploaded file, or API. |
| Data model | A curated set of tables from a source, joined by relationships, enriched with calculated fields and SquareX measures. |
| Dashboard | A canvas of cards (charts, tables, text, filters) built on models or sources. |
| Report | A document-style deliverable, suited to paginated, printable output. |
| Story | A written document of sections, some by you and some by the AI, with live charts, tables and numbers. |
| Presentation | A slide deck whose every number stays bound to a metric, measure, saved query or dashboard card. |
| Share | A view-only publication of a dashboard — a link for people outside the workspace (optionally password-protected or filtered by row-level security), or an embed inside another app. |
| Saved query | A reusable SQL query written in the SQL editor. |
| Metric | A governed, workspace-level KPI definition — a SquareX expression on a model, or a value from a saved query, with a grain, target, and owner that every surface evaluates identically. |
| Alert rule | A watch on a number that notifies you by email, in the app or through a webhook when it crosses a threshold. |
| Managed dataset | A copy of a table or saved query imported into the Warehouse; it then behaves like any other data source. |
| Pipeline | A DAG of extract, transform, route and load steps that moves data between your systems — into managed datasets, or back into your own databases and object stores (separately licensed). |
| Style | One of the six looks, each in two colourways, offered wherever you choose a look (decks, dashboards, reports, stories): colours, fonts and card shape in one choice. |
| Theme | A saved set of colours, fonts and card chrome for dashboards: a built-in theme, or one your workspace saved. |
Workspaces
Section titled “Workspaces”A workspace is where your team works together. Members join by invitation and hold roles that control what they can do — from viewing dashboards to administering the workspace. Whoever creates a workspace joins it as an admin, so the first person in a new company can start working immediately. Workspace settings include a default theme that newly-created dashboards pick up automatically. People sign in with a password, Google, Microsoft, a passkey or an emailed link, with optional TOTP multi-factor authentication; on Enterprise, sign-in can be backed by OIDC or SAML 2.0 single sign-on, with SCIM 2.0 provisioning (SSO, SCIM and MFA).
Home is the first page after sign-in. It lists the dashboards you can open under Recently opened, Favorites, Shared with me and Latest useful, shows a Needs attention feed, and — when you can use AI chat — has a box to ask a question of your data.
Home opens with a greeting for the time of day and a box to Ask your data. Under it, Continue working lists the dashboards you can open.
Select the star on a dashboard to make it a favorite.
Choose the Favorites tab to see the dashboards you starred. The other tabs list what you Recently opened, what was Shared with me, and the Latest useful dashboards.
Type in Search dashboards to narrow the list by name.
When nothing matches, Home says No shown dashboards match. Clear the search to see the list again.
Data sources
Section titled “Data sources”A data source is a saved, encrypted connection. Sources are added through the connection wizard, which adapts its form to the connector — host/port credentials for classic databases, account details for cloud warehouses, a file picker for uploads. Once connected, a source’s tables are available to the SQL editor, data models, and dashboards.
Data models
Section titled “Data models”A data model sits between raw tables and dashboards. In a model you choose tables, define relationships between them (so charts can combine fields across tables correctly), and add:
- Calculated fields — row-level expressions that behave like extra columns.
- Measures — aggregations written in SquareX, DataSquares’ measure
language, which supports context modification (
Calculate), time intelligence (year-to-date, rolling windows), and level-of-detail expressions. Measures can be authored in a visual template builder or as SquareX code; both produce the same definition.
Dashboards built on a model share its relationships and measures, so numbers stay consistent across your team’s work. A model can also carry row-level security, so each person sees only the rows they are allowed to.
Dashboards
Section titled “Dashboards”A dashboard is a canvas of cards. Each card is a chart, table, KPI, text block, or filter control with its own data configuration and format options. The canvas supports free drag/resize with precise numeric positioning, alignment tools, copy-paste, a format painter, and a layers pane. Dashboards have separate desktop and mobile layouts, support filters, cross-filtering and drill-down between cards, and can be presented full-screen.
Viewers see a read-only version of the dashboard with the interactions you’ve enabled — filtering, drilling, exporting — without being able to edit it.
Sharing, embeds, and exports
Section titled “Sharing, embeds, and exports”Dashboards reach people three ways:
- Workspace sharing — members see the dashboard inside DataSquares, governed by their role.
- Share links — view-only links for people without an account, optionally protected by a password or filtered by row-level security.
- Embeds — dashboards rendered inside your own application or portal (Business plan and above).
Any dashboard can also be exported to PDF, PowerPoint, or PNG, and sent on a schedule as PDF, PowerPoint, Excel, CSV or Word (Exports). Exports paginate between cards, so a chart is only split when it is taller than a whole page.
Where to go next
Section titled “Where to go next”- Build your first dashboard with the Quickstart.
- New to the product? Start at What is DataSquares?
- Move data between your systems with Pipelines, and keep managed datasets in the Warehouse.