Chatting With a Database
Ask a database's own AI agent to find, count, add, change or remove your data — and reshape its tables, columns and views — in plain English.
Overview
Every Sapience Database now has its own AI agent. Click Chat next to the database's name and you can talk to your data in plain English. You don't need to build a filter or scroll through thousands of rows.
You can ask it to:
- Find things: "Which customers in Berlin ordered more than $1,000 last month?"
- Count and summarise: "How many open deals are in each stage?"
- Add data: "Add a new supplier called Harbour Foods, based in Sydney."
- Change data: "Mark invoice INV-014 as paid."
- Remove data: "Delete the test rows I added this morning."
- Reshape the database: "Add a Status column with the options Open, Waiting and Done."
The agent already knows the shape of your database the moment the chat opens. That means its tables, their columns and types, how many rows each holds, and its saved views and forms. When it needs the actual data, it goes and reads it, so its answers come from your rows and not from a guess.
Starting a Chat
- Open the Databases screen and pick a database in the left-hand list.
- Click the green Chat button next to the database's name at the top of the screen.
- A chat window opens, titled with the database's name. You can drag it anywhere, so the table stays in view beside it. Click Full Screen Chat in its title bar for a bigger workspace.
The agent greets you with:
Ask me anything about this database, or tell me what to change.It also offers three starter questions to get you going:
What tables are in this database?
Show me the rows in my biggest table.
Add a column to track status.Clicking Chat a second time takes you back to the chat you already have open for that database, with a short "Chat is already open" note. It won't start a duplicate.
On a phone, the chat opens full screen straight away.
What You Can Ask It To Do
Find and read your data
Ask something like… | What the agent does |
"What tables are in this database?" | Lists every table, its columns and how many rows it holds |
"Show me all products under $10, cheapest first" | Reads the table with a filter and a sort |
"What's in my *Unpaid this month* view?" | Reads one of your saved views, with its filters already applied |
"How many orders did each salesperson take?" | Counts rows, grouped by a column |
"What forms does this database have?" | Lists the database's forms |
Answers often come back as a small table you can read at a glance.
Add, change and remove rows
Ask something like… | What the agent does |
"Add three rows: Apples, Pears and Plums, all in Produce" | Creates the new rows |
"Change the price of Green Tea to 10.50" | Updates that cell |
"Rename the row *Acme Ltd* to *Acme Group*" | Renames the row |
"Delete the row for the cancelled order" | Removes the row, **after asking you to confirm** |
Change the database's structure
Ask something like… | What the agent does |
"Add a *Due date* column" | Adds a new, correctly typed column |
"Add *On hold* as an option in the Stage column, and colour it orange" | Updates the column's settings |
"Rename the column *Amt* to *Amount*" | Renames the column |
"Move the Email column next to Name" | Reorders the columns |
"Remove the Notes column" | Deletes the column, **after asking you to confirm** |
"Create a new table called *Archive*" | Adds a table to this database |
"Make me a view of open deals, sorted by value" | Saves a new view on the table |
What Happens Behind the Scenes
- The chat opens already knowing the layout. Sapience gives the agent a map of the database: its tables, columns, column types, row counts, views and forms. The map contains no row values.
- You ask a question. The agent works out which table or view holds the answer.
- It fetches the data with a database tool. While it works you'll see a short status line, such as:
Reading table...
Counting rows...
Adding rows...- It answers from what it just read. The agent is told never to quote a value it hasn't read during your conversation. That is why it checks the table, even for something that looks simple.
- Changes are saved the same way as your own edits. Anything it adds, changes or deletes goes through the same checks as editing the grid yourself, including the column type rules. So it can't put text in a Currency column, for example. An open table shows the change just as it would show a colleague's edit.
Because the agent reads data on demand instead of loading the whole database, it works the same on a table of 10 rows or one of tens of thousands.
Safety Built In
Protection | What it means for you |
**One database only** | A chat can only see and change the database you opened it from. Ask it about another database, even one you own, and it will refuse. Open a chat from that database instead |
**Your permissions apply** | The agent acts as you. On a database you can only view, such as the **Demo Database** or one shared with you read-only, you can ask questions but not make changes |
**Asks before deleting** | Deleting rows or columns needs your OK first, unless you've already confirmed in your request |
**Linked items are safe** | If a row *is* one of your notes or files, deleting that row only removes it from the table. The note or file itself is never deleted |
**Type rules still hold** | Every value the agent writes must fit its column's type, just like a value you type |
Try It on the Demo Database
Every Sapience user can open the Demo Database, a sample trading company with Products, Customers, Orders and more. It's the easiest place to try the chat:
How many units of Green Tea are in stock, and what is its unit price?You'll see a "Reading table…" status, then the answer straight from the Products table. The Demo Database is read-only, so to try adding or changing data, create a database of your own.
Quick Reference
You want to… | Do this |
Open the chat | Databases screen → pick a database → green **Chat** button |
Make it bigger | **Full Screen Chat** in the chat's title bar |
Get back to an open chat | Click **Chat** again on the same database |
Ask about a different database | Open that database and click its own **Chat** button |
Undo a change | Ask the agent to change it back, or edit the grid yourself |
Summary
Chatting with a database lets you search, count, add, change and remove your data, and even reshape its tables, columns and views, just by asking. The agent knows your database's layout from the start, reads the real data whenever it answers, stays inside the one database you opened, and checks with you before it deletes anything.