Ask your database questions in plain English
For teams where every “how many X did we have last week?” turns into a request for the data team. Ask in Slack in plain words. The assistant writes a database query, runs it on a read-only copy of your data, and answers with the number and the query it used, so anyone can check it.
What you need
- A read-only copy of your database with a small query service in front of it, set up by someone technical. Never point it at the database your applications write to.
- A short description of your tables and columns.
- A Slack workspace where you can add an app.
How to build it
- Connect the query service. Open APIs, click Connect an API and give its description link, or, if it is a single call, create an HTTP tool under Tools.
- Create the assistant. Open Agents, click Create agent and switch to Autonomous. In Instructions, describe your tables and write: “Turn the question into SQL, run it, and answer with the number and the query you used.” Pick the query tool under Tools and APIs.
- Add firm rules. On its Constraints tab: “Read only: never change or delete data” and “Limit every query to a date range and a row count.”
- Put it in Slack. On its Channels tab, click Add channel, pick Slack, add your Slack app’s keys and publish. Anyone can then ask it in a channel such as #data.
The read-only copy is what really keeps your data safe: the rules tell the assistant what to do, the read-only access makes sure it can’t do anything else.
Ideas
- Give each team its own query tool that sees only its own tables, and set each tool’s Who can use it to that team.
- Every run on the Runs tab shows the query it ran.