The SQL workspace and artifact panel

The artifact panel is the slide-in pane on the right of the chat that hosts a SQL workspace, a dashboard viewer, or a file preview — anywhere Strata produces output you may want to edit, re-run, or inspect.

Opening the panel

The panel opens automatically when:

Strata calls the SQL workspace tool to write or update a query for you (panel opens in SQL mode).
Strata builds an interactive dashboard (panel opens in dashboard mode).
You click a file card that Strata generated and the file is previewable (panel opens in file-preview mode).

You can also reopen a previously-saved artifact by loading a conversation that had one — its card appears inline in the transcript, and clicking the card reopens the panel.

SQL workspace

When the panel is in SQL mode, you see:

A header with the artifact's purpose (for example, "Top 10 customers"), an Edit history button, a Copy SQL button, and a Close button.
A toolbar under it: a Code / Output switch (the editable SQL, and the query results once you run it), the last run's row count and time, and Run.

Editing the SQL

The Code pane is an in-place editor. Click into the SQL and edit directly. Your edits are saved automatically as a new version (see Edit history below). Syntax highlighting refreshes as you type.

Running the query

Click Run in the toolbar, or press ⌘ Enter in the editor (Ctrl+Enter on Windows). Strata executes the SQL against the active connection and switches you to the Output tab. Beside Run, the toolbar shows the row count and the time it took, such as 3,412 rows · 214 ms. Running a query you have not changed adds no version.

The Run Query button on a SQL block in the chat opens the same workspace.

Exporting results to CSV

The Output pane includes an Export CSV button in the result-set toolbar. It downloads the current result set as query-results-YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-SS.csv (the time in UTC). If the browser cannot start the download, the CSV is copied to your clipboard instead.

Asking Strata to modify the query

You do not need to edit by hand. In the chat, ask:

"Add a WHERE clause for last quarter."
"Group this by customer."
"Use a CTE instead."
"Add a JOIN to the Products table."

Strata puts its new query in the panel, with a card of its own in its answer. If you had edited the query and it was open in the workspace when you asked, Strata's version is also added to that query's edit history, marked by Strata, so you can compare it with yours. Your own edits stay what that query's card opens.

Edit history

Click the history button in the artifact header. A menu opens under it with every version of the query saved in this conversation, newest first, and Strata's original snippet as the baseline; each says what it changes against the editor. The arrow keys move through it, and Escape or a click outside closes it.

Choose a version to compare it with the editor. The Code tab shows the lines that differ, and two buttons:

Restore this version puts it in the editor and saves it as your newest edit.
Done goes back to the editor, unchanged.

Edit history is per snippet, not a global timeline — if Strata is helping you with two different queries in the same conversation, each has its own version history. See /docs/chat/sql-edit-history for details.

Dashboard viewer

When the panel hosts a dashboard, the layout switches to:

A toolbar with a Code / Preview switch (the raw HTML, and the rendered dashboard) and a Refresh button that draws the preview again after an edit.
A Download HTML button (saves as a standalone file) and Copy button in the header.

See /docs/chat/dashboards.

File preview

When Strata generates an Excel, PDF, Word, PowerPoint or Markdown file, the preview opens on its own as soon as the file is ready, while the rest of the answer is still being written. It only does this on a screen wide enough to show the preview beside the chat; on a phone, tap the file card in the answer. A few rules keep it out of your way:

If a response makes several documents, the first one opens. A later one replaces it only if you have not touched the preview since.
A new version of the document already showing refreshes in place.
If you close the preview, it stays closed for the rest of that response.
Charts and images an analysis draws stay in the answer, and reopening an old chat never opens anything by itself.

Click any file card to open its preview yourself. From there you can:

Download the file (the download icon in the header).
Save to OneDrive (the OneDrive icon in the header — only shown if OneDrive is connected).

Every file card in the answer carries the same two buttons — Download, and OneDrive when it is connected — including the files an analysis writes.

Earlier versions

When Strata edits a document it has already made, the preview keeps every version. A file edited more than once shows how many versions there are and a selector naming the one you are looking at — v3 (Latest). Open it for the full list, newest first, each version dated with the time it was made; pick one to load it in the preview. Download then gives you that version, not the latest. A file Strata has only written once shows nothing here.

Spreadsheets

An Excel workbook (.xlsx, .xlsm, or an older .xls, which Strata converts first), a CSV or a TSV opens as a spreadsheet, not as a printed page. This covers the ones Strata makes, the ones an analysis writes, and the ones you attach.

The grid shows column letters and row numbers, with the workbook's own formatting: column widths, fills, fonts, borders, merged cells, number formats such as currency, percentages and dates, and conditional formatting. Rows and columns frozen in the file stay in place while you scroll.
Sheet tabs along the bottom switch between the workbook's sheets. A sheet that holds only a chart shows the chart. Charts placed on a sheet appear where the workbook puts them.
The formula bar (fx) shows the selected cell's formula, or its value when it has none. Click a cell to select it, or move with the arrow keys, Tab and Enter. Cmd+C (Ctrl+C on Windows) copies the selected cell's value. The preview is read-only.
Expand fills the window with the spreadsheet; Collapse or Esc puts it back beside the chat.
A CSV or TSV also has Copy in the header.

Very large sheets show their first 100,000 rows and 2,000 columns, with a line saying what was left out and suggesting you download the file for the full sheet. If a workbook can't be previewed (it is password-protected, damaged, too large or too complex, or an older .xls could not be converted), the panel says why and offers Download. Word, PowerPoint and PDF files open as pages, below.

PDFs, Word and PowerPoint

A PDF opens as its pages, one under another, each drawn at the width of the panel and sharp on a high-resolution screen. A Word document is first turned into a PDF on Strata's own servers, so it shows the same way.

Text on a page can be selected and copied. A scanned page is a picture, so it has no text to select.
Scrolling a document of more than one page shows which page is in view, such as 3 / 12.
Expand fills the window, and the pages grow with it up to a comfortable reading width.
A long document draws its pages as you reach them, not all at once.

A PowerPoint deck is turned into a PDF the same way and opens as slides: one slide at a time, as large as the panel holds it whole, with a strip of the deck's slides along the bottom, each a small picture with its number.

Click a slide in the strip to show it. The slide on screen is marked in the strip, and the strip scrolls to keep it in view; a mouse wheel over the strip scrolls it too.
Previous and next sit at the end of the strip, beside the count, such as 3 / 12.
Keys: the left and right arrow keys (or up and down, Page Up and Page Down) step through the slides, and Home and End go to the first and the last. Click the slide first, or move to it with Tab.
On a touch screen, swipe left or right.
Expand fills the window, and the slide grows with it.
Text on a slide can be selected and copied, as on a page.
A deck of one slide has no strip. When the panel is very short, the strip makes way for a small bar with previous, the count and next, below the slide.

Editing a presentation by hand

You can change a PowerPoint deck Strata made yourself, without asking Strata: open its preview and click Edit (the pencil in the header). Edit appears on the newest version of a deck Strata generated. The preview widens, and the deck opens in an editor.

Slides run down the left. Click one to work on it, drag it to reorder (or press Alt+↑ / Alt+↓ on a selected slide), and use + Slide to add a blank one. With nothing selected on the slide, the toolbar sets the slide's background colour, duplicates the slide or deletes it.
Select an element by clicking it; Shift-click adds or removes one, and dragging across an empty part of the slide selects everything it touches. Tab steps through the elements.
Move an element by dragging it. It snaps to the slide's edges and centre and to the other elements, with a guide line where it snaps; hold Alt to move it freely. The arrow keys nudge it (Shift for bigger steps).
Resize with the handles on its corners and sides. A picture keeps its shape; hold Shift to keep any element's shape.
Type by double-clicking a text box (or pressing Enter); press Esc when you are done.
Format text from the toolbar: font, size, Bold, Italic, Underline (Cmd+B, Cmd+I and Cmd+U while typing; Ctrl on Windows), text colour, alignment, top, middle or bottom, line spacing, bullets, and a fill behind the box.
Format shapes with a fill, an outline (colour and width), rounder or squarer corners on a rounded rectangle, and a shadow; a line with its colour, width and dashes; a picture can be made round.
Colours come from a picker with the deck's own colours, a standard set, any hex code, or your system's colour picker. Fills and outlines can also be removed.
Add a text box, a shape (rectangle, rounded rectangle, ellipse, triangle, diamond, pentagon, hexagon, star, arrows or a line) or a picture (PNG, JPEG, GIF or WebP, up to 8 MB).
Menus show what they choose: the Shape menu draws each shape, the Font menu sets each name in its own font, and line widths, dashes, corners and line spacing are shown as samples. Clicking a menu's button again closes it.
Arrange an element in front of or behind the others, align it on the slide (or several with each other), duplicate it (Cmd+D) or delete it. Cmd+C, Cmd+X and Cmd+V copy, cut and paste elements, also onto another slide, and Cmd+A selects everything on the slide.
Tables and charts can be moved and resized here; to change their rows or data, ask Strata.
Speaker notes for each slide are under it.
Undo and Redo are in the toolbar (Cmd+Z, Shift+Cmd+Z).
Present shows the deck full screen: the arrow keys, the space bar or a click move on, and Esc stops.

Save (Cmd+S) rebuilds the .pptx with your changes, with your organization's branding as before, as a new version: the version selector and the file card in the chat show it, and Download gives you the new file. When you next ask Strata to change the deck, it starts from your version. Cancel or the X (Stop editing) leaves the editor; if you have unsaved changes, it asks first (Discard your changes?, with Keep editing and Discard).

When Strata edits the deck you have open

You can keep the editor open while you ask Strata to change the deck: collapse it with the button in its header (it opens wide, over the chat) so the chat sits beside it, and ask. While Strata works, the slide it is changing carries a Strata tag (in the slide list and on the slide), and the line under the editor says what it is doing. When it is done, its change appears in place, without reloading the editor and without losing your unsaved changes:

A slide you have not changed takes Strata's version.
A slide you have changed stays yours, and Strata's version is added right after it, tagged Strata, with Use this one (keep Strata's and drop yours) and Remove it. If you save without choosing, both are kept as ordinary slides.
A slide Strata adds appears after the slide it follows; a slide Strata removes goes, unless you had changed it, in which case it stays and the line under the editor says so.

When you save, the new version builds on Strata's, so neither your changes nor Strata's are lost.

Strata reads a slide as it is before changing part of it, so a small request, such as a new title, leaves the rest of the slide as it was.

Sometimes Strata saves a new version that the editor cannot take in place, for example when it makes the deck again from the start. The editor then stays as it is, with your changes, and the line under it says so: Save keeps your changes as another version, and Cancel leaves the editor and shows Strata's. Whenever you leave the editor, the preview shows the newest version.

Only presentations Strata generated can be edited this way: they carry the layout the editor works on. A deck you uploaded, or one changed in place, says it cannot be edited here; ask Strata to change it instead. If your chats are not saved (incognito, or with saving turned off in your settings), the edited version is not kept either.

Editing a Word document or PDF report by hand

A Word document or a PDF report Strata made can be changed the same way: open its preview and click Edit (the pencil). Edit appears on the newest version of a document Strata generated. The preview widens, and the document opens as a page, drawn in its own fonts, sizes, colours and order.

Words change where they are: click the title, the subtitle, a heading, a paragraph, a bullet or numbered item, a callout, a key figure, or a table cell, and type.
Format words in a paragraph, a list item or a callout: select them, then use Bold, Italic, Underline (Cmd+B, Cmd+I and Cmd+U; Ctrl on Windows), the text colour, a highlight, the font, the size, or Clear formatting. Titles, headings, key figures and table cells take new words, not formatting.
Alignment sets a section's paragraphs left, centred, right or justified.
Font, with no words selected, sets the whole document's font. A Word document offers Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Trebuchet MS, Cambria, Georgia, Garamond, Times New Roman and Courier New; a PDF offers Helvetica, Times and Courier, the fonts a PDF is drawn with.
Style, in a Word document, makes a heading Heading 1, 2 or 3.
Tables: a figure shows its stored value while you type in it (4.21) and its column's format again when you leave it ($4.21). Tab and Shift+Tab move between cells, and Tab in the last cell adds a row; Enter moves down. The Table menu inserts rows and columns, aligns a column, and deletes a row, a column or the table. A PDF's computed rows, such as a total, are worked out as the PDF does. A table longer than 500 rows shows its first 500 here; the others are kept as they are.
Key figures: the Figures menu adds one after the one you are on, deletes it, or deletes them all.
Insert adds a section with a heading, a paragraph, a bulleted list, a numbered list (Word), a callout (PDF), key figures or a table, below where you are.
Section moves the section you are in up or down, duplicates it, adds a heading, removes one of its parts (its table, for example), or deletes it.
Theme redraws the document in one of seven colour themes: Corporate, Ocean, Forest, Sunset, Slate, Finance or Modern, with your organization's accent colour where its branding sets one.
Page sets Letter or A4; a PDF can also be turned landscape.
Charts show as a placeholder; to change a chart, ask Strata.
Paste keeps bold, italic and underline, and the pasted words take the document's own font, size and colours. Cmd+Shift+V pastes the words alone.
Undo and Redo are in the toolbar (Cmd+Z, Shift+Cmd+Z); a burst of typing is undone in one step.
On a phone the page flows to the width of the screen at full size, and the toolbar is one row you can scroll sideways.

Save (Cmd+S) rebuilds the .docx or .pdf with your changes, with your organization's branding as before, as a new version, which the version selector, the file card and Download all show. Empty list items, paragraphs and sections are left out of the saved file. When you next ask Strata to change the document, it starts from your version, and the sections it does not change keep your formatting exactly. Cancel or the X leaves the editor, asking first if you have unsaved changes.

If you ask Strata to change the document while it is open in the editor, it works the way it does for a deck, by section: it reads a section before changing part of it, so the rest of it stays as it was; the section it is changing carries a Strata tag while it works; then a section you have not changed takes its version in place, a section you have changed stays yours with Strata's version right after it (Use this one or Remove it), an added section appears after the one it follows, and a removed section goes unless you had changed it. Nothing you typed is lost, and your next save builds on Strata's version. See When Strata edits the deck you have open.

As with presentations, only documents Strata generated can be edited this way; an uploaded file, or one changed in place, says it cannot be edited here. If your chats are not saved, the edited version is not kept either.

Editing a workbook by hand

A workbook Strata made can be edited too: open its preview and click Edit (the pencil). The workbook opens as a sheet drawn from its layout: the header row and banding in its own colours, every value in its Excel number format, and computed rows, such as a total, worked out as Excel works them out.

Type into a cell: click it and type to replace what is there; double-click it, press F2 or Enter, or use the bar above the sheet to change what is there. Enter moves down, Tab moves right and the arrow keys move; Shift with an arrow, or Shift-click, selects a range; Delete clears it. Headers are cells too.
Numbers stay numbers: a figure typed with a currency sign, thousands separators, a percent sign or accounting brackets is stored as the number Excel would read. A code that starts with a zero stays text.
Copy and paste ranges with Cmd+C, Cmd+X and Cmd+V, also to and from other spreadsheets. A paste past the last row adds rows.
Format sets the number format of the selected columns: General, Number, Currency, Accounting with red negatives, Percent, Millions, Thousands or Text. The alignment buttons align them, and Narrower and Wider change their width.
Colours: the header fill, the header text and the banded rows.
Insert adds a row above or below, a column left or right, or a sheet. Delete removes the selected rows or columns, or the sheet; the first sheet stays. On a sheet with notes, drop-down lists, named ranges or formulas tied to particular cells, rows and columns are not added or removed here, because those would then point at the wrong cells; ask Strata instead.
Sheets are tabs along the bottom. Double-click a tab to rename it (as in Excel: at most 31 characters, none of [ ] : * ? / \), and + adds one.
Banner: the titled band across the top of the first sheet. Change its words where they are, or add or remove it with Banner.
Undo and Redo are in the toolbar (Cmd+Z, Shift+Cmd+Z), and Cmd+S saves.
A sheet longer than 2,000 rows shows its first 2,000 here; the others are kept as they are.

Save rebuilds the .xlsx with your changes, with your organization's branding as before, as a new version. Charts, pivot tables and formulas are built from the data as before, so they reflect your changes; features the editor does not show are kept as they were.

If Strata changes the workbook while you have it open here, the editor stays as it is, with your changes, and the line under it says so: Save keeps your changes as another version, and Cancel leaves the editor and shows Strata's.

Editing a Markdown file by hand

A Markdown file Strata made opens the same way: click Edit. Its words are on the left and the page they make on the right, drawn exactly as the file's preview draws it, and the page follows as you type. Write, Split and Preview choose what you see; a narrow window shows the words, and the page under Preview.

The toolbar sets a heading (1 to 3, or normal text) and marks bold, italic, strikethrough, bulleted, numbered and checklist items, quotes, code, links, tables and dividers. Bold, italic, strikethrough and code apply to the selected words and a second press takes them off; the list and quote buttons apply to the selected lines and come off the same way. Code on whole lines makes them a code block.
Links in the preview open in a new tab.
Keys: Cmd+B, Cmd+I and Cmd+K for bold, italic and a link. Enter at the end of a list item starts the next one (numbered one more), and Enter on an empty item ends the list. Tab and Shift+Tab indent and outdent the selected lines.
Undo and Redo are in the toolbar (Cmd+Z, Shift+Cmd+Z), and Cmd+S saves. The number of words and characters shows under the editor.

Save keeps your words as a new version of the same file, and Strata's next change to it starts from your version. If Strata changes the file while you have it open here, the editor keeps your words and says so, as it does for a workbook.

Resizing and closing

Drag the left edge of the panel to resize it. The width is remembered across pages.
Click the X in the header to close the panel. The artifact stays saved in the conversation as a card you can click to reopen it next time you load the conversation.

Persistence

Artifacts are saved to the conversation. When you reload the page or open the conversation from the past-chats sidebar, each saved artifact appears as a card in the transcript; click a card to reopen it in the panel. Inline SQL blocks in the chat transcript show the latest saved version of the snippet, so what you see in chat matches what is in the workspace.

What can go wrong

Run Query button errors out. The active SQL connection may be down. Reconnect from Settings > Apps and retry. See /docs/integrations/sql-server.
Edit history is empty. New conversations start with no saved versions; the AI's original snippet always appears as a baseline labeled "Original AI snippet" once you make any edit.
CSV export downloads nothing. If the browser blocks the automatic download, the CSV is copied to your clipboard as a fallback — paste it into a text file.
Dashboard Preview is blank. Click Refresh in the panel footer. If still blank, the HTML may rely on a script that the sandboxed iframe blocked — open the Code tab to inspect.

/docs/chat — the main chat interface
/docs/chat/dashboards — building interactive dashboards
/docs/chat/sql-edit-history — the per-snippet version history
/docs/integrations/sql-server — connecting a database