Platform capabilities
What can the Data Lake do for you?
A managed Microsoft SQL Server database per customer, with a schema builder, a Data API, events, time travel, row-level security and object-storage attach, all native SQL Server capabilities rather than a bolt-on store. The 44 documented features below are grouped by what they do for you; each card opens the matching help page.
What the platform covers
The documented features, grouped by what they do. Pick a group to jump to it.
44 sections in 7 groups
Start here4 sections
What you get, how to create a Data Lake, what the landing page tells you, and how to drive it all from a terminal.
Getting Started
What every tenant gets on day one: a managed SQL Server database, a schema builder, a data browser, a SQL editor and a ready-made data API.
Registering a New Data Lake
Create your own Data Lake from the command line: sign up, click one emailed link, and the platform provisions and seeds it for you.
Dashboard
The landing page: whether syncs are healthy, how fresh the data is, how many rows moved, what needs attention and how much storage you use.
Command-Line Interface (dlake)
dlake is the terminal client for your tenant: sign in with an API key and script everything the console can do.
Bring data in8 sections
Connect the systems you already run, or load files, and the data lands in your own SQL Server database.
Import (Connectors)
Pull data in from a system you already run, or let it push into your tables. Eight connectors ship today, with scheduling and verification.
Data Ingestion (file → table sync)
Load a CSV, Parquet or XML file into a table and keep it in sync, either by uploading in the console or by calling the API.
Normal Sync (source → clone tables)
The on-premises agent that copies changed rows out of your SQL Server database into the lake. It runs first in the chain.
ODBC Sync (non-SQL-Server sources)
For sources that are not SQL Server: an agent reads them over ODBC and stages the data so Normal Sync can take it from there.
Generic API Sync (API sources)
When the source is an API rather than a database, this teaches the sync agent which endpoints to call.
Commercient Sync Agent (the on-premises agent)
The Windows agent on your own server that actually reads your ERP. Nothing syncs until it is installed, configured and connecting.
CRMPro (forward sync)
The sync that pushes your ERP data out to your CRM or e-commerce platform, and how to run and troubleshoot it.
TxDownloaderPro (writeback sync)
The return leg: changes made in the CRM travel back to the source system, with a full record of every attempt.
Shape it10 sections
Build tables, views, procedures and indexes with a schema builder, a SQL editor and a data browser.
Tables
Create and manage tables: columns, keys, defaults, and the per-table features you can switch on. The platform’s own tables stay protected.
Views
Standard SQL views over your tables, publishable through the data API exactly like tables once you give them an addressable key.
Stored Procedures
Write stored procedures for work that must happen in one transaction, then publish them to the API and to AI agents as named tools.
Triggers
Your own triggers on your tables, checked before they are created. The platform’s own triggers are marked and protected.
Indexes
Add or drop nonclustered indexes to make queries faster. Names and columns are checked against the database catalogue.
Functions
Scalar and table-valued functions in your schema, with the same protections as tables, views and procedures.
Schemas
Schemas are namespaces for your database objects. List them, create one, drop an empty one, and see which one you are working in.
Full-Text Search
Word and phrase search over text columns using SQL Server full-text indexes. Create the catalogue once, then choose the columns to index.
SQL Editor
Run read-only T-SQL, export the whole result to CSV or Parquet, or save it into a new table. Admin access and a second factor required.
Data Browser
Read your data in the browser with paging and sorting. Row rules and key limits apply, so you see only what you are allowed to see.
Serve it9 sections
Publish exactly the tables you choose as REST and GraphQL APIs, to apps and to AI agents.
DAB & API Keys
The engine that serves your REST and GraphQL API, and the keys that reach it: choose what to expose, limit each key, restart to publish.
Admin Control Plane (MCP)
A second, separate AI connection that configures the platform and never touches your table data. Set-up work, not data work.
Stored Procedures as MCP Tools
Publish a stored procedure to AI agents under its own name, so an agent calls a clear business action instead of a generic tool.
Ask Your Data (natural-language query)
Ask a question in plain English and get the answer, the query behind it, and a short explanation you can open in the editor.
Events (SSE, Polling, Webhooks)
Find out when rows change: poll for changes, stream them live, or have them delivered to a URL you own.
Webhooks
Send your row changes to a URL you own, signed and retried, so other systems react instead of asking again and again.
Inbound Webhooks (receiving events)
The other direction: let an outside system post events to you, and have them land in your tables.
Documents (upload, search, retrieval)
A document store for PDFs, images and text. Upload once, then search and retrieve from the API, from an AI agent and from the CLI.
KB Semantic Search (AI corpus)
Meaning-based search over a synced knowledge base, separate from the document store. Needs SQL Server 2025 and an embeddings provider.
Govern it9 sections
Decide who sees which rows and fields, and keep a full record of who did what.
Security & Access Control
Who can do what: three roles, permissions granted one by one, a second factor for sensitive actions, and the same rules enforced by the API.
Row-Level Security
Rules inside the database that decide which rows each caller may see, applied on every read, whoever is asking.
Audit Logs
A searchable record of every schema and SQL operation: who did it, what they ran, and whether it succeeded.
Audit Stamping
Every row records who created and last changed it, and when, stamped by the database rather than trusted from the caller.
Concurrency Protection
Stop two people overwriting each other’s edits, and turn deletes into reversible soft deletes, enforced by the database itself.
Data Quality
Rules that watch a table and warn you when a feed breaks, a column fills with nulls, or the row count swings unexpectedly.
Key Usage (who is calling your API)
Which of your API keys are actually being used, how heavily, whether their calls succeed, and where they are calling from.
Resource Usage (what your queries cost)
What those API calls cost on the database server: the time and reads they use, and which queries account for most of it.
Triggers and the Data API
Why switching on a table feature can stop that table’s API writes until you restart the data API engine.
Remember it2 sections
See how any row looked at any point in time, and track what changed.
Extend it2 sections
Link object storage, query files as if they were tables, and get told when something needs attention.
Where to go from here
Every card above opens the product help for that capability. If you would rather start doing than reading, install the CLI and work through the quickstart, or read how an AI assistant reaches the same data under a scoped key.
