Core concepts

The vocabulary used throughout the Flax docs — connection, project, semantic model, explore, sheet, workbook, chart, dashboard, action, and more.

This glossary defines every core noun in Flax. If a term in another page is unfamiliar, it is almost certainly defined here.

#Data

Connection — a configured link to a data warehouse (Postgres, Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery) or an uploaded file. Credentials are encrypted with a rotating key-ring. See Connecting data.

Project — a semantic project, typically ingested from a dbt repository, that groups the models describing one body of data.

Semantic model — the dbt-compatible YAML that defines dimensions, measures, and joins. It is the single source of truth for what a metric means. See Modeling.

Dimension — an attribute you group or filter by (e.g. region, order_date).

Measure — an aggregated value (e.g. sum(amount) as revenue).

#Analysis

Explore — the point-and-click query builder. You pick dimensions and measures; Flax compiles dialect-correct SQL and runs it in your warehouse. See Querying & exploring.

Sheet — a spreadsheet built on a query result, with formulas, formats, and real-time collaboration. See Sheets.

Workbook — a collection of related sheets (tabs) that can reference each other.

Chart — a saved visualization of a query. See Visualizing data.

Dashboard — a laid-out collection of charts and text blocks with shared filters, cross-filtering, and drill-down.

#Automation & governance

Action — a trigger→effect automation (e.g. a dashboard control that updates a filter, or an event that runs a follow-up query). See Actions.

Scheduled delivery — a recurring email of a dashboard or chart. See Scheduled deliveries.

Team — a group of members that grants shared access to content and data sources. See Teams & RBAC.

Row-access filter — a semantic-layer rule that restricts which rows a user can see, enforced in compiled SQL and by Postgres row-level security. See Row-access filters.

Service account — a non-human identity that holds API tokens for programmatic access. See Authentication.