Introduction

What is Stackless?

Stackless is a managed analytics platform for teams that need trusted reporting without running a full internal data stack. Stackless connects business systems, lands the data in a warehouse, transforms it into governed datasets, exposes business metrics through semantic models, and gives users an Agent that can explore, explain, and build analytical outputs.

The important difference is that Stackless is not just a chat box on top of data. The Agent can work across the same layers your data team would use: sources, warehouse tables, transformation models, semantic models, dashboards, and saved artifacts.

[picture 1. Stackless home navigation with Agent, Dashboards, Monitor, and Data sections]

How the platform is organized

Stackless is built around six user-facing areas:

Agent

The Agent is the primary workbench for asking questions, inspecting available data, creating artifacts, and building dashboards. It can answer direct questions, create reusable table and chart artifacts, help draft transformation models, create semantic models, and assemble Stackless dashboards.

Dashboards

Dashboards are persistent analytical surfaces for repeated reporting. A dashboard can be private while it is being drafted, then published to the organization when it is ready. Dashboards can include KPI cards, charts, tables, filters, tabs, scheduled exports, and metric definition drawers.

Data Sources

Sources are the upstream systems Stackless reads from, such as commerce, finance, CRM, marketing, spreadsheets, databases, and custom APIs. Source setup depends on the connector type; some sources can be started directly through Stackless, and others are coordinated with the Stackless team.

Transformation Models

Transformation Models are managed dbt-backed datasets. They clean, join, aggregate, deduplicate, flatten, pivot, and otherwise prepare raw warehouse data into reusable tables or views. They are versioned, previewed, published, refreshed, and exposed to the Catalog.

Semantic Models

Semantic Models define the measures, dimensions, joins, and business names that dashboards and Agent charting use. They should usually sit on top of published Transformation Models, not raw source tables, so dashboards inherit the correct business logic.

Catalog and Monitor

The Catalog is the searchable map of visible data assets and lineage. Monitor is the operational view of scheduled jobs, managed runs, refresh state, and failures that need attention.

Who this documentation is for

• Operators and managers who use dashboards and want the Agent to answer follow-up questions.
• Business analysts who need to create tables, charts, dashboards, and repeatable reporting.
• Data owners who want to understand transformations, semantic models, lineage, and access.
• Administrators who manage users, roles, source access, and Agent data visibility.
• Technical stakeholders who need the architecture and security model at a practical level.

Where to start

If you are new to Stackless, start with Quickstart. If you are mainly interested in the Agent, read Agent Overview, Using the Agent, and Artifacts. If you are responsible for governed data models, start with Transformations and Semantic Models.