10 min read
Connect a database
Give an agent Postgres, MySQL, or ClickHouse. It introspects the schema, writes real SQL, and reasons over the results in its own sandbox.
- 01
Create a read-only role first
Before you touch Helios, create a database role that can read the schemas a task needs and nothing else. A reporting agent with a read-only credential has no path to a write, because the permission is enforced by your database — which is exactly where that decision belongs.
- 02
Add the connection
From Settings → Integrations, add a Postgres, MySQL, or ClickHouse connection with a host, port, database, and credentials. Everything is stored envelope-encrypted and decrypted only when a run needs it.
- 03
Reach a private database through an SSH tunnel
When the database sits on a private network, configure an SSH tunnel on the connection. Agents connect through the bastion you specify, so nothing has to be exposed to the public internet to make this work.
- 04
Ask a question in plain English
Run a manual agent that asks something you already know the answer to. It introspects tables, columns, types, and keys, writes the SQL, runs it, and explains the result. Comparing its answer against the one you knew is the fastest way to see whether it understood your schema.
- 05
Read the SQL it wrote
Every run records the queries the agent ran and the rows they returned, so a report always traces back to the exact SQL. When a number looks wrong, the query that produced it is one click away.
- 06
Schedule the task
Attach a cron trigger and the report shows up before standup, every morning. Memory carries what the agent learned about your schema across runs, so the fifth report starts smarter than the first.
Keep going
Next in the track
7 min
Pin repositories as context
Give an agent standing context: pin a GitHub repository and the agent carries it into every run without being told again.
8 min
Put an agent on a schedule
Turn a working prompt into a standing task. Describe the cadence the way you would say it out loud, and Helios writes the cron expression for you.
8 min
Use secrets and variables
Keep the values a task needs out of the prompt. Variables hold configuration, secrets hold credentials, and both are scoped to the level where they belong.
Templates
Put it to work
Templates that use what this guide covers.
Operations
Weekly metrics report
Queries your warehouse, computes the metrics your team argues about, and posts a report with the anomalies called out.
Operations
Nightly data quality checks
Runs your invariants against production every night and tells the on-call analyst which rows broke and since when.
Operations
KPI sheet refresh
Pulls from the warehouse every morning and writes the finished tables into the sheet leadership already opens.
Try it in your workspace.
Start free, connect a tool, and describe the first task in plain English.