Models and metrics

A question can change its nature. From the More menu of the question editor:

Nature	What it is	Where it is used
Question	a query and its visualization	folders, dashboards
Model	a reusable virtual table	as a source in the visual editor, and for the copilot
Metric	a named aggregation	in the visual editor, cards, the copilot and the MCP server

Models and metrics are stored in folders like questions, are shared the same way, and run like them: in Trino, under the permissions of whoever reads them.

Models

Turn into a model makes a question — visual or SQL — a virtual table: in the Data step of the visual editor, it appears under Models, next to the tables. Use it to freeze a preparation that everyone keeps redoing: a join, a business filter, renamed columns.

The demo model, Enriched orders, joins each order to its customer’s region, city and segment:

SELECT o.id, o.passee_le, o.statut, o.canal, o.montant_total, o.remise,
       c.segment, c.region, c.ville, c.canal_acquisition
FROM boutique.public.commandes o
JOIN boutique.public.clients c ON c.id = o.client_id

A question built on this model no longer needs to know about the join. The row and column rules of the underlying tables still apply: the model is a query, re-read by Trino on every execution.

A model can carry its own column metadata — label, description, semantic type, format — which dresses up its result. For now, it is defined through the API (the columns_meta field of a question).

Metrics

A metric is an aggregate defined once: “revenue = sum of montant_total of paid, shipped or delivered orders”. It is created from a visual editor question that has a single measure: Turn into a metric. Its definition keeps the question’s source, measure and filters.

It is then used:

• in the visual editor, in the Summarize › Metrics step, like any other measure, grouped by month or by region; its own filters apply as is;
• on the cards of a dashboard, through the questions that reference it;
• by the copilot, which lists metrics before writing a calculation;
• by the MCP server: list_metrics, then query_metric, with a grouping by column or by period and additional filters.

One metric, one source

In the visual editor, a metric is used on the table or model on which it is defined; columns from tables linked by a foreign key remain available to group it.

Change the definition once

Editing a metric changes every question that references it: that is the whole point of naming it rather than copying its calculation.