Engineering

Guide to getting started for engineers

Velvet is a technical product that maps to your unique data model. Learn about Velvet’s AI SQL editor and how your whole team can use it to build better features, faster.

One place to query all your data

It’s a tedious and time-consuming process to set up data infrastructure. We manage the complexity on our end so it’s simple for you to unify volumes of data from your internal databases, third-party sources, and product webhooks. Depending on your specific infrastructure, you should be able to get set up in a few hours.

Everyone on your team will have access to the sources you connect, reducing your overhead so you can focus on higher-priority product development work.

Read more:

Connect your database tables

We use ClickHouse's Table Engines to enable read-only access to your database. Choose which tables you want to give access to, or create read-only database users. Each table you add maps to a table in Velvet.

Connect your database →

Data from 3rd-party tools

We’ve built API-driven syncing services so you don’t have to. Just drop in an API key and start syncing. Velvet will capture every event you specifiy in a queue, without slowing down your application database.

A good starting point would be something like this:

  • Stripe - Your payments provider
  • Segment - Your product eventing
  • Mixpanel - Your product dashboards
  • Customer.io - Your communication platform

Add 3rd-party tools →

Data from your product

Track every single product event with a collection queue. This feature is super flexible — send us any JSON and we’ll write it to your events table for that source. Events can be captured from webhooks, or using the Velvet events API.

Then write complex queries across data sources like - “Show me super users and an array of video recommendations for each”.

Use the Events API →

You'll get a database per workspace, and a table for each source.

Write complex SQL queries

Ask natural language questions

We’ve built an AI interface so you can use natural language to write complex SQL across disparate and unstructured data sources. Our system introspects on your data to write SQL, heals to resolve errors, and returns results.

Under the hood, we use ClickHouse to bring all your data together into one queryable interface. Each organization's workspace a ClickHouse database, and each source is a table.

Return results from your data in milliseconds

When you ask your data a question, we return results in the form of data tables or numerical analytics. Use results to understand your system or develop new features.

There are two types of results you can request:

  • Data tables: Return a list that matches your query. For example - a list of paying subscribers who signed in last week and watched a video, plus an array of recommended videos for them.
  • Data analysis: Quantify something from across your data sources. For example - how many users tried to post a message but got an error instead, or how many new users created an account on web last week.

Write queries that return lists or analytics results.

Collaborative product development

Define, track, and ship features in one place - and spend less time orchestrating data infrastructure. With Velvet, your whole team has autonomy to experiment with data.

Use Velvet to reduce costs and build faster:

  • Save queries: For results you want to track over time.
  • Visualize data: Charts and graphs on top of queries.
  • Set notifications: Keep the team up-to-date on new query results.
  • Create and reuse: Shared queries that your entire team can use.
  • Real-time data features: Use queries directly in your product.
  • API endpoints: Turn saved queries into API endpoints.

Email us any time at team@usevelvet.com, or schedule a call here.

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