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Databricks + Querri

Databricks answers,without a notebook or a line of SQL.

The lakehouse holds what operations, finance and sales want to know. Querri puts the tables you pick in one Library with the rest of your business, queried live in Databricks or synced as a copy, so anyone can ask about them in plain language and get your team's definitions back.

Querri only reads from Databricks, with credentials kept encrypted and out of the agent's sight. SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA and ISO 27001:2022 certified.

Why Databricks reporting gets stuck

The lakehouse is built. The business still can't get in.

Data engineers move into Databricks because it handles the hard pipeline work. The friction shows up later, when someone outside the data team has a question about what's in it.

01

Notebooks and SQL are the front door

A regional manager won't open a notebook or the SQL editor. Each question becomes a request to the data team, and the queue grows faster than the team does.

02

Definitions hide in code

Net revenue is a CASE statement in one notebook, a dbt model in another and a slightly different filter in a dashboard query. Nobody outside engineering can see which is right.

03

A few questions keep compute running

Classic and pro SQL warehouses wait 45 minutes of idle time before stopping by default, serverless ones 10. A trickle of ad-hoc questions through the day keeps a warehouse billing.

04

Big results end up as export.csv

A notebook table shows at most 10,000 rows or 2 MB, whichever is lower. Anything larger gets downloaded, pasted into Excel and emailed, and the copies drift.

05

Governance stops at the download

Unity Catalog decides who reads which table inside Databricks. Once a CSV leaves the workspace, those grants don't travel with it, and every recipient sees every row.

Live or synced

Leave the data in the lakehouse. Ask it anyway.

Each table can be Live or synced, and you choose table by table. A Live table never leaves Databricks: Querri keeps only its columns and an estimated row count, every question runs on your SQL warehouse against the data as it is now, and only the small result comes back.

Live

Queried where it is

Querri writes each question in Databricks SQL and runs it on your SQL warehouse. Nothing is copied, not even on scheduled refreshes. Click a number in the answer and it names the table, the connection and a Live badge.

Best for

  • Very large tables
  • Data that must stay in the lakehouse
  • Answers that are always current
  • Teams already paying for warehouse compute

Synced

Copied on your schedule

The default. Querri copies the table into its own storage and answers from that copy, so questions don't start a SQL warehouse.

Best for

  • Small and medium tables
  • Heavy exploration, with no warehouse cost per question
  • Joining with many other sources
  • Warehouses that are slow to wake

Read-only, enforced

Querri only ever sends one SELECT over the tables you chose. Writes, multiple statements, other tables, file reads and session settings are refused before anything reaches Databricks.

Row rules inside the query

Each person's row filters in Querri are applied inside the Databricks query, so rows they can't see are filtered out before anything leaves the lakehouse.

Traceable and bounded

Every Live query carries a query tag you can find in Databricks' query history. Results stop at 100,000 rows by default, and a result cut off by that limit is labelled.

Your compute, used with care

Live queries run on your SQL warehouse, so they use its compute. Before a scheduled refresh, Querri checks the table's metadata, which doesn't start the warehouse, and runs nothing if the table hasn't changed.

Live tables are available in Scale plans. See the Scale plan

What you can finally answer

Eight Databricks questions that skip the data team's queue

Each one is a request that lands on a lakehouse team every month, why it takes so long today, and how Querri handles it.

How do operations and finance get Databricks answers without a notebook?

Why it's hard

The tables are clean and documented, but the only ways to read them are a notebook, the SQL editor or a dashboard someone else wrote.

With Querri

Choose the gold tables Querri should use, live in Databricks or synced, and people ask in chat in their own words. Every answer lists its steps, and a useful one can be saved as a project anyone can rerun.

Was every customer billed for the usage we metered last month?

Why it's hard

Metered usage lands in the lakehouse while invoices are raised in the ERP. Comparing the two means a pipeline nobody has built yet, or a month-end spreadsheet.

With Querri

Connect NetSuite beside Databricks and Querri lines up each customer's metered usage with its usage invoices. State once in Facts & rules which events are billable, and the list of unbilled customers follows it.

Can the net revenue in our gold tables reach people who never log in to Databricks?

Why it's hard

The agreed definition sits in transformation code. A sales lead rebuilding the number in a spreadsheet gets close, and close is how two numbers end up in one meeting.

With Querri

Write the definition in plain words in the Library and track it as a KPI. Chat, dashboards and scheduled reports all read the same meaning, and the KPI keeps its history from the day you start.

Is the demand forecast our data scientists built holding up against actuals?

Why it's hard

The model writes its forecast to a Delta table and moves on. Checking it against real orders, week by week and region by region, is nobody's job.

With Querri

Connect the forecast table and the orders table, live or synced, and track forecast error as a KPI. Nightly insights compares each region to its own history every night and puts a drifting one in your Inbox.

How do I export Databricks data to Excel automatically every Monday?

Why it's hard

Someone runs the query, downloads the result, formats the sheet and splits it by region by hand. On their week off, nobody gets it.

With Querri

Save the regional breakdown as a project with a Monday 7 a.m. run. Reports & automation reruns it on current data and emails each manager a formatted workbook of their own region, built with Excel tools.

Do customers who contact support often order less afterward?

Why it's hard

Orders are in the lakehouse and conversations are in the support tool. Nobody joins the two, so the cost of a bad support month never shows up in revenue.

With Querri

Connect Intercom next to Databricks and ask. Querri matches customers across both and says how it matched them. The ticket volume playbook shows how to find the contacts that keep coming back.

Can we give clients a dashboard from lakehouse data without a Databricks login?

Why it's hard

Workspace access for outsiders is a security review, and a separate BI tool for client reporting is another contract and another copy of the data model.

With Querri

Build the dashboard by asking, then embed it in your own portal with a row filter per client. With white label, it carries your brand rather than ours.

Can I ask Claude or ChatGPT about our Databricks tables?

Why it's hard

An assistant given raw table names guesses which column means revenue and which date to filter on. The answer reads well whether it's right or not.

With Querri

Connect Querri to Claude or ChatGPT, and questions about lakehouse data are answered from your Library under each person's access in Querri. When a question can be read two ways, it names the reading it used.

Databricks plus the rest

The lakehouse doesn't hold every system yet

Engineering pipes the high-volume data into Databricks first. The ERP, the CRM, the support desk and the budget sheet often wait their turn. Querri puts them in one Library next to your lakehouse tables, so a cross-system question doesn't need a new ingestion job.

Databricks pairs well with

Answers you can stand behind

"Late" has two honest meanings, and the answer names the one it counted

"How many orders were late in September?" can count orders that left the warehouse after the promised date or orders that reached the customer after it. Both are fair, and operations and customer service each favor one. Querri answers with one reading, names it and shows the other count, so the argument is about fixing delays rather than about the query. See how an answer gets checked before you see it.

Wake up to what changed

Overnight, Querri reads the lakehouse numbers for you

Every night, Querri checks your KPIs against their own past with plain arithmetic and goes looking for the shift nobody asked about. What it turns up waits in your Inbox in the morning, and nothing changes until you approve it.

Custom Databricks dashboards

Databricks dashboards nobody has to write a query for

Ask for the layout in a sentence, or hand over a screenshot of the report finance pulls up every Monday. Edits work the same way: a request in plain words. The charts read from the same Library as chat, and each viewer can be held to their own rows.

  • Asked for in words, adjusted in words
  • Lakehouse tables beside ERP, CRM and spreadsheet data
  • Per-person row filters, defined once in Querri
One typed request restyled the whole dashboard, and one click would put it back.

Requests you can stop running by hand

Six Databricks reports that rebuild themselves

What comes over

Synced tables: the schema you point at, copied on your schedule

Synced tables, the default, are copied into Querri's storage, and questions about them are answered from that copy without touching Databricks. Live or synced, Querri can only read what the service principal or the token's user is allowed to read.

What you can sync

  • Tables
  • Views
  • Every table in the schema
  • A chosen list of tables
  • Unity Catalog or Hive metastore
  • Databricks SQL warehouses
  • A connection covers a single catalog and schema; INFORMATION_SCHEMA is left out.

Full refresh, or Live

Every sync re-reads the tables you picked in full, daily to monthly, so rows changed or deleted in Databricks always come through. For a table too big to copy that often, switch it to Live and each question reads it where it is.

Streamed in chunks

Rows arrive 50,000 at a time as typed Parquet files and become a Querri dataset in Iceberg-backed storage. A per-table row cap is there if you want one.

Read only

Querri runs schema lookups and SELECT queries, nothing else. It never writes to a table or changes a record. Syncs run on your SQL warehouse, so they use its compute.

Credentials stored encrypted

OAuth with a service principal, or a personal access token, encrypted at rest and removed from error messages. The Connector Agent sees that a credential exists, never the credential itself.

How to connect Databricks

Three values from your workspace, then the agent takes it from there

  1. 1

    Ask the Connector Agent

    In Connect, type "add our Databricks workspace," or click the Databricks card in the catalog.

  2. 2

    Copy the connection details

    From your SQL warehouse's Connection details, copy the server hostname and the HTTP path.

  3. 3

    Add credentials in the secure form

    Enter a service principal's client ID and OAuth secret, or a personal access token, and name a catalog and schema if you want one other than the default.

  4. 4

    Choose tables and approve

    Keep every table or pick a few, and choose a schedule. To keep a table in Databricks instead, switch it to Live. Nothing loads until you approve.

  5. 5

    Ask your first question

    Live tables are ready once Querri has read their columns, synced ones once the first load lands. Then ask about the lakehouse tables in chat, or build dashboards and scheduled reports from them.

Connector cards for Google Drive, NetSuite, Salesforce, Square, ShipStation and Snowflake on Querri's Connect page, with the Connector Agent holding a new connection for approval
The agent holds every new connection and first load for your Approve.

Databricks FAQ

Questions about Databricks and Querri

How do I connect Databricks to Querri?

Tell the Connector Agent you want Databricks, or choose its card in the catalog. Enter the server hostname and HTTP path from your SQL warehouse's Connection details, then a service principal's OAuth credentials or a personal access token in the secure form. Optionally name a catalog and schema. Then pick the tables, choose which stay Live and how often the rest refresh, and approve.

What Databricks data does Querri sync?

The tables and views in the schema you choose, either all of them or a list you pick, with their columns and types. It works with Unity Catalog or the Hive metastore, through a SQL warehouse. Querri can only read what the token's user or service principal can read.

How often does Databricks data sync?

Synced tables are re-read in full daily, weekly or monthly, so rows changed or deleted in Databricks show up after the next run. Before a big meeting, start one by hand. Live tables are always current: each question reads Databricks as it is when it runs.

Does Querri write to or change my Databricks data?

No. Querri only reads your Databricks tables and never changes a record in them. It runs schema lookups and SELECT queries and never creates, updates or deletes a table or row; Live queries are checked before they're sent, so only a single SELECT over the tables you chose reaches Databricks. Those queries do run on your warehouse, so syncs and Live questions use its compute.

How do Unity Catalog permissions carry over to Querri?

Querri can only read what the service principal or the token's user is granted, so a service principal with read access to just the schema you want is the cleanest setup. Inside Querri, Unity Catalog grants don't apply person by person: Querri's sharing settings and a row filter for each person decide what they see, and for Live tables that filter is applied inside the Databricks query.

Does Querri query Databricks live every time someone asks a question?

It can, table by table. A Live table stays in Databricks: each question that needs it runs on your SQL warehouse as a query written in Databricks SQL, and only the result comes back. Those queries use the warehouse's compute, and a stopped warehouse adds a few seconds to the first question. Synced tables are answered from Querri's copy, so those questions never wake a SQL warehouse and reflect the latest sync. Live tables are available in Scale plans.

Should a Databricks table be Live or synced?

Make it Live when the table is very large, when the data must stay in the lakehouse, or when every answer should reflect Databricks as it is now. Keep it synced when the table is small or medium, when people explore it heavily and you'd rather not pay warehouse compute per question, or when the warehouse is slow to start. You can switch a Live table back to synced at any time; it loads on the next full sync.

Can I combine a Live Databricks table with other data?

Yes. Questions over several Live tables from the same connection run as one Databricks query. When a question also needs a synced table or an uploaded file, Querri first summarizes the Live table in Databricks, then combines the small result with the other data in Querri. It happens automatically, and clicking a number shows which table it came from, with a Live badge.

How do I combine Databricks and NetSuite data?

Connect NetSuite as well, and both land in the same Library. Querri can match lakehouse usage, orders or shipments to NetSuite invoices, sales orders and payments on a shared order number or customer, and it tells you how it matched. Define once which usage is billable or when an order counts as shipped, and every answer follows it.

How do I combine Databricks and Salesforce data?

Connect Salesforce next to Databricks. Querri matches accounts across the two, best on an ID stored in both, so you can put product or order activity beside pipeline, renewals and open cases. If a match rests on a name rather than an ID, the answer flags it.

How do I get a weekly Excel report from Databricks without exporting by hand?

Turn the analysis into a project and attach a weekly schedule. On Monday morning it reruns on current lakehouse data and sends each manager a formatted workbook holding only their region, or one per client. The download-and-paste step goes away.

How do I get a forecast-versus-actuals report from Databricks?

Connect the Delta table your model writes its forecast to, plus the orders or sales table, live or synced. Define forecast error once as a KPI, broken out by region or product. Querri keeps its history from the day you start, and Nightly insights flags a region whose error drifts.

Can I build custom Databricks dashboards without a BI tool?

Yes. Ask for the dashboard in plain words, or start from a screenshot of one your team already uses, and change it by asking. A single dashboard can mix lakehouse tables with ERP, CRM or spreadsheet data, hold each viewer to their own rows, and be embedded in your own app.

Can I ask ChatGPT or Claude about my Databricks data?

Yes. After a one-time setup in Claude or ChatGPT, questions about lakehouse tables draw on your Querri Library, follow your definitions and rules, and stay inside what that person may see in Querri, so the assistant and your dashboards agree.

Can I connect to Databricks with OAuth instead of a token?

Yes. OAuth with a service principal (machine-to-machine) is the recommended setup: enter its client ID and secret, and its short-lived tokens need no rotation. A personal access token also works. Either way, the connection doesn't depend on any one employee signing in.

What are the limits of the Databricks connector?

A connection covers a single catalog and schema. Custom SQL queries aren't supported, so select tables or views instead. There's no writing back. Live results stop at 100,000 rows and questions in chat time out after 2 minutes, by default. Several catalogs or schemas simply mean several connections.

Can Querri reach a Databricks workspace on a private network?

Not yet. Querri connects to your workspace over HTTPS on port 443, so the workspace has to be reachable from the internet. If a warehouse is stopped or the host is wrong, the connection gives up within a couple of minutes rather than hanging.

Does Querri handle large Databricks tables?

Yes. Make a big table Live and it stays in Databricks, where each question runs and only the result comes back. Synced tables stream in chunks of 50,000 rows into typed Parquet files, rather than one giant pull, and progress shows as rows arrive. You can also cap rows per table.

Do I need to know SQL or Python to use Databricks data in Querri?

No. Once the tables are connected, anyone with access asks in plain language. Querri shows the steps behind each answer, so someone on the data team can check the logic, and a good answer can be saved as a project that reruns on fresh data.

Is my Databricks data secure in Querri?

Querri is SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA and ISO 27001:2022 certified, and your data is never used to train a model. Your credentials are encrypted at rest, scrubbed from error messages and never shown to the Connector Agent, and the connection uses HTTPS only.

Open the lakehouse to the people asking the questions.

Connect with a hostname, an HTTP path and a service principal or token, then query the lakehouse live or sync a copy. Querri only reads and never writes to it.