---
title: "Data Manager overview"
description: "Build your own structured tables and let the AI work with them."
canonical: https://ocho.bot/docs/data-manager/overview
last_updated: 2026-07-12
---

# Data Manager overview

> Build your own structured tables and let the AI work with them.

Data Manager is a workspace for **custom tables** — structured data your team defines, like a lightweight database with an AI assistant attached. It has three resizable panels: a **Tables** list on the left, the selected table's records in the middle (until you pick a table it reads "Select a table on the left."), and a **Data chat** pane on the right with the prompt "Ask about your data...".

## Key concepts

- **Tables** — created by table administrators, each with a label, icon, and

description. Columns are added afterwards from the table's **Manage   columns** option (the **Columns** sheet, where admins add, edit, reorder,   and delete columns).

- **Columns** — typed fields. The available types are: String, Text (long),

Number, Boolean, Date, Date + time, Choice (single), Choice (multi),   Reference (link to another table), Currency, URL, Email, Phone, and JSON.

- **AI access** — when creating a table, the administrator sets two

checkboxes (both off by default): **Let AI read this table** (chat skills   can list and summarize records) and **Let AI write this table** (chat   skills can create and update records). With write access, the assistant   creates and updates records for you directly — there is no separate   approval step, so grant write access deliberately.

## Who can do what

- **Table administrators** (the `table_admin` role) create tables and manage

their columns. Archiving and restoring a table is done by asking the AI   assistant — there are no archive or restore buttons in the workspace, and   archiving is reversible.

- Everyone with access to Data Manager can use the Data chat. Which tables

you can see, and whether you can add or edit records, both depend on that   table's permissions and visibility, set per table by an administrator — a   restricted table is visible only to its owner, table admins, and shared   groups.

## Good to know

- The **Data chat** pane is the standard Ocho chat surface pointed at your

data — its empty-state suggestions and dataset picker are the same ones   you see in regular chat.

- If your workspace has no tables yet, the page shows "No tables yet." Table

administrators also see a "Create your first table" button; everyone else   sees "An admin can define one in Payload > Data Manager." — ask a table   administrator to create the first table.

## The pages

- [Create custom tables](/docs/data-manager/create-custom-tables)
- [Manage records](/docs/data-manager/manage-records)
- [The AI data assistant](/docs/data-manager/ai-data-assistant)

All docs: https://ocho.bot/docs

---

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