CSV upload

There are two ways to bring files into Terno:

	CSV datasource	Chat attachment
File types	.csv only	Any file: Excel, Parquet, PDF, JSON, images, and more
Becomes	A table in a database you can query again and again	A file Terno reads in that chat
Best for	Data you’ll come back to	One-off analysis
Size limit	Large files are fine	200 MB per file

Upload a CSV as a datasource

1. Open Text-to-SQL from the profile menu (your avatar, top right). Next to the datasource selector, click the upload icon, then choose your .csv files in the Add CSV File dialog. Only admins see the upload icon.
2. Terno reads a small sample of each file and works out a table name, clean column names, column types (numbers, text, dates, and so on), and whether the first row is a header.
3. If a CSV datasource is selected, the file is added to it as a new table. Otherwise, Terno creates a new datasource for it.

Once uploaded, ask questions just like any other database, for example “What’s the total revenue by region in the sales file?”

Note

To read the file’s structure, Terno sends a 5-row sample to the AI model. Avoid uploading files with data you’re not allowed to share with an AI provider.

Attach files in a chat

Click + → Add photos & files in the question box. Terno can open spreadsheets, Parquet files, PDFs, JSON, images, and more. It installs whatever tools it needs in its own secure sandbox. Attached files are saved to your File Explorer.

Tips

• Use a header row with clear column names, such as order_date rather than Column 3.
• Keep one table per file, without merged cells, totals rows, or notes above the data.
• Use consistent date formats, such as 2026-10-21.