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Overview

A Data Store is a type of knowledge base that holds structured data instead of files. Where a document knowledge base stores files and lets agents search their text, a data store is a real Postgres database: tables, rows, and columns that your agents design and manage, and that your apps can read and write live. Reach for a data store when your agents need to track state that changes over time rather than cite fixed source material: A simple rule of thumb: cite it → document KB; update it → data store.

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Isolation and security

Every organization’s data stores live in a dedicated, private database, separate from every other organization and from Aster’s own platform database. Access always flows through Aster’s API — connection strings are never exposed to agents, apps, or browsers, and each data store is reachable only by its own scoped database role. Cross-organization access is impossible at the database level, not merely disallowed.

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Creating a data store

From Control Hub

Go to Control Hub → Knowledge Bases → New, give it a name, and choose the Data Store type. The first data store in your organization takes a few seconds to provision its database; after that, creation is instant.

Or let an agent create it

An agent with the manage_knowledge_bases tool can create a data store directly (action: create, type: structured) as part of building a solution.

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How agents work with a data store

Agents interact with a data store through three tools. Grant them to an agent and point them at the data store(s) it should reach.
  • manage_data_store — evolve the schema: create tables, add or alter columns, create indexes, and create views (saved SQL that apps can read like a table). Destructive changes require explicit confirmation.
  • query_data_store — read with full SQL SELECT (joins, aggregates, GROUP BY, window functions, CTEs). Large results are returned as an attached CSV.
  • write_data_store — insert, update, delete, upsert, and atomic multi-statement batch writes.
The agent always sees its data stores’ current schema in its context, so it knows what tables and columns exist without having to ask.

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The data explorer

Open a data store in Control Hub and you get a built-in explorer:
  • A table list on the left and a live row preview on the right.
  • Pagination through large tables.
  • Export — download any single table, or the entire store, as CSV at any time. Your data is always yours to take.

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Live data in apps

This is where data stores shine. An app bound to a data store can read and write rows live — a user checks a box or edits a value and the change is saved instantly, visible to teammates on their next refresh. There is no staging step and no need to republish the app. See Apps → Live data for how app builders use the useLiveTable and useDataStore hooks.

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What a data store is not

  • Not a document store. It holds no files; file upload, semantic search, and extraction schemas don’t apply. Use a document knowledge base for those.
  • Not a connection to an external database. A data store is Aster-managed infrastructure. To work with a system your organization already runs, use that system’s integration instead.