Snapshots: freezing data so numbers stay meaningful
A score is a statement about a specific set of rows. If the rows can change underneath it, the score stops meaning anything.
Three words
- Connection. Where the data comes from, registered once.
- Dataset. A table ingested or registered from that connection.
- Snapshot. An immutable version of a dataset, created by each ingest or sync.
Why immutable
Reports and endpoints reference the exact snapshot they ran on. Nothing about that snapshot changes after creation, so a report can always be reproduced and compared.
Pinning and refreshing
An endpoint keeps serving its current snapshot until you refresh it, even after a newer one exists. Changes in the source system do not leak in unannounced. Refresh is also the only operation that removes deleted rows from what the endpoint knows.
A guard worth having
A dataset used by a live endpoint cannot be unpinned or deleted. The system refuses and names the endpoint that depends on it, so nobody breaks production by cleaning up.
Sources
Uploads (CSV, Excel, JSON), databases, cloud storage, and APIs can all feed the same model, and every sync produces a new snapshot the same way.