Glossary · Security

Read-Only Mode

Read-only mode is a safety configuration in which a tool or database connection can run SELECT queries to read data but is blocked from any operation that modifies it–no INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, or schema changes.

Read-only mode is the simplest, strongest guarantee you can give a database: analysis cannot become alteration. It can be enforced at two layers–inside the tool, which refuses to run write statements, and inside the database, via a user account granted only SELECT privileges. The database layer is the stronger one, because no software bug or clever prompt can exceed permissions the database never granted. For AI query tools this is non-negotiable: an AI exploring your data should be physically incapable of changing it, so the worst possible outcome of any query is a wrong answer, never lost data.

Fig — every answer ships with the tables, rows and SQL behind it.