Back to AIStora

Getting started with AIStora

AIStora turns CSV files into something you can question. Upload a spreadsheet export, check its quality, get an automatic profile of every column, and ask questions in plain English. All calculations run on AIStora's server; the AI model only ever sees your column names, types and your question, never the rows themselves.

1. Create a database

A database is a folder for related CSV files, for example one per client, project or month. Click New Database, give it a name and press Enter. You can rename or delete it later from the card.

2. Upload CSV files

Drop one or more .csv files on the upload area. Each file becomes a table named after the file; use Rename to give it a friendlier name. What works:

• The first row must be the header (column names).
• Comma, semicolon, tab and pipe separated files are all detected automatically.
• UTF-8, Excel (Windows-1252) and Latin-1 encodings are handled, with or without a BOM.
• Column types (whole number, decimal, text) are inferred from the first 1,000 rows.
• Rows with a different number of cells than the header are skipped and you are told how many; Auto clean can repair them.
• Excel workbooks (.xlsx) are not accepted yet: save each sheet as CSV first.

Limits on this server: files up to 5 MB, 8 tables per database and 3 databases per account.

3. Auto clean (optional)

Click Auto clean next to a table to profile it. AIStora shows what it found and what it would change, and only acts after you approve. It never edits your original table: it creates a new _cleaned copy next to it. Fixes it can apply:

• Tidy headers (Customer Name becomes Customer_Name) and name blank columns.
• Trim stray spaces and turn N/A, null, none into empty cells.
• Convert text that is really a number: $1,234.50, USD 954, (20.00), 12%, 1234,50.
• Standardize Yes/No, Y/N, TRUE/FALSE to true/false.
• Remove exact duplicate rows and empty rows; pad or trim rows of the wrong width.
• Rewrite semicolon or tab separated files with commas.

Missing values are reported, never guessed or filled in.

4. Relationships between tables

When a database has two or more tables, AIStora asks the AI to propose how they connect (for example orders.customer_id to customers.customer_id) from the column names and types alone. Detected relationships let you ask questions that span tables, such as revenue per customer segment. Use Re-detect relationships after uploading more files.

5. EDA report

Open the chat screen and click EDA report. In about a second you get a deterministic profile of every table: missing values, duplicates, numeric distributions with outlier flags, category breakdowns, date ranges and correlations, plus plain-language findings. It runs entirely on the server, uses no AI, and can be downloaded as JSON.

6. Auto analyze

Click Auto analyze for an instant dashboard of what stands out. AIStora ranks your columns by name and type (a measure such as order_total, dimensions such as status or channel, a date column, name-like columns), then computes totals by category with shares, the month-by-month trend with growth, the top products or customers and how concentrated they are, the distribution of the main measure, missing-value flags, and — when tables link through an id — breakdowns across tables such as revenue by customer segment. Every card has a chart, the numbers behind it, and an Ask about this button that sends the follow-up question to the chat. It uses no AI, so it is free and instant.

7. Ask questions

Type a question or click one of the suggested chips. The AI plans a sequence of safe operations (filter, group, join, rank, bucket by month) and AIStora executes them locally, then shows the result table and the steps it took in the Agent activity panel. Questions that work well:

• "What was total order_total by channel?"
• "Show the 10 customers with the most orders."
• "Average order_total per month of order_date."
• "How many orders were returned, grouped by ship_state?"
• "Join orders and products, then total quantity by category."

Use the column names you see in the schema panel; the AI cannot guess a column that does not exist. Ask for a "chart" to get a bar or line chart; the chart is rendered by an external service, so AIStora asks your permission before sending it the aggregate numbers.

AI questions are limited to 10 per account per day during the beta. EDA reports, cleaning and uploads are unlimited.

8. Memory, learning and feedback

Within a database, the AI remembers the recent conversation so follow-up questions work ("now only for 2025"). Clear memory forgets that conversation. Thumbs up/down on an answer teaches AIStora which plans worked; Clear learning deletes those saved evaluations for the database.

Privacy

• Files are stored on AIStora's server and are visible only to your account.
• The AI model receives table names, column names and types, row counts, detected relationships and your question. It never receives cell values.
• The one exception is a chart you explicitly approve, which sends the aggregated numbers to the charting service.
• Delete a table or database at any time from its trash icon.

Troubleshooting

"A database may hold at most N tables."

Delete a table you no longer need (trash icon) or create another database.

A column I expected to be numeric shows as text.

Some values contain currency symbols, thousands separators or words. Run Auto clean; the copy will have plain numbers.

The AI says a column does not exist.

Check the exact name in the schema panel; names are case-sensitive after cleaning.

"Your session has expired."

Sessions end after a period of inactivity. Sign in again; your files are still there.

The daily AI limit is reached.

EDA report and Auto clean still work. The limit resets at midnight UTC.

AIStora is in public beta. Found a problem? Email jamiejwei@gmail.com.