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Managing Connections

Connections are how Teela accesses your data. There are two types of connections: Team Connections, which are shared across your organization and managed by admins, and Personal Connections, which individual users create for their own private use.

Team Connections​

A Team Connection is shared between everyone in your company (or specific assigned users). Only Client Admins and Owners can manage these.

Viewing Your Team Connections​

Admins can navigate to the Admin portal and click on Team Connections to see all connections configured for your organization. Each connection shows:

  • Name: The display name you gave the connection
  • Type: Database (SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL), Google Sheets, Excel, or CSV
  • Status: Whether the connection is healthy, has warnings, or is unreachable
  • Last synced: When Teela last refreshed data from this source
  • Assigned users: How many users have access to this connection

Adding Database Connections​

Database connections give Teela access to your SQL Server, MySQL, or PostgreSQL databases.

Setup Steps​

  1. Click Add Connection and select your database type.
  2. Enter the connection details:
    • Connection name: A friendly name your team will recognize (e.g., "Production CRM" or "Sales Database")
    • Hostname: The server address
    • Port: The port number (defaults are pre-filled for each database type)
    • Database name: The specific database to connect to
    • Username and password: A read-only account is strongly recommended
  3. Click Test Connection to verify Teela can reach the database.
  4. Once the test passes, click Save.

After saving, you'll want to run schema extraction so Teela can learn the structure of your database.

The "Get Help from IT" Flow​

If you don't have database credentials, click Get Help from IT on the connection form. Enter your IT contact's email, and they'll receive a secure, time-limited link (expires in 72 hours) where they can enter the credentials directly. No Teela account required. See Setup for more details.

Adding Google Sheets Connections​

Google Sheets connections use OAuth to securely connect Teela to your Google account.

Connection Steps​

  1. Click Add Connection and select Google Sheets.
  2. Click Connect to Google and sign in with the Google account that has access to the sheet.
  3. Select the Google Sheet you want to connect.
  4. Teela will scan the sheet and show you all available tabs. Select the tabs you want to include.
  5. Review any tab validation warnings (see below) and click Save.

Auto-Sync​

Google Sheets connections automatically sync with your source data. When you update the sheet in Google, Teela picks up the changes.

Tab Validation Warnings​

Teela checks each tab for potential issues:

  • Merged cells: Merged cells can cause data alignment problems. Teela will flag these and recommend unmerging before connecting.
  • Mostly empty tabs: Tabs with very little data may not be useful and could cause confusion in query results.
  • Calendar or pivot table formats: Tabs formatted as calendars or pivot tables don't translate well to a queryable data structure.

Tabs that cannot be reliably processed will not be able to be checked.

Row Limits​

Each Google Sheet tab supports up to 500,000 rows. If a tab exceeds this limit, Teela will import the first 500,000 rows and display a warning.

Adding Excel Connections​

  1. Click Add Connection and select Excel.
  2. Upload your .xlsx file (up to 100 MB).
  3. Select which sheets within the workbook to include.
  4. Click Save.

Excel connections are a snapshot of the file at upload time. To update the data, use the Replace File button (see below).

Adding CSV Connections​

  1. Click Add Connection and select CSV.
  2. Upload your .csv file (up to 100 MB).
  3. Click Save.

Like Excel, CSV connections are a snapshot. Use Replace File to update.

Updating and Replacing File Connections​

For Excel and CSV connections, the data doesn't sync automatically: it reflects the file you uploaded. When your data changes:

  1. Open the connection in the Admin portal.
  2. Click Replace File.
  3. Upload the updated file.
  4. Teela will re-process the file and update the connection.

Column structure should remain consistent between file versions. If columns are added or removed, Teela will re-extract the schema and you may need to update related training data and aliases.

Managing Relationships in Spreadsheet Connections​

When you connect spreadsheets (Google Sheets, Excel, or CSV), Teela needs to understand how your tabs or files relate to each other: similar to how database tables have foreign keys.

Auto-Detected Relationships​

Teela automatically looks for relationships based on column names and data patterns. For example, if both a "Sales" tab and a "Products" tab have a product_id column, Teela will suggest they're related.

User-Defined Relationships​

If Teela doesn't detect a relationship, or detects one incorrectly, you can manage this yourself using the Relationship Manager:

  1. Open the connection and navigate to the Relationships tab.
  2. Click Add Relationship to define how two tabs connect.
  3. Select the source tab and column, the target tab and column, and the relationship type.
  4. Click Save.

You can also edit or remove auto-detected relationships here.

Connection Health and Sync Status​

Teela monitors your connections and surfaces issues proactively:

  • Healthy: The connection is active and data is accessible.
  • Warning: The connection works but has potential issues (e.g., tab validation warnings, approaching row limits).
  • Error: Teela can't reach the data source. This could mean the database is down, credentials have changed, or a Google account was disconnected.

Check the Connections page regularly, and address errors promptly to avoid disruptions for your users.

Assigning Tea, Connections to Users​

Users can only query connections you've explicitly assigned to them. To manage assignments:

  1. Open the connection you want to configure.
  2. Navigate to the Users tab.
  3. Add or remove users from the connection.

You can also assign connections from the user's profile page. See User Management for details.

Personal Connections​

In addition to Team Connections, users with an active subscription can create their own Personal Connections for Google Sheets, Excel, and CSV files. Personal connections let individual users explore their own data without needing admin involvement.

How Personal Connections Differ from Team Connections​

Team ConnectionsPersonal Connections
Managed byClient Admins and OwnersThe individual user
VisibilityVisible to admins; queryable by assigned usersOnly the user who created them
Supported typesDatabases, Google Sheets, Excel, CSVGoogle Sheets, Excel, CSV
Appear in the Admin portalYesNo
Count against org limitsYesNo

What Users Can Connect​

Personal connections support the same spreadsheet-based sources available for Team Connections:

  • Google Sheets: Connected via OAuth, with the same auto-sync, tab validation, and 500,000-row-per-tab limit as team Google Sheets connections.
  • Excel: Upload an .xlsx file (up to 100 MB). Data reflects the file at upload time; users can replace the file to update.
  • CSV: Upload a .csv file (up to 100 MB). Like Excel, this is a snapshot that can be replaced.

How Users Create Personal Connections​

Users manage their personal connections from within the Teela chat interface (not the Admin portal):

  1. Click the Connections icon in the sidebar.
  2. Click Add Connection and select the source type.
  3. Follow the prompts to connect a Google Sheet or upload an Excel/CSV file.
  4. The connection is immediately available for querying.

Admin Visibility​

Personal connections are not visible to Client Admins or Owners in the Admin portal. Admins cannot view, edit, or delete a user's personal connections. If a user needs help with a personal connection, they will need to share details directly with your support team.

  • Setup: Initial setup walkthrough including your first connection
  • User Management: Assign users to connections and manage access