# Queries
Queries help you analyze security risks by retrieving relevant data from your connected sources. Querying your data allows you to explore your security posture across different environments, detect potential threats, and uncover critical security insights.
Queries are one of the building blocks that make up an [app](/workspace/apps.md), alongside [canvases](/workspace/apps/canvases.md), [alerts](/workspace/apps/alerts.md), and [workflows](/workspace/apps/workflows.md).
Query real-time collaboration
## Creating queries
There are two ways to create queries:
* **Use Sola AI** to ask security-related questions in natural language and generate queries automatically.
* **Write your queries** from scratch using the SQL query editor.
{% hint style="info" %}
**Pro tip: Enhance your SQL queries with**  **Sola AI**
Sola AI can help you identify the right tables and columns that contain the data you need or refine SQL syntax for more accurate results.
{% endhint %}
Once created, queries can be **saved**, **published**, and **modified** to refine your insights over time.
## Publishing queries
A query extracts a specific dataset from your connected data sources. Publishing a query saves the retrieved dataset as a table in your app. This makes the data set available across your app for:
* [Canvases](/workspace/apps/canvases.md) - Turn query results into charts, graphs, and tables.
* [Alerts](/workspace/apps/alerts.md) - Set up alerts based on query results.
* [Workflows](/workspace/apps/workflows.md) (*coming soon*) - Automate security actions.
## Managing queries
The **Query Library** is where you can access all queries in your app.
Queries can be:
* **Published** - Available for use across the app’s building blocks—canvases, alerts, and workflows—and accessible to all app members.
* **Private drafts** - Visible only to you until shared.
Public and private queries in query library
Queries have two modes:
* **View mode** - Displays the last published version of the query.
* **Edit mode** - A real-time shared draft, where multiple users can collaborate, edit together, and see changes live before publishing.
{% hint style="info" %}
Edits are only applied and visible to all app members once published. When you publish, all changes you and others have made are published together.
{% endhint %}
In the query library, depending on your role permission, you can:
* **View** all available queries in your app.
* **Create** and **modify** queries.
* **Duplicate** a query to modify it without changing the original.
* **Delete** a query.\
\&#xNAN;*Note*: This action cannot be undone. Assets using the query, such as canvases or alert rules, will break or stop working.
{% hint style="info" %}
To manage your **app role permissions**, go to *Workspace Settings* > [*App Permissions*](/system-management/settings.md#app-permissions).
{% endhint %}
{% hint style="success" %}
**Pro tip: Refine your SQL queries with Sola AI**
 Access Sola AI from the query sidebar, or use the AI icon next to Run Query for quick actions:
* **Optimize** - Improve query efficiency.
* **Explain** - Understand what the query does.
* **Debug** - Identify syntax issues and get suggested fixes.
{% endhint %}
---
# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation
If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.
Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:
```
GET https://docs.sola.security/workspace/apps/queries.md?ask=
```
The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.
Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.