> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.briefer.cloud/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Introduction
> Briefer is the modern open-source BI and data science tool.
## What is Briefer
Briefer is like Notion for code notebooks and dashboards. It gives technical users all the flexibility they need to publish dashboards, analyze data, create reports, and build data apps. At the same time, Briefer makes it easy for non-technical users to view and interact with data.
In Briefer, you can:
* 📚📊 **Create notebooks and dashboards** using Markdown, Python, SQL, and native visualizations.
* 🤳 **Build interactive data apps** using inputs, dropdowns, and date pickers.
* 🕰️ **Schedule notebooks and dashboards** to run and update periodically.
* ⚙️ **Create and test ad-hoc pipelines** using writebacks.
* 🤖 **Generate code and queries** using an AI that understands your database schema and your notebook's context.
In addition to all that, Briefer is also multiplayer, meaning two or more people can work on the same notebook or dashboard at the same time and see each other's changes in real-time.
## Getting started
There are three ways to set up Briefer. You can install it on your machine for individual use, sign up for the cloud for a more convenient collaborative workspace, or you can deploy it to your own infrastructure. All of these options are free.
We recommend that you either sign-up for the cloud or deploy it yourself. That way, your whole team will be able to collaborate in Briefer.
Get Briefer running on your machine.
Set up a workspace in our cloud.
Deploy Briefer for your whole team to use.
## Product documentation
The first things you should do after setting up Briefer.
A quick overview on Briefer's interface and how to use it.
Connect your databases to Briefer.
Add text inputs, dropdowns, and date pickers to your pages.
Upload files to Briefer and use them.
Explore your database's schema and data.
Schedule your pages to run and update periodically.
See how your pages evolved over time and restore them.
Turn blocks into components you can reuse across pages.
Share your pages with others or export them
Configure the environments in which your code runs.
Store keys, settings, and other values as environment variables that you can
use.
Use AI to generate code and queries for you.
Get your pages sent periodically on Slack.
Use keyboard shortcuts for convenience and speed.
Allow users to create private documents. Ideal for individual scratchpads.
## Settings and management
Install new Python packages into your environment.
Invite others and manage permissions.
Configure your workspace.
Change page-specific settings.
## Enterprise-specific documentation
Permissions and setup required for deploying Briefer's enterprise version on Kubernetes.
Configure Briefer to use your single sign-on provider on your self-hosted Briefer instance.
Configure Briefer to forward user identities to your data source providers. That way you can authenticate and authorize users with the data source provider.
Manage permissions on a per-page basis.
Configure your self-hosted Briefer deployment to use AI services in your own AWS account.
Customize the appearance of your workspace to match your brand.
Configure your query caches to optimize performance and reduce costs.