The catalog Canvas tab

Select a connection, catalog, or schema on the Catalog page and a Canvas tab appears next to Details and Tables. It draws an entity relationship diagram of that scope’s tables: each table as a compact node listing its key columns, connected by crow’s foot relationship lines. Key review is the point of this diagram, so it shows the columns that matter for keys and joins rather than every column.

Use it when you want to see how a schema hangs together before or after an import, prune the view down to the tables you care about, and run key or relationship suggestions against exactly that set.

What the diagram shows

• One node per table, titled with the table name. Badges mark the table type and planned tables. Each node lists the table’s key columns: primary key and business key columns carry badges, and columns that sit on either side of a recorded relationship carry a foreign-key marker, with data types alongside.
• Crow’s foot connectors for the relationships recorded between the tables in view. Each connector carries a label naming the joined columns (or the pair count when a relationship joins on several).
• Related tables: the diagram opens showing the tables in the scope you selected. To pull in a table’s neighbors, open a table’s menu (the three-dots button on the node, or right-click) and choose Show related tables: its directly related tables are added to the canvas, including any that sit outside the selected scope. Add them table by table to build up exactly the picture you want. Hide from canvas on any table’s menu removes it again (a scope table is hidden; a revealed neighbor is dropped).

Layout is automatic, top to bottom. You can drag nodes to tidy a corner while you work, but positions are not saved: the next visit lays the diagram out fresh. The zoom, fit, lock, and Auto layout controls sit together in the bottom-left control cluster; use Auto layout to re-run the arrangement at any time.

Choose which tables you see

The table selector control (the filter button in the bottom-left cluster) opens a right-hand panel with a searchable checkbox tree grouped the same way the catalog is (connection, then catalog, then schema). Group checkboxes select or clear a whole branch, and Show all resets the view. The scope’s table total is shown in the header above the tabs.

Unticking a table hides it and its relationships immediately, and the diagram re-lays-out as you work. Your pruned view is remembered in this browser for this connection, catalog, or schema: it is not shared with teammates, and tables imported later default to visible so new arrivals are never silently hidden.

Large scopes

A connection can hold more tables than a single readable diagram. Above roughly 200 visible tables the canvas pauses before first render and shows the count with two choices: open the selector and prune, or Render anyway. Nothing is ever hard-blocked; the notice is there so you choose the size of the diagram you wait for.

Run AI suggestions scoped to what you see

Open Ask AI on this canvas to run Discover keys and relationships against this scope. The run defaults to every table currently visible on the canvas: hidden tables and grayed out-of-scope neighbors are excluded. Select one or more nodes first to narrow the run to just those tables.

The launch form shows a scope selector where you can confirm the set: all tables on this canvas, a single functional layer, or an individual pick. Landing-layer tables are listed for completeness but are never scanned. Large runs ask you to confirm before spending the AI calls.

When a relationships run you launched here has candidates waiting, they appear on this canvas as dashed edges with a notice that opens the review in the docked Ask AI pane beside the diagram. The dashed edges are a preview: accept or reject each candidate in the pane and the edge restyles as you go, then “Apply accepted” clears the preview and draws the real relationships. A business or primary keys run works the same way, with proposed key columns shown as ghost chips on the nodes.

Add a relationship by hand

Right-click a table’s header and choose Add relationship to record a relationship yourself. The dialog offers the visible tables from the same catalog as the table you clicked (a foreign key lives inside a single catalog). On the main branch the item is disabled with the reason shown: switch to a feature branch to edit, like every other write in DeltaVault.

Navigate

Double-click any table to open its detail pane, with the full column list, keys, and settings.