Query Reference
Conduit uses NQE (Natural Query English) as its query interface. When you ask a question, the AI interprets your intent and generates a structured query that you can review before execution.
How Queries Work
- You ask a question in natural language
- AI interprets your intent and generates a structured query
- You review the generated query and confirm or adjust it
- Conduit executes against your data sources in parallel
- Results are combined and returned to you
Query Structure
NQE queries follow a consistent pattern:
[Action] [Measure] by [Dimensions] during [Time Range], where [Filters]
Examples
| Natural Language | Generated NQE |
| -------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| "Show average temperature for Tank 1 over the last hour" | Show average temperature during last 1 hour, where tank is Tank1 |
| "Count alarms by severity yesterday" | Count alarms by severity during yesterday |
| "Compare pressure between Pump 1 and Pump 2 this week" | Show pressure by pump during last 7 days, where pump in [Pump1, Pump2] |
Supported Actions
| Action | Description | | ----------- | -------------------------------------- | | Show | Display values (current or historical) | | Count | Count occurrences | | Trend | Time-series visualization | | Compare | Side-by-side comparison |
Supported Aggregations
| Aggregation | Description |
| ----------- | ---------------- |
| average | Average value |
| minimum | Minimum value |
| maximum | Maximum value |
| sum | Sum of values |
| count | Number of values |
Time Ranges
| Format | Examples |
| -------- | ----------------------------------------------- |
| Relative | last 1 hour, last 24 hours, last 7 days |
| Named | today, yesterday, this week, last month |
| Absolute | from 8am to 5pm, January 15th |
Cross-Source Queries
Conduit automatically handles queries that span multiple data sources:
- Identifies which sources contain the requested data
- Queries each source in parallel
- Time-aligns and correlates results
- Returns unified results
No special syntax needed—just ask your question naturally.
Next Steps
- NQE Guide - Learn more about natural language queries
- API Reference - Execute queries programmatically
- Architecture - How queries flow through the system