Your First Look at the Interface
Now that you understand the building blocks (tables, rows, columns), let's take a tour of the actual interface you'll use. This guide shows you exactly where to click and what to expect—no coding required!
The Sidebar: Moving Around the Product
Every screen keeps the same sidebar on the left. It is the top level of the product.
- AssistantsInteractive chatbots with access to custom knowledge and tools.
- AutomationsAutonomous processes with human-in-the-loop oversight.
- KnowledgeManage your document collections for AI retrieval.
- DashboardsVisualize and analyze your data across taibles.
- IntegrationsConnect third-party services and accounts.
- DocumentationGuides and reference for building with Taibles.
- HistoryRecent conversations across all assistants.
- SettingsAccount, team, billing, and workspace preferences.
"Automations" is where the taibles in this reference live. "Assistants", "Knowledge" and "Dashboards" cover the other three areas, and the entries below them handle connections, this guide, past conversations, and your account.
The Automations Overview: Your Home Base
Open "Automations" and you'll see every table you've built as a card. Think of it like your email inbox, but instead of emails, you see all your different automation projects.
Your Tables
Manage all your automation workflows
Customer Support
AI-powered support chatbot
Sales Leads
Auto-qualification pipeline
Order Processing
End-to-end order fulfillment
Inventory Sync
Real-time inventory updates
💡 Understanding the Dashboard:
• Status badges show real-time activity: green spinner = running, amber clock = queued
• Sub-tables appear as small pills below each table card
• Categories help organize your tables - click to expand/collapse folders
• Statistics bar shows overall activity across all your tables
• Click any card to open that table and see all rows and columns
What You See in the Overview
- All your tables displayed as cards in a grid layout
- Status badges showing real-time activity:
- Green spinner = actively running tasks
- Amber clock + number = tasks waiting in queue
- Sub-tables appear as small pills below each table card
- Categories help organize your tables into folders (click to expand/collapse)
- Statistics bar at the top shows overall activity across all tables
- Buttons to start something new: "Create Automation", "Import", and "Import from n8n"
- Three-dot menu on each card with "Edit", "Export" and "Delete"
Real-time updates: The badges update automatically via WebSocket connection—no need to refresh! You'll see the green spinner animate when tasks are processing, and the queued count changes as tasks move through the pipeline.
Inside a Table: The Main View
When you click on a table card, you'll see the Table View—this is where the magic happens. You'll see all your rows and columns in a familiar spreadsheet-like grid.
Lead Enrichment Pipeline
Enrich inbound leads with company data
💡 Understanding Cell States:
Understanding the Grid
The grid shows your data in a spreadsheet-like format:
System Columns (always on the left):
- ID - Unique row number with drag handle for reordering
- "Added by" - Who created this row
- "Created at" - When the row was created
Your Columns (you define these):
- Manual columns (like "Email") - You can type directly into these cells
- Calculated columns (like "Email Valid", "Company Data") - Automatically filled by your automation
Column Headers show:
- Column name and type icon
- Real-time status: spinning icon when running, clock icon with count when queued
- Click the status indicator to jump directly to running or queued tasks!
- Three-dot menu with options:
- "Configure column" - Edit settings
- "Show dependent columns" - Highlight what depends on this column
- "Display options" - Change how the column is shown
- "Add Column" - Insert a column via "Add Column to the Left" or "Add Column to the Right"
- "Duplicate column" - Copy the column and its configuration
- "Re-run" - "Re-run empty cells", "Re-run failed cells" or "Re-run all cells"
- "Clear" - "Clear cell range" or "Clear column"
- "Cancel" - "Cancel task range" or "Cancel all tasks"
- "Delete column" - Remove permanently
Cell States
Every cell reports its own state, using the same wording you'll find in the "Filter" panel:
A cell that finished successfully simply shows its result. "Unsuccessful" cells show a badge you can click for the error details, and the "Skipped (Condition failed)" and "Skipped (Dependencies not present)" states tell you the cell was deliberately passed over rather than broken.
The Buttons You'll Use Most
💡 The toolbar gives you quick access to key actions:
• Top toolbar: Configure your automation (columns, triggers, filters, dashboards)
• Bottom toolbar: Manage your data (add rows, import/export)
• Filter button turns blue when filters are active, showing the count
The table view has a single toolbar. Data actions sit on the left, structural actions on the right.
Working With Data
"Add Row" - Manually create a new row
- Perfect for testing your automation
- Enter data into manual columns
- Calculated columns will automatically process
"Import" - Bulk import rows; pick "CSV/Excel" from the menu
- Upload Excel or CSV files
- System auto-maps columns
- All rows start processing immediately
- If your table has file columns, they appear in the same menu for bulk file upload
"Export CSV" - Download your data
- Includes your columns and their current values
- Great for backups or analysis
"Filter" - Show only specific rows based on conditions
- Shows a count when filters are active
- Create complex filter expressions with AND/OR logic
- Use to focus on specific items: "only failed rows", "today's orders", "VIP customers"
"Dashboards" - Access analytics dashboards associated with this table
- The number shows how many exist
- "Create Dashboard" in the menu starts a new one
- Great for monitoring at a glance
Building and Configuring
"Triggers" - Shows current trigger count, click to open the triggers panel
- See which triggers are active
- Edit or delete existing triggers
- Check this to see what's feeding data into your table
"Variables" - Values you can reuse across the columns of this table
- Shows a count once you've defined some
"Add Column" - This is where you build your automation! Each column is an action—like generating an AI response, sending an email, or searching a database.
- Opens a type selector showing all available column types
- Creates a new step in your workflow
- You'll use this a LOT when building
"Wizard" - Describe what you want and let TAIBLES configure the columns for you
Inspecting Errors and Details
When something goes wrong, the interface makes it easy to debug:
Inspecting Failed Cells
Click the eye icon on a failed cell to see error details:
💡 Debugging Failed Cells:
• Click the eye icon on any failed cell to see full error details
• The error panel shows the message, stack trace, and timestamp
• You can re-run the cell to retry or clear it to reset
• This makes debugging your automation much easier!
Click the eye icon on any "Unsuccessful" cell to see:
- Error title and description
- Technical details (status code, HTTP method, URL if applicable)
- Response body and headers (for API calls)
- Stack trace showing where the error occurred
- Input data that was used
- Timestamp of when it failed
- Options to re-run or clear the cell
This makes debugging much easier than digging through logs!
Real-Time Updates: Watch Your Automation Live
One of the most powerful features is live updates without page refresh.
What you'll see:
- Cells move through their states: "Queued" → "Running" → the finished result
- New rows appear instantly when triggers fire
- Status badges update in real-time
- Smooth animated transitions
How it works:
- WebSocket connection provides instant updates
- Multiple users can view the same table simultaneously
- All changes sync automatically
- No "refresh to see changes" needed!
Pro tip: Watch the column headers—the running spinner and queued count update live. You can click these indicators to navigate directly to the running or queued tasks!
Navigation Tips
Here are a few quick navigation tips to help you move around efficiently:
Basic Navigation
- Sidebar - "Automations" always takes you back to your list of tables
- Browser back/forward - Works as expected with URL-based routing
Deep Linking
You can bookmark or share specific views:
/taibles- Your tables/taibles/{id}- Specific table/taibles/{id}?parentRow={rowId}- Sub-table filtered by parent/taibles/{id}?highlightRunning=true&focusRow={id}&focusColumn={name}- Jump to specific running task
Grid Editing
- Click a cell to inspect or edit it
- Drag column headers to reorder them
- Use the row drag handle to reorder rows
Mobile and Tablet Support
The interface adapts to different screen sizes:
- Desktop: Full grid with all columns, sidebars slide in alongside
- Tablet: Horizontal scrolling for columns, sidebars overlay
- Mobile: Same grid view with scrolling, touch-friendly tap targets, simplified navigation
Everything works on mobile—you can monitor and manage your automations from anywhere!
Working Efficiently: Tips and Tricks
Scanning Your Automation
Quick health check:
- Scan down columns - Results shown = good, "Unsuccessful" badges = issues
- Check status badges - See running and queued counts at a glance
- Use filters - Filter to show only "Unsuccessful" cells to find problems quickly
Finding and Fixing Problems
- Filter to failed cells - Click "Filter" and filter the status down to "Unsuccessful"
- Click eye icon - Inspect error details on failed cells
- Fix configuration - Open the column menu and choose "Configure column"
- Re-run - Use the column menu, then "Re-run" → "Re-run failed cells"
- Monitor - Watch cells update as they succeed
Organizing Your View
- Hide intermediate columns - Use "Display options"; they still execute, but you get a cleaner view
- Reorder columns - Drag column headers (input → processing → output makes sense)
- Use categories - Group related tables in folders in the overview
- Filter - Filters stay applied to a table between visits
Understanding Sidebars and Panels
The interface includes several panels that slide in when needed:
Column Configuration
Opens when you click "Add Column" or "Configure column" on a column header.
What you'll see:
- Basic Settings: Column name, display label, description
- Type Configuration: Specific to the column type (AI settings, integration accounts, etc.)
- "Run Configuration": When should this column execute?
- "Dependencies & Run Order": Which other columns must complete first?
- Condition: Optional rule for when to run (skip if email is invalid, etc.)
- Rate Limiting: Throttle execution to avoid hitting API limits
Triggers Panel
Opens when you click "Triggers".
What you'll see:
- List of all active triggers
- Each shows: name, type icon, status, recent activity
- Actions: Edit, toggle on/off, delete
- "Add Trigger" to create new ones
Filter Panel
Opens when you click "Filter".
What you'll see:
- Visual filter builder
- Add conditions: Column → Operator → Value
- Combine with AND/OR logic
- Example:
Status equals "qualified" AND Lead Score > 50 - Your filters stay applied to this table when you come back
That's It! You're Ready to Build
You Now Know the Interface!
You've learned:
- ✅ How the sidebar organizes the product
- ✅ What the automations overview looks like and how status badges work
- ✅ How to navigate the grid view and understand cell states
- ✅ Which buttons to click for different tasks
- ✅ How to inspect errors and debug issues
- ✅ How real-time updates work via WebSocket
- ✅ How to work efficiently with filters and organization
Next Step: Build Your First AI Agent
In Part 2, we'll walk through building a real customer support chatbot from scratch—step by step, no coding required. You'll have a working agent in 30 minutes!
Next: Building Your First AI Agent — Now that you know the interface, let's build something real!