Build Charts and Dashboards With an AI Assistant

Connect your AI assistant to PlaidCloud’s MCP server and ask it for a chart, or a whole dashboard, over a table or view in your project. The PlaidCloud connector is the only one you need. The assistant builds as you, so you can only chart data you can already open, and row access applies as it does everywhere else.

Chart net revenue by month from the Sales Results table, then put it on a new dashboard called Sales Overview.

Before You Start

• Publish the table first. A chart can only be built over a table or view that is published in PlaidCloud. If it isn’t, the assistant tells you to publish it, and you then ask again.
• Open the dashboards site once. Members who have never opened the dashboards site must open it once before their first request. Until then the assistant reports that your account isn’t set up yet.
• Use a signed-in connection. Charts and dashboards are built by an assistant that you connected and signed in to yourself. Microsoft 365 Copilot, PlaidCloud’s in-app assistant, workflow steps and service accounts can’t build them.

Charts

Ask for a chart by saying what to measure and how to split it. The assistant picks the table, the chart type and the settings.

Setting	What it does
Type	table, bar, line, pie or big_number.
Metrics	A column and how to add it up: SUM, COUNT, AVG, MIN, MAX or COUNT_DISTINCT. SUM and AVG need a numeric column.
X	The category or time column for a bar or line chart. A big_number chart adds a trendline when you give it one.
Time grain	Groups a time column by day, week, month, quarter or year.
Group by	Columns to split the numbers by. A pie chart takes exactly one.
Filters	A column, a comparison (=, !=, >, <, >=, <=, LIKE, ILIKE, NOT LIKE, IN or NOT IN) and a value. IN and NOT IN take a list.

The assistant gets back a link to the chart and a sample of its data. Ask it to check the sample against your question before you rely on the chart.

Edit a Chart

The assistant edits a chart you own by passing its chart_id. Without it, a repeated request creates a second chart, so tell the assistant to edit the chart it just made rather than to make it again.

Calculated Measures

The chart builder adds up columns. For a calculated measure, such as margin or revenue per unit, first add it as a column in a PlaidCloud view, publish the view, and chart that column. Ask the assistant to create the view for you.

Dashboards

Ask for a dashboard from charts you have built.

• A new dashboard is published with your project’s Default Dashboard Audience. If the project has none, everyone in the project can see it. To change who sees it, see Control Who Can See a Dashboard.
• Adding to an existing dashboard works on dashboards you own and never removes a chart already on it. If some charts couldn’t be added, ask the assistant to run the request again for the rest.
• One project per dashboard. All the charts on a dashboard must come from the same project. For a second project, build a second dashboard.

Note

The audience hides the dashboard from people who shouldn’t see it. The data in each chart still follows project access and Row Access.

When Something Goes Wrong

Message	What to do
The table is not published	Publish the table or view in PlaidCloud, then ask again.
Your account does not exist yet	Open the dashboards site once, then ask again.
Not an owner of that chart or dashboard	You can only edit charts and dashboards you own. Ask for a new one instead.
A column or aggregate is not valid	Check the column names, and use SUM or AVG only on numeric columns.
The service timed out	The chart or dashboard may already exist. Check the dashboards site before you ask again.