The modules it can reach
Module by module — what Metis can read, what it can write, and what stays yours to do by hand.
On this page
Metis reaches your data through a small number of tools rather than having open access to the database. This page is the map of what those tools cover.
The short version: it can read most of the workbench, write to a few places, and never writes anywhere without either your instruction or your approval.
Your own work
Deletes always pause for confirmation. So does an update to an audit finding. Ingesting a records pack, or importing monthly SPI values, stages the rows and asks you to confirm before anything is saved.
Forms are the deliberate exception in that table. Metis reads your templates and your submissions and answers questions against them; creating, editing and submitting forms stays in the app.
Questions the fixed lookups cannot answer
Some questions do not map onto a single module — "which open tasks are due before my instrument rating expires?", "how many open findings per aircraft?" For those, Metis writes and runs a single read-only query across your own rows.
It is fenced in several independent ways: the connection is read-only, it can only see the tables it has been explicitly granted, every query is restricted to your own rows by the database itself, and each query has a time limit and a row cap. It reaches exactly what the ordinary lookups could already reach — no shared reference content, and no path that writes.
The shared library
The reference library is the same for everyone and read-only:
- EASA regulations, with cross-references between them
- Airworthiness Directives and Safety Information Bulletins
- Type-Certificate Data Sheets and aircraft type ratings
- Aerodrome and airspace data
- FAA rules and advisory circulars
- Suspected-unapproved-parts notices
- The occurrence-reporting taxonomy
Library answers carry a "current to" date, because the stored copy is a snapshot. For a "what is the latest" question, Metis sorts by issue date and then checks the regulator's live register before asserting that anything is the newest. If the regulator has published something more recent than the stored copy, it reads the original source and cites that page instead.
Documents
Upload a PDF and Metis reads it. Scanned documents are read by optical character recognition, and the result is cached so re-reading the same file costs nothing. Document text is always treated as data, never as instructions.
A document worth keeping can be saved to your Documents, where it stays available to later conversations instead of living only in the thread where you uploaded it.
The live web
When something is not in the library, Metis can search the web and read the page. Search results are treated as leads rather than authority — for "what is the newest X", it reads the publisher's own index or machine-readable register directly.
It also keeps a shared map of where authoritative publishers actually publish — authorities, manufacturers and standards bodies — including the awkward details, like a manufacturer whose obvious download link is dead and whose real publications sit elsewhere. That map is curated, not crowd-sourced: when Metis learns something new about a publisher's site, it files a candidate that stays invisible until it is reviewed.
When the page needs working, not just reading
Some pages will not give up their contents to a plain fetch: the document only appears after you set a filter, use the site's own search box, or page through results. For those, Metis can open the site in a browser on the server, fill the filter panel, click through and read back what comes up.
Three things are worth knowing about it:
- It is read-only and anonymous. It never logs in and never submits anything on your behalf — there is no submit and no run-a-script capability in it at all, unlike the browser extension. It refuses to type into a password field and never answers an authentication prompt.
- It is a last resort, not a first move. An ordinary web search is tried first; a browser session opens only when the page genuinely needs interaction, because it is metered by the second.
- The page is untrusted, exactly like any other web content.
This is a different thing from the browser extension. The extension acts in your browser, in your logged-in sessions, on pages you are looking at. This acts in an anonymous browser on the public web, and can be used from the chat, your phone or an unattended run.
Calculations
For arithmetic over data it has just read — totalling hours across a fleet, producing a breakdown from one of your registers — Metis can run the calculation in an isolated sandbox rather than doing mental arithmetic. Its own computed numbers are treated as claims to be checked, not facts, and anything safety-relevant is recomputed independently before it is used.
What is not connected
- Email. Metis does not send email, from any surface.
- Forms. Read yes, submit no, as above.
- Your calendar and other people's data. It works with your tasks and their dates; it does not reach into external calendars, and it cannot see another user's rows at all.
Informational only — you verify against the approved exposition before you act.
Frequently asked questions
Can Metis see data from my colleagues' accounts?
No. It reads your own rows and the workspaces you are a member of, at the permission level you have. The isolation is enforced by the database, so it holds even if something in the application code went wrong.
Why can it read my forms but not fill them in?
Building and submitting forms stays in the app on purpose. Metis answers questions against your templates and submissions; the act of submitting a completed form is yours.