> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.rootcause.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.rootcause.ai/user-guide/connecting-data.md).

# Connect Data

How to plug in or upload data sources.

Upload files or connect a live data source. RootCause supports local files, databases,\
data warehouses, cloud storage, and APIs.

***

## The Import Manager

You can access the import manager to upload or connect data from two places.

1. In a workspace, open the **Sources** tab and click **Import data**.
2. At organisation level, go to **Manage → Data sources** to see every dataset in your organisation, then click **Import data** in the top right.

***

## New Import Tab

<figure><img src="https://1662811113-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FBXg3gZLR0e2Q8SzeQmql%2Fuploads%2FG4gb2ludI7ATfDCvebbl%2FNew%20Imports.png?alt=media&amp;token=951311c4-e4b1-4d8e-b159-1d51ac5ab59a" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

### **All Sources**

| Source                              | What it does                                                                                                       |
| ----------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Local File Upload**               | Upload files from your computer. Use it for anything that won't change.                                            |
| **From Organization**               | Reuse a dataset another workspace in your organisation has already imported. Nothing is re-uploaded or re-synced.  |
| **Foundation Ontologies Library**   | Use a ready-made ontology and the licensed data behind it, so you can model drivers your own data doesn't contain. |
| **Extract from Documents (Opt-in)** | Turn documents you've already uploaded, such as contracts and reports, into structured tables.                     |
| **Web Research**                    | Extract data from the web, either from tables on a page or from a prompt.                                          |

### Connectors

| Connector                                                        | Type                  |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------- |
| [PostgreSQL](/data-connectors/postgresql.md)                     | Database              |
| [MySQL](/data-connectors/mysql.md)                               | Database              |
| [MongoDB](/data-connectors/mongodb.md)                           | Database              |
| ClickHouse                                                       | Database              |
| [Snowflake](/data-connectors/snowflake.md)                       | Data warehouse (Beta) |
| [Amazon S3](/data-connectors/s3.md)                              | Cloud storage         |
| [Azure Data Lake](/data-connectors/azure-data-lake.md)           | Cloud storage         |
| [Google Cloud Storage](/data-connectors/google-cloud-storage.md) | Cloud storage (Beta)  |
| Google Drive                                                     | Cloud storage (Beta)  |
| [REST API](/data-connectors/rest-api.md)                         | API                   |

### Live Data Sync

Set each connected source to sync manually, hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly. A sync re-reads the source and updates every Dataset and analysis built on it.

***

## File Upload

RootCause accepts tabular files, documents and images.

| Type          | Formats                                  |
| ------------- | ---------------------------------------- |
| Tabular       | CSV, Excel, Parquet, JSON, JSONL, NDJSON |
| Documents     | PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Markdown, text    |
| Images (Beta) | JPG, PNG                                 |

1. In the Import Manager, click **Local File Upload**
2. Drag files or whole folders anywhere onto the drop zone, or use **Browse files** to pick individual files and **Browse folder** to upload everything inside a folder
3. Check the staged list. It shows each file's format and size, plus a total. Remove a file with **×**
4. Choose how concepts are handled:
   * **Auto-extract** (default) pulls concepts from every file and matches them to your schema automatically
   * **Bind to schema** skips extraction. You bind each file in the upload to your schema yourself after it lands
5. Click **Upload (n)**

<figure><img src="https://1662811113-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FBXg3gZLR0e2Q8SzeQmql%2Fuploads%2FggxtsmCvtaRWorwq0b8H%2FUpload%20Data.png?alt=media&amp;token=985cc69e-afcf-40df-bc92-45a8da8fbcfe" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

***

## Current Imports Tab

**Current Imports** shows the imports from this session, with their progress, row and column counts, and any errors. To see every dataset in the workspace, close the Import Manager and use the **Sources** page.

<figure><img src="https://1662811113-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FBXg3gZLR0e2Q8SzeQmql%2Fuploads%2FgKnI9Mu1E9kukF59PiQI%2FData%20Uploaded.png?alt=media&amp;token=4b1eaa16-e802-43b5-8780-74e5f94e987f" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

***

## What Happens After Upload?

The platform builds an ontology as the import runs, linking your datasets together. [Build Ontology](/user-guide/ontology-concepts.md) covers reviewing the detected concepts, merging columns that mean the same thing, and classifying identifiers and time fields.