These guides are the cross-cutting how-to — the surfaces that apply across every capability rather than to one data shape. Each is a hands-on walkthrough you can follow against a running database; every command and output shown was produced by the shipped strata binary.

Looking for a specific data primitive? Those live in Working with Data. Running models is Inference; driving Strata from an agent is For AI agents. If you are brand new, start with Your first database.

History and isolation

• Branching workflows — list, create empty branches, fork from the tip or a past point, and delete.
• Time travel — read the past with --as-of, list history, and reproduce state at a point in time.
• Spaces — organize data into named product spaces within a branch.

Operating a database

• Configuration — the strata config verbs and hub URL resolution.
• Error handling — the coded error model, retry policy, and JSON error shape.
• Observability — ping, info, health, metrics, describe, and doctor.

Moving data in and out

• Import & export — move primitives to and from Parquet, CSV, and JSON lines.
• Cloning datasets — clone a prepared dataset from a hub into a local database.
• Migrating — bring data over from SQLite, DuckDB, or Redis.

Shipping it

• Deploying — embed in an app, run in the browser, and target the edge.

Reference

When you want the exhaustive surface rather than a walkthrough, see the CLI reference, the generated command reference, and the error reference.