Launch a BI workspace: Metabase on your own PostgreSQL, in minutes
Getting to your first dashboard is rarely about the dashboard. It is about provisioning a database, standing up a BI tool, opening a port, copying a connection string, and praying the two halves agree on TLS. By the time anything renders, the afternoon is gone and the chart you actually wanted is still a row in a spreadsheet.
The Launch a BI workspace stack collapses all of that into one launch. You get a complete Metabase workspace wired to your own PostgreSQL, EU-resident, with dashboards in minutes. You do not assemble it. You launch it.
What you get
Behind one button, the platform stands up and connects two things:
- Your own PostgreSQL, a managed database that is yours to scale, back up, and inspect. It is not a black box behind the BI tool; it is a first-class service in your account.
- Metabase, the open-source BI application, running on its own VM at a real
foundrydb.comhostname with a valid certificate.
The two are wired together at launch. Metabase uses the PostgreSQL as its own application database and registers it as a queryable data source in the same move. Every question you save and every dashboard you build persists into the database you own. There is no connection string to paste into a settings panel and no firewall rule to open by hand. You open the URL, create the first admin account, and you are building charts.
From launch to first dashboard
The launch is a two-step flow: preview the cost, then launch with the number you accepted. No surprise bill, no "we'll estimate it later."
# 1. Preview the monthly cost
curl -X POST https://api.foundrydb.com/stacks/preview \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $FOUNDRYDB_TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"template_name": "bi-workspace"}'
# 2. Launch with the total you just saw
curl -X POST https://api.foundrydb.com/stacks \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $FOUNDRYDB_TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"name": "my-bi-workspace",
"template_name": "bi-workspace",
"accepted_monthly_cost": 138.00
}'
A few minutes later the stack reaches Running and the response carries a live endpoint_url. Open it, create the first admin, and Metabase already knows about your database. Ask a question, pivot it into a bar chart, drop a few of those onto a dashboard, add a date filter that spans every card, and you have a working analytics surface over your own data. Prefer raw SQL? The SQL explorer is one click away. Prefer the console? The whole flow is a single button in the Stacks catalog.
Why this is different
It is your database, not a hidden one. Plenty of BI tools bundle a database you never see. Here the PostgreSQL is a service in your account. You can scale it, back it up with point-in-time recovery, watch its metrics, and connect to it with your own client to load data. The workspace lives in a database you control.
EU residency, by default. Both the database and the Metabase app are EU-resident. Residency is not a checkbox you remember to tick; it is where the platform runs. Your dashboards, your queries, and your data stay within the European footprint.
A hard cost preview. You see the exact monthly cost before anything is provisioned, and the accepted figure is re-checked at launch. The number you approve is the number you get.
Atomic, all-or-nothing launches. A stack is two resources coming up together. If anything fails, the whole launch rolls back cleanly. You never end up with a stranded database quietly costing you money. You get the finished workspace or you get nothing, never debris.
Composition, not a new product
The BI workspace stack is not a new service bolted onto the side of the platform. It is pure composition over primitives FoundryDB already ships: a managed PostgreSQL database plus an attached, hosted application. The stack engine provisions them in dependency order (the database first, because Metabase depends on it), then injects the connection so Metabase uses the database as its application store and data source.
That is why the catalog keeps growing without new infrastructure underneath. Adding a stack is describing a new arrangement of parts the platform already operates, not building a new platform.
Launch one
Your first dashboard should not cost you an afternoon. Open the Stacks catalog, pick Launch a BI workspace, review the cost preview, and launch. A few minutes later you are charting your own data in Europe, on a database that is yours.
For the full step-by-step, including the first-run setup, building your first question and dashboard, how the wiring works, and teardown, read the Launch a BI workspace tutorial.