# What are Dataflows?

The ETL and ELT functionality of Astera Data Stack is represented by Dataflows. When you open a new Dataflow, you’re provided with an empty canvas knows as the dataflow designer. This is accompanied with a Toolbox that contains an extensive variety of objects, including Sources, Destinations, Transformations, and more.

<figure><img src="https://3083465318-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FsR50Wa7EwZGlmPSAMkkf%2Fuploads%2FNIycNilnJMp2CRoiryPl%2F1.png?alt=media&#x26;token=562956d3-2961-4417-a44a-3e150d5d29c3" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

Using the Toolbox objects and the user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, you can design ETL pipelines from scratch on the Dataflow designer.

### Dataflow Toolbar Commands

The Dataflow Toolbar also consists of various options.

<figure><img src="https://3083465318-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FsR50Wa7EwZGlmPSAMkkf%2Fuploads%2FhpppKe3sfx6PcUKjso6L%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=5eb194de-3d43-48d2-81fd-dbf489492403" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

These include:

* *Undo/Redo:* The Dataflow designer supports unlimited Undo and Redo capability. You can quickly Undo/Redo the last action done, or Undo/Redo several actions at once.
* *Auto Layout Diagram:* The Auto Layout feature allows you to arrange objects on the designer, improving its visual representation.
* *Zoom (%):* The Zoom feature helps you adjust the display size of the designer. Additionally, you can select a custom zoom percentage by clicking on the Zoom % input box and typing in your desired value.
* *Auto-Size All:* The Auto-Size All feature resizes all the object in a manner where all fields of the expanded nodes are visible and empty area inside the object is cropped out.
* *Expand All:* The Expand All feature expands or enlarges the objects on the designer, improving the visual representation.
* *Collapse All:* The Collapse All feature closes or collapses the objects on the designer, improving the visual representation and reducing clutter.
* *Use Orthogonal Links:* The Use Orthogonal Links feature replaces the links between objects with orthogonal curves instead of straight lines.
* *Data Quality Mode:* Data Quality Mode in Astera enhances Dataflows with advanced profiling and debugging by adding a Messages node to objects. This node captures statistical information, such as, TotalCount, ErrorCount, and WarningCount etc.
* *Safe Mode:* The Safe Mode option allows you to study and debug your Dataflows in cases when access to source files or databases is not available. You can open a Dataflow/Subflow and then proceed to debug or understand it after activating Safe Mode.
* *Show Diagram Overview:* This feature opens a Diagram Overview panel, allowing you to get an overview of the whole Dataflow designer.
* *Link Actions to Create Maps Using AI:* The AI Auto-mapper semantically maps fields between different data layouts, automatically linking related fields, for example, "Country" to "Nation."

In the next sections, we will go over the object-wise documentation for the various Sources, Destination, Transformations, etc., in the Dataflow Toolbox.


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://documentation.astera.com/astera-data-stack-v10/dataflows/what-are-dataflows.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.