DSEDataSourceExplorer
DSE 1.0.1

Ask DSE, Support Chat, and Error Reporting

DSE includes an in-application Ask DSE assistant and a consent-based diagnostic error reporter. The two features are deliberately separate: the Help Assistant is designed to answer product questions, while the error reporter helps a user send technical diagnostics after an unexpected failure.

Ask DSE

Open Ask DSE from the main toolbar or from the Help window.

The assistant uses this order:

  1. Search the Help files installed with the current DSE version.
  2. If Use AI enhancement is enabled, use the provider selected in AI Advisor. DSE supports local Ollama plus OpenAI, Azure OpenAI / Microsoft Foundry, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, and configurable OpenAI-compatible endpoints.
  3. For an online provider (including remote Ollama), DSE sends Help excerpts only after Allow online AI has been explicitly enabled.
  4. If AI is disabled or unavailable, continue with deterministic offline Help search.

API keys saved in DSE are protected for the current Windows user with DPAPI and are not written to ai-settings.json or application logs. The assistant does not send database credentials, connection strings, discovered row data, or workspace contents to an AI provider. It is a product-help assistant, not a database agent.

Useful questions

The current selected DSE object is used only as a Help topic hint. Ask DSE does not silently inspect source data.

Offline behavior

Ask DSE remains useful without Internet access because the installed Help is local. A local Ollama endpoint such as http://localhost:11434 also does not require Internet access once the model is installed.

Unexpected error reporting

When an unhandled DSE error or a command-level unexpected exception occurs, DSE:

  1. writes the error to the local application log;
  2. creates a redacted diagnostic report;
  3. checks whether a network interface is available;
  4. verifies the configured DSE support endpoint or support site is reachable;
  5. only when support connectivity is available, asks the user whether to send the report.

Nothing is sent without user consent.

If support connectivity cannot be verified, DSE does not show a send prompt. It records the redacted diagnostic locally so the error is not lost. On a later startup, if the automatic support endpoint becomes reachable, DSE can ask whether the queued reports should be sent.

What a diagnostic report contains

A report can contain:

What DSE tries not to send

The reporter does not intentionally collect:

Before a report is transmitted, common secret patterns are redacted. The report dialog also lets the user review diagnostic details and decide whether to include recent logs.

Redaction is defense in depth, not a substitute for good logging. DSE code should continue to avoid logging secrets in the first place.

Automatic HTTPS reporting

The desktop application never stores SMTP credentials. The preferred production flow is:

DSE desktop → HTTPS support endpoint → support site → support.error mailbox

This is safer than embedding an SMTP password inside the desktop executable.

Configure the public client settings in:

Configuration/support-settings.json

Important fields are:

The source package also contains a sample web endpoint under WebSupportEndpoint.

Email fallback

If the support website is reachable but the automatic error endpoint is not, DSE can open the user's default email application with a shortened, redacted diagnostic addressed to the configured support email. The user still decides whether to send the email.

Pending reports

Offline or failed reports are stored under the current user's local application data in the DSE Support/Pending folder. They are not uploaded automatically. When the endpoint is available again, DSE asks for permission before sending queued reports.

Administration recommendations

For a production support endpoint:

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