Stories, not feature lists

Every screenshot below is the real product against real data.

Formulas

You type =ES.Get("PET.RWTC.D") and WTI prices spill into the sheet. Tables with continuous calendars and Bloomberg-style forward fill: =ES.Table(...). Search by words, not codes: =ES.Search("henry hub"). No SQL anywhere, ever.

screenshot: formula spilling series data

Your laptop

Point Sparrow at file:C:\datasets — a folder of dataset files. Everything works with no network at all. Reading a single series from a 28-million-row file takes 8 milliseconds.

screenshot: Stats group showing "8 ms fetch"

Your team

Move the folder to a NAS share. Read-only, no server, no IT ticket — and every analyst on the team gets the same live datasets. Only the files each analyst uses get copied to their machine, automatically.

screenshot: Source line showing file:\\NAS\energy

Published datasets

Point at https://publisher.example/energy — the same folder behind any static web host or CDN. Files download on demand and cache locally; freshness checks are a single HTTP header. An S3 bucket works the same way: s3://market-data.

screenshot: Connect URL dialog

Live

When you need live pushes, authentication and a server-side analytics engine, point the same workbook at an Arrow Flight server. Nothing else changes — that's the point.

screenshot: same sheet, Source: flight://server

Freshness — the amber ribbon

Sparrow checks your sources every 30 seconds and once on workbook open. New data turns the ribbon amber and names the file in the status bar. Per-column =ES.NewData() cells flip TRUE on exactly the series that moved. It works even when the source is a passive folder — because publishers follow one honest rule: a file's timestamp moves only when its data changed.

screenshot: amber NEW DATA warning + one TRUE column

Revisions — the comments

Refresh doesn't repaint your sheet. It marks precisely the new values (green borders) and the revised ones — with a comment showing Before and Now. Real data gets revised. Your spreadsheet should admit it.

screenshot: revised cell with Before/Now comment

Offline analytics

Descriptive statistics, transforms, correlations, spreads, crack spreads, rolling volatility, seasonality context, outliers — computed inside the add-in, straight from your files. Turn the Wi-Fi off; your analysis keeps working.

screenshot: =ES.Stats() with Wi-Fi off

One-click worksheets — pages as recipes

The New Sheet menu builds complete analyst pages in one click: parameter cells with dropdowns, change tracking, series with hover documentation, even reserved "your work" columns that refreshes never touch. Each page design is a plain JSON recipe that ships beside the add-in — design a page once and every analyst gets it; a new design is a file, not a release.

A recipe-built analyst page with live data and revision markers

The catalog in a formula

=ES.Catalog("PET.WDIST*") spills a reference table of everything available — IDs, names, units, frequency, and the true last data date, straight from the folder's own catalog. Wildcards, honest row caps, and it works offline. Spot a series, type its ID into a table's header row, and it's a charted column ten seconds later.

screenshot: catalog page with pattern cell

The self-building table

=ES.Table(1:1, …) turns row 1 into a live series list: type an ID, a labelled dated column appears near-instantly. Gaps become aligned spacer slots that fill when you type into them. With =ES.Name(1:1) and =ES.Units(1:1) underneath, a self-labelling dashboard is four formulas and a row you type into.

screenshot / clip: typing IDs, columns appearing

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