Check what the inventory actually covers
Open the Data layer and look for the authored inventory view. The Meridian demonstration includes 42 record shapes across several storage technologies. Your project’s inventory is determined by its own specification, not by a fixed list in the reader.
Compare the inventory with the agent’s coverage notes. Migrations, runtime schema creation and multiple database configurations can reveal structures that one schema file misses. “All tables in this specification” does not establish that all source tables were discovered.
Read the technology and owner first
A table card shows its declared database technology. PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, ClickHouse, document collections and cache structures have different semantics. A familiar table name is not enough to identify the engine, and the reader does not guess it.
Inspect store ownership and stable identity when similarly named structures occur in several services. Domain colors help distinguish areas of the model; the technology label and relationship metadata carry the precise meaning. A logical cross-store reference should not be mistaken for a database-enforced foreign key.
Bring direct neighbors into one view
Find a table in the artifact list and use its anchor to center it. Choose Show connections on that table. The working plane narrows to the selected table and tables connected directly to it in either direction, and brings them closer together.
This can include relevant tables outside the current authored diagram. If a feature is selected, that feature still limits the scope. The focus is one hop: it does not recursively pull in the entire database. Leaving the neighborhood restores the broader arrangement.
Follow the exact columns
Relationship lines connect declared source columns to destination columns. Select a line or column to inspect the connection. For a composite constraint, read the ordered column pairs and their shared constraint identity together; separate rendered legs may represent one constraint.
Use Compact columns, Keys only or All columns to change reading density. Expanding a table reveals its full schema. If objects overlap and cover a line endpoint, move them apart; the reader reports connections it cannot route clearly through covered endpoints.
Trace a change beyond the foreign keys
Before altering an order identifier, inspect incoming references, outgoing references and the services that read or write the record. Then visit the feature and flow views. Event payloads, API consumers and application-level joins may depend on a field even when the database has no foreign key.
Use the neighborhood to make the immediate relationships legible, then expand your investigation using evidence and source review. For keeping the resulting explanation portable, read the file and handoff guide.
Explore a fictional example, or open your own .ospec file locally.
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