# The asset editor

> Edit an asset's code and metadata — IntelliSense, validation, previews, and the workbench.

Open an asset from the canvas or Explorer. The editor uses known upstream schemas for SQL completion and diagnostics; the properties panel holds the asset’s connection, materialization, columns, and checks.

## Write SQL that knows your pipeline

![The code view: a completion popup suggesting columns from the upstream raw.customers table, with the column's type shown alongside](https://getrenart.com/docs-media/asset-editor.webp)

- **IntelliSense** completes authored assets and positively observed tables from the selected warehouse, with known columns and types.
- **Validation** flags unresolved tables and columns inline as you type. A confirmed remote table is a warning until an authored source asset represents it; the warning offers the same reviewed import as Type check.
- **Format SQL** reformats the query in place.
- Code edits autosave after a short delay. **Cmd/Ctrl+S** saves explicitly. Review runs and deployments use saved source, not an unsaved editor buffer; resolve any save error before continuing.

## Inspect, render, and execute

The results panel under the editor follows the selected asset:

- **Inspect** — preview the data without materializing the destination table. Failed previews show the engine’s error.
- **Render** — inspect compiled SQL and planned operations without executing them. See [Variables and Jinja in SQL](https://getrenart.com/docs/editing-assets/variables-and-jinja.md).
- **Materialize** — execute this asset for real and stream the output.
- **Query** — run an ad-hoc query against the same environment.
- **Type check** — column/type problems across the pipeline, the same checks as [`renart type-check`](https://getrenart.com/docs/reference/cli.md) in CI. See [Catch errors with type checking](https://getrenart.com/docs/editing-assets/type-checking.md).

Open **Run → Runs** for execution history. SQL previews can consume warehouse resources; Python and HTTP previews execute code or requests. Only preview workspaces and endpoints you trust.

## The workbench

Use **Show properties** if the panel on the right is closed. Its tabs are:

- **General** — identity, connection, and materialization (for example view or table with replace).
- **Lineage** — upstreams inferred from the SQL, plus a searchable free-text picker for manual dependencies. Picking an asset from another pipeline uses its URL and links back to the producer; a missing URL is shown before you add the dependency.
- **Columns** — scan-friendly editable rows for names, types, descriptions, ownership, and checks. **Sync schema** compares the asset definition with optional live-response or current-table evidence. Safe additions apply directly; type or deletion conflicts open a source-by-source resolver, and you can always add a declared column manually.
- **Checks** — column checks and custom SQL checks.

A diagnostic’s **Open columns** link opens the relevant declaration in this same panel. It does not create a separate copy of the column editor.

Like everything in Renart, workbench edits land as plain file changes in your repository, so a form edit and a code edit look the same in review — see [how it works](https://getrenart.com/docs/how-it-works.md).