User-selected connection environments

With user-selected environments, a user can choose which connection environment their queries run against — directly from a workbook, dashboard, or schedule — instead of being routed solely by a user attribute. Admins control which environments each user or group can reach by granting access on the connection. This builds on dynamic connection environments. It doesn’t replace branch-based switching or user-attribute assignment — it adds a third, user-driven way to choose an environment and defines how all three interact.

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How environment selection is resolved

A single model can have an environment chosen for it in more than one way at once. Omni resolves them in a fixed priority order, using the first that applies:

1. Branch selection — if you’re in a branch that has environment switching enabled, the branch’s environment wins.
2. User-selected environment — the environment the user picked for this model (covered on this page).
3. User-attribute assignment — the environment the user’s user attribute routes them to.
4. Base connection — if none of the above apply, queries run against the primary (base) connection.

If a user’s selection later becomes invalid — for example, their access is revoked or the environment connection is deleted — Omni falls back to the next applicable source: their user-attribute assignment, or the base connection. The query still runs and routes as if no selection had been made.

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How the three mechanisms compare

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Requirements

• Omni Organization Admin permissions are required to grant or revoke environment access.
• The connection must already have one or more environments configured. User-selected environments reuse the same environments you set up for dynamic connections.
• A user only sees the environment picker once they’ve been granted access to at least one environment beyond their default.

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Grant environment access

Access is managed per environment, on the connection’s Environments tab. Org admins have implicit access to every environment; everyone else needs an explicit grant.

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Granting access to the base connection

When dynamic (user-attribute) environment selection is enabled on a connection, the base connection appears as its own selectable environment, pinned to the top of the Environments list and labeled Base connection. This exists so you can grant base-connection access to users whose user attribute routes them somewhere else by default. For example, a user whose attribute pins them to Staging has no path back to production unless you grant them access to the base connection here.

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Select an environment as a user

Once a user has access to more than one environment, they can switch between them from within a workbook or dashboard.

1. Open the File menu and hover Connection.
2. Choose an environment from the submenu. Default routes you to your normal environment — the one your user attribute assigns, or the base connection if you have none. Any other entry routes you to that specific environment.

The selection is saved per model and per user and persists across sessions until it’s changed — there’s no need to reselect it each visit. After switching, Omni confirms with a “Switched connection environment.” message and reruns affected queries against the newly selected environment.

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Selecting an environment in branches

While you’re in a branch that has environment switching enabled, the File > Connection picker is disabled and shows “Use branch environment settings to change the connection.” This is by design: branch selection takes precedence over a personal selection, so the branch’s environment governs every query you run in it. Switch environments using the branch’s own settings instead.

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Pin an environment on a schedule

Schedules can run against a specific environment too. Because a schedule runs as its owner, the environment picker in the delivery form shows the owner’s accessible environments — even when an admin is editing someone else’s schedule.

1. Open the delivery (schedule) form for a dashboard or workbook.
2. In the Connection field, choose Default or a specific environment.
3. Save the schedule.

The chosen environment is applied on every scheduled run and on Send now. If the Connection field isn’t shown, the schedule owner has no environments to choose between, and the schedule runs against their default.

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Limitations

• Schemas across environments should be as close to identical as possible. As with dynamic environments, switching an environment swaps the schema model while keeping the overarching model the same. A model that references an object missing from the selected environment will surface modeling errors.
• Selecting an environment doesn’t grant data access — it only routes queries to a connection the admin has already permitted. Revoking access removes both the ability to select that environment and any existing selection that points to it.
• Branch environment switching takes precedence. Inside a branch with environment switching enabled, personal selections are ignored in favor of the branch’s environment.

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Troubleshooting

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Next steps

• Dynamic connection environments — set up the environments and user-attribute routing this feature builds on
• Branch Mode — switch environments while developing in a branch
• User attributes — assign default environments to users
• User groups — manage environment access for many users at once