Explore Overview

Overview

Explore is the flexible query and data-access area in Nucleus. It lets you decide what question to ask, which data to search, which fields to return, and how the results should be organized. Explore is built on top of Nucleus’ Query Language (NQL), to allow users to ask any question of their data that has been ingested, normalized, deduped, and processed inside the Nucleus platform.

Nucleus also includes purpose-built pages for common exposure management workflows. Pages such as Active Vulnerabilities, Top Risks, Asset Management, and Trends provide established views, metrics, filters, and actions for recurring tasks. Explore is useful when your question does not fit one of those standard views or when you need a specific set of data for analysis, reporting, or export.

What you can do with Explore

Use Explore to:

• Query findings, assets, and other supported datasets.

• Select the fields that should appear in the results.

• Filter and sort data using Basic mode or Nucleus Query Language (NQL).

• Search within one project or across multiple projects.

• Save searches that you want to run again.

• Export a result set for use outside Nucleus.

• Take supported actions on returned findings.

The datasets and actions available to you depend on your permissions, enabled Nucleus modules, and whether you are using Global Explore or a project-level Explore page.

Purpose-built pages vs Explore

Both approaches use data from the Nucleus Data Core. Choose the experience that best matches the task.

Note on the future

Nucleus is working to standardize all views in the platform on top of NQL, with the Explore section becoming more powerful over time, with the goal of allowing organizations to ask any question of their data that they need. The examples below are just common scenarios, we recommend using Explore for most use cases going forward.

Choose the right scope

Explore is available at both the global and project levels.

Use project_id and project_name in Global Explore to identify projects in the result set or limit a query to selected projects.

Global Explore

Global explore allows you to search across your entire ecosystem, and you can break down where the data lives in your entire security fabric

Project-Level All Findings page

The All Findings page is where the majority of your data exploration will occur. For more information on the All Findings page, refer to its dedicated help article here.

Ask a question with NQL

Nucleus Query Language is the query language used by Explore. NQL presents data from the Nucleus Data Core through named datasets and fields. A query describes:

1. The dataset to search.

2. The fields to return.

3. The conditions records must meet.

4. The order in which results should appear.

For example, the following question can be expressed as an NQL query:

Which actively exploited findings affect Critical assets and are overdue?

SELECT finding_name, asset_name, severity, nucleus_threat_rating, due_date
FROM findings
WHERE nucleus_exploited = "Yes"
  AND business_criticality = "Critical"
  AND due_date < TODAY
ORDER BY nucleus_threat_rating DESC, due_date ASC

You do not need to write NQL to begin using Explore. Basic mode provides filters and controls for building common queries. NQL mode provides direct control over the selected fields, filtering logic, calculations, aliases, and sort order.

From a question to a result set

Every Explore workflow follows the same basic process:

1. Start with the question you want to answer.

2. Choose Global Explore or a project-level page.

3. Select the dataset that contains the information.

4. Build the query in Basic or NQL mode.

5. Run the query and review the results.

6. Adjust the fields, filters, or sorting as needed.

7. Save, export, or take an available action on the result set.

Nucleus continues to ingest and process data from connected sources. A saved query may return different results when you run it later because the underlying data has changed.

Explore as a data-access layer

Explore provides a consistent way to define and retrieve data from Nucleus. The query determines the scope, fields, filters, and structure of the result set. That same query model can support interactive analysis, saved searches, exports, dashboards, reports, APIs, and other delivery options.

This approach gives teams a common way to ask for data before deciding where the result needs to go. As Nucleus adds datasets and output options, Explore provides the query layer used to select and shape that data.

Explore documentation