From b6a7b58fa01af0cd5a5e94bd17d686d283a46819 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Simon Willison <swillison@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 2021 16:08:29 -0800
Subject: [PATCH] Initial docs for _internal database, closes #1154

---
 docs/internals.rst | 16 ++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 16 insertions(+)

diff --git a/docs/internals.rst b/docs/internals.rst
index f7b0cc0b..4a2c0a8e 100644
--- a/docs/internals.rst
+++ b/docs/internals.rst
@@ -747,3 +747,19 @@ If your plugin implements a ``<form method="POST">`` anywhere you will need to i
 .. code-block:: html
 
     <input type="hidden" name="csrftoken" value="{{ csrftoken() }}">
+
+.. _internals_internal:
+
+The _internal database
+======================
+
+.. warning::
+    This API should be considered unstable - the structure of these tables may change prior to the release of Datasette 1.0.
+
+Datasette maintains an in-memory SQLite database with details of the the databases, tables and columns for all of the attached databases.
+
+By default all actors are denied access to the ``view-database`` permission for the ``_internal`` database, so the database is not visible to anyone unless they :ref:`sign in as root <authentication_root>`.
+
+Plugins can access this database by calling ``db = datasette.get_database("_internal")`` and then executing queries using the :ref:`Database API <internals_database>`.
+
+You can explore an example of this database by `signing in as root <https://latest.datasette.io/login-as-root>`__ to the ``latest.datasette.io`` demo instance and then navigating to `latest.datasette.io/_internal <https://latest.datasette.io/_internal>`__.
\ No newline at end of file