In integration scenarios, mediators provide a single point of access over the participating sources by exporting a global schema against which application developers formulate their queries. When the participating sources export limited interfaces, such as web services, application developers and users need to know what queries they can pose against the mediator.

The CLIDE interface guides developers in a step-by-step process towards feasible applications queries, i.e., queries executable by mediators, given a specification of supported queries by the participating sources. CLIDE's modular architecture consists of a graphical front-end and a back-end. The front-end follows the paradigm of Microsoft's Query Builder (which, in turn, is based on the Query-By-Example (QBE) paradigm) and provides guidance in the form of a color scheme, which indicates in every step which possible actions should, should not or may be taken in order to reach a supported application query. The front-end also indicates in every step whether the current application query is feasible or not. CLIDE's back-end formalizes the front-end using an interaction graph and reduces coloring to testing properties of the interaction graph.

In the current version, CLIDE targets relational databases and the SQL language, and the supported queries of the participating sources are specified by a set of parameterized views, a formalism that has been widely used in integration scenarios.