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Entity Types

DataHub organizes metadata into distinct entity types.

Overview

flowchart TB
    subgraph Data Assets
        dataset[Dataset]
        chart[Chart]
        dashboard[Dashboard]
    end

    subgraph Processing
        dataflow[Data Flow]
        datajob[Data Job]
    end

    subgraph Organization
        domain[Domain]
        dataproduct[Data Product]
        glossary[Glossary Term]
        tag[Tag]
    end

    subgraph People
        user[User]
        group[Group]
    end

Data Assets

Dataset

Tables, views, files, and other data containers.

URN Pattern: urn:li:dataset:(urn:li:dataPlatform:{platform},{name},{env})

Example: 

urn:li:dataset:(urn:li:dataPlatform:snowflake,analytics.public.customers,PROD)

Properties:

Property Description
name Table/view name
description Business description
platform Source system (Snowflake, BigQuery, etc.)
schema Field definitions
owners Data owners
tags Classification tags
glossaryTerms Business glossary terms
domain Organizational domain

Sources: Snowflake, BigQuery, Postgres, MySQL, Redshift, Databricks, S3, Kafka, and more.

Dashboard

BI dashboards and reports.

URN Pattern: urn:li:dashboard:({platform},{id})

Example: 

urn:li:dashboard:(looker,sales_overview)

Properties:

Property Description
title Dashboard title
description Purpose and contents
charts Charts included
owners Dashboard owners
lastModified Last update time

Sources: Looker, Tableau, Power BI, Superset, Metabase.

Chart

Individual visualizations within dashboards.

URN Pattern: urn:li:chart:({platform},{id})

Example: 

urn:li:chart:(looker,revenue_by_region)

Properties:

Property Description
title Chart title
type Visualization type
inputs Source datasets
dashboards Parent dashboards

Processing

Data Flow

Pipelines and workflows (DAGs).

URN Pattern: urn:li:dataFlow:({orchestrator},{flowId},{cluster})

Example: 

urn:li:dataFlow:(airflow,etl_customer_pipeline,prod)

Properties:

Property Description
name Pipeline name
description Pipeline purpose
jobs Tasks/jobs within
schedule Execution schedule

Sources: Airflow, Prefect, Dagster, dbt, Spark.

Data Job

Individual tasks within a pipeline.

URN Pattern: urn:li:dataJob:({flow_urn},{job_id})

Example: 

urn:li:dataJob:(urn:li:dataFlow:(airflow,etl_pipeline,prod),transform_customers)

Properties:

Property Description
name Task name
type Task type
inputs Input datasets
outputs Output datasets

Organization

Domain

Organizational groupings for data assets.

URN Pattern: urn:li:domain:{id}

Example: 

urn:li:domain:sales

Properties:

Property Description
name Domain name
description Domain purpose
owners Domain owners
entities Assets in domain

Use Cases:

  • Organize by business unit (Sales, Marketing, Finance)
  • Organize by function (Analytics, ML, Operations)
  • Organize by product line

Data Product

Curated collections of data assets.

URN Pattern: urn:li:dataProduct:{id}

Example: 

urn:li:dataProduct:customer-360

Properties:

Property Description
name Product name
description Product description
assets Included datasets
owners Product owners
domain Parent domain
outputPorts Published interfaces

Use Cases:

  • Customer 360 view
  • Revenue analytics package
  • ML feature store

Glossary Term

Business vocabulary definitions.

URN Pattern: urn:li:glossaryTerm:{path}

Example: 

urn:li:glossaryTerm:Classification.PII

Properties:

Property Description
name Term name
definition Term definition
termSource Source (INTERNAL, EXTERNAL)
relatedTerms Related terms
parentNode Parent term/group

Use Cases:

  • PII classification
  • Business metric definitions
  • Industry-specific terminology

Tag

Simple labels for classification.

URN Pattern: urn:li:tag:{name}

Example: 

urn:li:tag:deprecated

Common Tags:

Tag Purpose
deprecated Asset is deprecated
pii Contains personal data
sensitive Sensitive data
certified Quality certified
raw Raw/unprocessed data
derived Derived/computed data

People

Corp User

Users in the organization.

URN Pattern: urn:li:corpuser:{id}

Example: 

urn:li:corpuser:[email protected]

Properties:

Property Description
name Display name
email Email address
title Job title
department Department
manager Manager URN

Corp Group

Groups of users.

URN Pattern: urn:li:corpGroup:{name}

Example: 

urn:li:corpGroup:data-engineering

Entity Relationships

flowchart TB
    dataset[Dataset] --> domain[Domain]
    dataset --> glossary[Glossary Term]
    dataset --> tag[Tag]
    dataset --> user[Owner]

    dashboard[Dashboard] --> chart[Chart]
    chart --> dataset

    dataflow[Data Flow] --> datajob[Data Job]
    datajob --> dataset

    dataproduct[Data Product] --> dataset
    dataproduct --> domain

Searching by Entity Type

Use the entity_type parameter to filter searches:

Type Filter Value
Dataset DATASET
Dashboard DASHBOARD
Chart CHART
Data Flow DATA_FLOW
Data Job DATA_JOB
Glossary Term GLOSSARY_TERM
Domain DOMAIN
Data Product DATA_PRODUCT
Tag TAG
User CORP_USER
Group CORP_GROUP

Example:

datahub_search query="customer" entity_type="DATASET"