Skip to main content

Data Lineage

All Tiers

Data lineage shows you the complete journey of data — from source systems through transformations to dashboards and downstream consumers.

Viewing Lineage​

  1. Open any table, dashboard, or pipeline in the Catalogue
  2. Click the Lineage tab
  3. The lineage graph renders automatically

Table-Level vs Column-Level Lineage​

TypeTierWhat it shows
Table-levelAllWhich tables feed into which tables
Column-levelProfessional+Which source columns map to which destination columns

Enabling Column-Level Lineage​

Column-level lineage is extracted automatically from:

  • dbt models: Column mappings from SQL SELECT statements
  • Calabi Connect connections: Stream-to-stream field mappings
  • Custom sources: Via the Calabi Catalogue Lineage API

Impact Analysis​

Before making schema changes, check downstream impact:

  1. Open the table you plan to change
  2. Click Lineage tab → zoom out to see the full graph
  3. Nodes to the right are downstream consumers
  4. Any dashboard or model using this table will be affected
Check lineage before dropping columns

Dropping or renaming a column without checking downstream lineage can silently break dashboards and dbt models.

Lineage Sources​

Calabi automatically extracts lineage from:

SourceHow lineage is extracted
dbtColumn-level from compiled SQL
Calabi PipelinesDAG task dependencies
Calabi ConnectSource → destination stream mappings
CalabiIQDataset → chart → dashboard relationships
ManualVia Lineage tab "Edit" button