Lineage

Datawise builds end-to-end lineage from your warehouse through dbt to your BI layer. When a schema change is detected, the lineage graph shows you exactly what's at risk, from the source table to the Tableau workbook a stakeholder is looking at Monday morning.

---

What Lineage Covers

Datawise resolves lineage across the full stack:

flowchart TD
 A[Snowflake / BigQuery / Postgres]  --> B[dbt Models] 
 B --> C[Tableau workbooks / Power BI reports]

Each layer is connected based on actual dependencies: which dbt models ref() or source() which warehouse tables, and which BI assets consume which dbt models or warehouse tables directly.

---

Table Lineage vs Column Lineage

Table lineage (Stack Lineage) shows which tables and models connect to each other. It's available on all plans.

Column lineage (Column Lineage) shows which specific columns in one asset flow into which columns in a downstream asset. It's available on Pro and Enterprise plans only.

Column lineage is useful when you need to trace a specific field. For example: if revenue in a Tableau workbook is derived from order_amount in a warehouse table, column lineage shows that connection explicitly.

---

Viewing the Lineage Graph

Go to Lineage in the left navigation.

The default view shows your full lineage graph. Nodes are assets (tables, models, workbooks, reports). Edges are dependencies.

Navigation controls:

• Pan — click and drag on the canvas.
• Zoom — scroll to zoom in or out.
• Minimap — use the minimap in the bottom-right corner for orientation in large graphs.
• Fullscreen — click the fullscreen button to expand the lineage view to your full browser window.

Filtering:
Use the search bar at the top to find a specific asset by name. The graph recenters on the matching node and highlights its direct upstream and downstream connections.

---

Breaking Change View

When Schema Radar detects a breaking schema change, you can open the lineage view scoped to that change directly from the Schema Radar detail view. Click View Lineage on any detected change.

In breaking change mode:

• The changed asset is centered in the graph.
• Downstream edges that represent a risk path are highlighted in red.
• Assets with no lineage path to the changed asset are dimmed.

This gives you a fast blast radius picture without manually tracing through the full graph.

---

Loading Lineage

You can load lineage from a specific Schema Radar detection ID. This is useful for sharing a specific incident view with a teammate or for referencing a past event.

From the Schema Radar history view, click View Lineage on any change. The URL updates to include the detection ID, making it shareable.

---

Lineage Accuracy

Lineage accuracy depends on what's connected and how complete your dbt project metadata is.

If a connection can't be resolved, the edge is omitted rather than shown incorrectly.

---

Requirements

• At least one warehouse connector must be connected and have completed ingestion.
• dbt Cloud connector is required for the transformation layer to appear.
• Tableau or Power BI connectors are required for BI layer assets to appear.
• Column lineage requires the Pro or Enterprise plan and the Include Column Lineage setting enabled in the dbt Cloud connector.

---

Frequently Asked Questions