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Catalog Onboarding Guide

This guide walks you through onboarding to Coalesce Catalog, from account creation through organization-wide adoption. Whether you're an admin setting up integrations or an end user exploring your data, you'll find the steps you need here.

Who This Guide Is For​

Catalog onboarding involves two main roles:

  • Admins and setup owners: Request accounts, connect warehouses and BI tools, configure integrations, and manage users. See Phase 1: Initial Setup.
  • End users: Sign in, explore the interface, and use Catalog to find and understand data. See Sign In and Explore.

Phase 1: Initial Setup​

Request a Catalog Account​

New Catalog accounts are created by the Coalesce team and are not self-service. Contact support@coalesce.io or your Coalesce representative to request a new Catalog account.

Include in your request:

  • Company or organization name
  • Key user email addresses
  • Integrations needed (for example, Snowflake, Sigma, Tableau, Coalesce Transform)
  • Timeline and any organizational context (for example, merger, hierarchy change)

Your Catalog admin or Coalesce contact will confirm when your space is ready. For details on user and team provisioning, including SCIM sync, see User and Team Provisioning.

Access and Authentication​

  • Basic login: Start with the credentials provided in your onboarding email. Sign up using the Catalog sign-up link after your space is ready.
  • SSO configuration: Work with your IT team to set up Single Sign-On for broader access. See Authentication for Okta, Google SSO with SAML, and Azure AD with SAML.
  • SCIM setup: For automated user provisioning (recommended for larger teams), see SCIM setup for Microsoft Entra ID and SCIM setup for Okta.

Connect Your Data Sources​

Once your Catalog space is ready, admins connect data sources so users can discover and understand assets. The core setup has three steps: sign up, connect your warehouse, and connect your BI tool.

Step 1: Sign Up​

After your Catalog space is set up, sign up using the Catalog sign-up link.

Step 2: Connect Your Warehouse​

Catalog connects to your warehouse to extract metadata (table and column names, types, lineage, and so on). The dedicated Catalog user has very limited access: it can read metadata only, not your data.

  1. Go to the Integrations page, find your warehouse technology, and follow the setup instructions. Each integration requires a dedicated user or service account with specific permissions.
  2. In Catalog, go to Settings > Integrations and add your warehouse using the credentials from step 1.

Catalog tests the connection, applies settings, and runs the first sync (usually a couple of hours). You'll be notified when the first sync finishes. After that, Catalog syncs once per day with your warehouse.

Step 3: Connect Your BI Tool​

Catalog ingests metadata from your BI tools (dashboards, reports, data sources) to power discovery and lineage.

BI tool onboarding follows one of two paths:

  • Catalog managed: You share admin credentials; Catalog handles extraction and daily syncs. No further action on your part.
  • Client managed: You run the castor-extractor package locally to extract metadata and send the output files to Catalog. Catalog never accesses your BI tool directly.

For full details and supported technologies, see Warehouses and BI Tools.

Step 4: Connect Other Integrations​

Catalog supports transformation tools (Coalesce, dbt), quality tools, communication (Slack, Microsoft Teams), knowledge bases, and more. See the Integrations page for the full list.

User Management​

Assign roles and invite your core team before broader rollout.

Phase 2: Foundation Building​

Domain Structure​

Create your organizational domains in the Knowledge section. See Step 1: Create your domains for a guided approach.

  • Business domains: Finance, Marketing, Operations, and so on
  • Technical domains: Data Engineering, Analytics, Governance
  • Hierarchical structure: Use parent-child relationships where appropriate. See Step 1: Create your domains for structuring guidance.

Governance Framework​

Define how you tag, own, and document assets consistently.

Initial Documentation​

Start with your most critical assets. See How to approach a documentation initiative for the full 5-step process.

Phase 3: Rollout Strategy​

Phased User Rollout​

Follow this recommended sequence:

Technical Teams​

  • Data Engineers
  • Data Analysts
  • BI Developers

Data Stewards​

  • Domain experts
  • Business analysts
  • Governance team members

Business Users​

  • Report consumers
  • Self-service analytics users
  • Executive stakeholders

Docs by Role​

What each role needs to read to use Catalog:

Viewer (read-only): Search, view assets, add comments, request descriptions.

Contributor: Everything Viewer can do, plus edit descriptions, create knowledge pages, edit tags, certify owned assets, publish to Marketplace.

Steward: Everything Contributor can do, plus certify any asset, manage tags and templates, bulk edit, analytics.

Admin: Everything Steward can do, plus manage users, content access, data sources, account settings.

Phase 4: Adoption and Growth​

AI Features Activation​

AI features help users find data faster, document at scale, and lower the barrier for business users who prefer natural language over filters and keywords. AI Search lets people ask questions like "What is ARR?" or "Do we have a dashboard about churn?" Describe with AI generates table and column descriptions from metadata so contributors can document assets quickly without writing everything manually.

Advanced Features​

  • Data quality integration: Catalog integrates with Anomalo, Coalesce Quality, dbt Tests, Great Expectations, Monte Carlo, Sifflet, and Soda. For custom tools, use the Quality API. See Quality integrations.
  • Lineage enhancement: Ensure end-to-end lineage from source to BI. See Lineage.
  • Usage analytics: Monitor catalog adoption and asset popularity. See Analytics.

Continuous Improvement​

Sign In and Explore​

Once your space is set up and data sources are connected, end users can sign in and start exploring.

Log In​

  1. Go to https://app.castordoc.com/
  2. Sign in using your SSO or directly using your app credentials
  3. If you're having trouble, contact your Catalog admin or support team. For network or login issues, see Browser login troubleshooting

Explore the Interface​

Catalog has two main interfaces: the Catalog (all assets and documentation) and the Data Marketplace (curated, consumer-friendly view of production-ready data products). Most use cases refer to the Catalog interface.

Key areas to explore:

  • Left panel: Browse your data ecosystem by Warehouse, BI tool, Business Knowledge, and People. See Navigation menu for details.
  • Search bar: Use Advanced Search and filters to find assets. Try terms like revenue, orders, or customer, and use filters (type, tags) to narrow results.
  • Asset zoom: Click into a table or dashboard to see metadata such as lineage, descriptions, and popularity.
  • AI Assistant: Ask questions in natural language, for example: "Do we have a dashboard about churn?" See AI Assistant introduction for capabilities.

For a visual walkthrough, see the 5-Minute Quick Start Guide.

Catalog Versus Marketplace​

The Catalog is the primary interface where you find all assets from your data stack and documentation. The Marketplace is a curated, consumer-friendly interface that showcases only production-ready data products organized by domain.

If your account has Marketplace access, see Catalog and Marketplace Interfaces for setup and publishing guidelines.

Best Practices​

Documentation Strategy​

Focus on high-impact assets first and build from there.

  1. Start small: Begin with one domain or use case. See Step 1: Create your domains.
  2. Use templates: Create consistent documentation formats. See Templates.
  3. Leverage AI: Use Describe with AI as starting points.
  4. Link assets: Pin related dashboards, tables, and metrics together. See Pinned assets.

Change Management​

Build momentum and adoption across your organization.

  1. Champion network: Identify power users in each domain.
  2. Success stories: Share early wins to build momentum.
  3. Regular communication: Keep stakeholders informed of progress.
  4. Training materials: Develop internal documentation and videos. Reference 5-Minute Quick Start Guide and How to approach a documentation initiative.

Technical Considerations​

Plan for security, performance, and reliability.

  1. Network policies: Allowlist Catalog IPs if needed. See Snowflake setup for IP addresses.
  2. Security reviews: Work with InfoSec on data classification.
  3. Performance monitoring: Track integration sync times and success rates in Integration settings.
  4. Backup plans: Document rollback procedures for integrations.

Success Metrics​

Track these KPIs to measure onboarding success:

  • User adoption: Number of active users per month. See Users Activities.
  • Content coverage: Percentage of assets with descriptions. See Data Documentation Coverage.
  • Search usage: Frequency of catalog searches.
  • Documentation quality: User ratings of asset descriptions.
  • Time to value: How quickly new users find relevant data.

Get Help​

Support Channels​

Reach out through these channels depending on your need.

Common Issues and Solutions​

If you run into problems, these resources can help.

What's Next?​