Metadata Editor

The Metadata Editor lets you make bulk changes to owners, tags, descriptions, and more across your Catalog assets. Admins can perform bulk metadata edits.

For Tables, Dashboards and Knowledge

Actions you can perform in bulk on your assets are:

1. Add owners
2. Add tags
3. Certify or uncertify
4. Deprecate or undeprecate

It's a 3-step process:

Step 1: Select the Tables You Want to Modify

Use the enhanced filtering system with intelligent cascading filters and lineage-based options.

Basic Filters:

• Source, Database, Schema: Hierarchical selection where database options depend on selected sources, and schema options depend on selected databases
• Tags: Filter by existing tags
• Owner: Filter by asset owners

Advanced Lineage Filters:

• Ancestors: Filter tables by their upstream dependencies using lineage relationships
  • Supports flexible search formats: database.schema.table or database schema table
  • Case-insensitive search
  • Considers all lineage types: AUTOMATIC, MANUAL_CUSTOMER, MANUAL_OPS, and OTHER_TECHNOS

Smart Cascading Selection

The Source → Database → Schema filters work hierarchically to prevent invalid combinations. When you select a source, only databases from that source appear. When you select databases, only schemas from those databases appear.

Lineage-Based Filtering

Use the Ancestors filter to find all tables that depend on a specific upstream table. This is perfect for propagating ownership, tags, or other metadata changes downstream through your data lineage.

Step 2: Click on the Action You Want to Perform

Step 3: Apply Your Changes

Your assets are immediately updated.

Advanced Use Cases

Propagating Governance Downstream

The Ancestors filter is particularly powerful for data governance workflows:

Example Scenario: You have a core customer table prod.core.customers and want to assign the same owner to all downstream tables that depend on it.

1. In the metadata editor, use the Ancestors filter
2. Search for prod.core.customers or prod core customers
3. All tables with lineage relationships to this table will be displayed
4. Select the tables you want to update
5. Apply ownership changes in bulk

This eliminates the need to manually navigate through lineage tabs for each dependent table.

Multi-Source Environment Management

The hierarchical filtering system makes it easy to work across complex data environments:

Example Scenario: You need to tag all tables in specific schemas across multiple Snowflake databases.

1. Select your Snowflake source first
2. Choose the relevant databases (only Snowflake databases will appear)
3. Select the specific schemas (only schemas from chosen databases will appear)
4. Apply tags to all selected tables

This prevents accidentally selecting tables from the wrong source or invalid database/schema combinations.

Columns

Actions you can perform in bulk on your assets are:

1. Add, replace, or remove descriptions
2. Add, replace tags
3. Flag as PII
4. Flag as Primary Key

Many columns have the same names. Shouldn't they also have the same description?

Apply All Limit

Apply All supports up to 15,000 assets per run. For larger sets, run multiple Apply All operations.

Bulk Descriptions Workflow

Use the Ancestors filter to select downstream tables that depend on a source table, then add or replace descriptions in bulk. This works well when column description propagation doesn't apply (for example, columns with transforms or multiple parents).

For initial import of descriptions from a CSV, see Upload existing descriptions. Use the Metadata Editor for ongoing bulk updates after import.