Introduction
DataHub is an open-source metadata platform designed to help teams discover, understand, and trust the data they work with. DataHub can serve as the central system of record for data assets—providing rich context, lineage, and documentation across the entire data ecosystem.
Originally developed at LinkedIn, DataHub enables data teams to track data assets across warehouses, pipelines, dashboards, ML models, and beyond. It facilitates better collaboration, improves data governance, and accelerates onboarding by making metadata—such as schema, ownership, usage, and lineage—accessible and actionable.
Key benefits of using DataHub include:
Unified Data Catalog: Aggregates metadata across sources like BigQuery, Snowflake, dbt, Kafka, Airflow, Superset, and Metabase—creating a single source of truth for data discovery.
End-to-End Lineage Tracking: Automatically traces data lineage across pipelines and transformations, helping teams debug issues, assess downstream impact, and understand data dependencies.
Active Metadata and Governance: Supports automated tagging, ownership assignment, schema change tracking, and policy enforcement to improve data quality and accountability.
Search and Discovery: Provides powerful search and filtering capabilities to help users find datasets, dashboards, and metrics by name, owner, tags, or usage patterns.
Collaboration and Documentation: Enables teams to annotate datasets, define terms, attach documentation, and crowdsource knowledge—turning tribal knowledge into institutional memory.
DataHub connects the dots across tools in the modern data stack—from ingestion (e.g., Airflow, Kafka), to transformation (e.g., dbt), to consumption (e.g., Superset, Metabase), and even to ML artifacts managed through platforms like Kubeflow. It empowers engineers, analysts, and data scientists to navigate complex systems confidently and responsibly.
By adopting DataHub, you can ensure your data ecosystem is transparent, searchable, and governed by design—laying the foundation for trustworthy data and scalable analytics across the organization.
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