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Version: 0.12

Glossary

The glossary defines your organisation's business terms, such as GMV or Active buyer, so everyone means the same thing by them. Terms link to the assets and columns that hold them, which tells people and agents what a table actually means.

Open Glossary in the sidebar. Terms are listed on the left; each opens with its definition, the assets linked to it and where it sits among other terms:

The glossary with its list of terms and the GMV term open, showing its definition, two linked assets and its related termsThe glossary with its list of terms and the GMV term open, showing its definition, two linked assets and its related terms

Create a term​

Select Create term and give it a name and a Definition. The definition does the work, so write it as the answer to "what exactly counts as this". "An order exists from the moment payment is authorised; a cart isn't an order" settles arguments; "an order is a purchase" doesn't.

The same form places the term among others:

  • Parent term nests it under a broader one, which keeps a growing vocabulary navigable: Order with GMV and Net revenue underneath, or PII with Erasure request. On Marmot Cloud, a role granted on a term also reaches every term nested under it.
  • Related terms links terms that sit beside each other, such as GMV and Take rate, without one owning the other.

On a term, select Link assets. Suggested lists assets whose name, tags or description mention the term, so the obvious matches are a click away; search to find anything else:

Link assets for GMV, with two assets already linked and a suggested Metabase dashboard named Marketplace healthLink assets for GMV, with two assets already linked and a suggested Metabase dashboard named Marketplace health

From an asset's page, add a term under What it means in the panel beside it:

The About this asset panel for the buyers table, with Erasure request under What it meansThe About this asset panel for the buyers table, with Erasure request under What it means

A term can also describe one column. On an asset's Schema tab, select a field, then Glossary terms to link one; the term then shows beside the column:

The Schema tab of dim_buyer, with Erasure request on the consent_state column and Active buyer on lifetime_ordersThe Schema tab of dim_buyer, with Erasure request on the consent_state column and Active buyer on lifetime_orders

Linking by hand doesn't keep up with a growing catalog. An asset rule links a term to every asset that matches a query and keeps doing it as new assets arrive, so "every table in the revenue mart carries Net revenue" stays true without anyone maintaining it. Terms can also be declared in Terraform with marmot_glossary_term, which suits a vocabulary a governance group reviews.

Find terms​

Terms are searchable alongside everything else. The Glossary terms filter on Discover narrows results to terms, and @kind: "glossary" does the same in the query language.

Next steps​

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