Metabase

Experimental

Creates:

AssetsLineage

Configure in the UI

This plugin can be configured directly in the Marmot UI with a step-by-step wizard.

View Guide

The Metabase plugin discovers dashboards, questions, metrics and models from a Metabase instance through its REST API, and links them to the warehouse tables they read.

Dashboards become Dashboard assets, questions and metrics become Chart assets, and models become Data Model Object assets. Each is named by the path of the collection holding it and its own name, for example Marketing/Weekly/Signups by channel; items in the root collection keep their bare name. Native SQL cards carry their query, and every asset links back to Metabase.

Lineage

Every dashboard is linked to the cards placed on it. Each card is linked to the tables it reads: query builder cards name their source table and joins, and native SQL cards are scanned for the tables after FROM and JOIN, matched against the tables Metabase has synced for the card's database. Those tables also feed every dashboard showing the card, and a card built on a model or another question is linked to it.

Tables are addressed as the warehouse's own Marmot plugin addresses them, for example mrn://table/postgresql/orders for a Postgres table, so the edges land on the assets that plugin creates. This plugin creates no table assets; run the warehouse plugin as well to see the full graph.

Authentication

Create an API key in Metabase under Settings, Authentication, API keys (Metabase 0.49 and newer) and set it as api_key. Without an API key the plugin logs in with username and password.

Example Configuration

host: "https://metabase.example.com"
api_key: "${METABASE_API_KEY}"
include_charts: true
include_models: true
discover_lineage: true
include_archived: false
filter:
  include:
    - "^Marketing/.*"
  exclude:
    - ".*/Scratch/.*"
tags:
  - "metabase"
  - "bi"

Configuration

The following configuration options are available:

Property	Type	Required	Description
api_key	string	false	API key (Metabase 0.49 and newer)
discover_lineage	bool	false	Link cards to the tables and models they read
external_links	[]ExternalLink	false	External links to show on all assets
filter	Filter	false	Filter discovered assets by name (regex)
host	string	true	Metabase URL, for example https://metabase.example.com
include_archived	bool	false	Include archived dashboards and cards
include_charts	bool	false	Discover questions and metrics as Chart assets
include_models	bool	false	Discover models as Data Model Object assets
password	string	false	Password for session login
tags	TagsConfig	false	Tags to apply to discovered assets
username	string	false	Username for session login, used when no API key is set
verify_ssl	bool	false	Verify the server's TLS certificate

Available Metadata

The following metadata fields are available:

Field	Type	Description
archived	bool	Whether the dashboard or card is archived
card_count	int	Number of cards placed on the dashboard
card_type	string	Card kind: question, metric or model
chart_type	string	Normalised chart type (Table, Bar, Line, Pie, Area, Scatter, Map, Gauge, Text, Other)
collection	string	Path of the collection holding the dashboard or card
collection_id	int	Id of the collection holding the dashboard or card
created_at	string	Creation timestamp
creator_id	int	Id of the user who created the dashboard or card
database	string	Name of the Metabase database the card queries
database_id	int	Id of the Metabase database the card queries
display	string	Metabase visualisation, for example bar or scalar
id	int	Dashboard or card id in Metabase
query_type	string	Whether the card runs SQL (native) or the query builder (query)
table_id	int	Id of the card's source table, for query builder cards
updated_at	string	Last update timestamp
url	string	Link to the dashboard or card in Metabase