Overview of Asset Types

This page explains the main asset types in the Decube Catalog and how they relate to each other to provide a quick mental model of what lives in the catalog.

If you use the Catalog top panel, the asset-type "pills" filter the view. For example, click the "Collection" pill to show Collection items such as Schemas and Folders.

Asset type pills - UI screenshot

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Short summary (at a glance)

• Collection: container for other assets (folders, schemas). Not a data-bearing object.

• Dataset: data-bearing object (tables, views, streams).

• Source: where data originates (database, BI tool).

• Chart / Dashboard: visualizations built on datasets.

• Property: the smallest data element (column, JSON attribute).

• Data Job / Task: executable units that transform or move data.

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Catalog asset definitions

• Chart

  • What: a single visualization (e.g., a Looker or Tableau chart).

  • Notes: Charts can appear on multiple Dashboards. They carry metadata such as description, owner, lineage, and documentation.

• Dashboard

  • What: a collection of charts grouped for a specific use case (e.g., executive or product dashboard).

  • Notes: includes metadata and lineage like Charts.

• Collection

  • What: a container for other assets (for example, Schemas and Folders).

  • Notes: Collections organize items but usually do not contain data themselves.

• Data Job

  • What: an executable job that consumes, produces, or transforms data (examples: Airflow DAGs, dbt runs, Fivetran jobs).

  • Subtypes: DataJobRun, DataTaskRun.

• Data Task

  • What: a discrete step inside a data job or pipeline (transform, validate, enrich, move).

• Dataset

  • What: structured data, often tabular (tables, materialized views, streams, or files in object storage).

  • Common subtypes: Table (physical table), View (materialized or virtual), Virtual Table (logical representation).

• Source

  • What: the origin system for datasets and other assets (databases, data warehouses, BI tools).

  • Common subtypes: Database, Business Intelligence (BI) tool.

• Property

  • What: the smallest logical data element (column, JSON attribute).

  • Examples: Column (physical table column), Virtual Column (from a virtual table).

Asset hierarchy (simple)

The following Mermaid diagram shows the top-level relationships between the common asset types.

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Glossary assets

• Glossary: a central repository of business terms and definitions.

• Term: a single glossary entry (business term) that can be linked to assets for context.

• Category: hierarchical grouping of glossary terms for easier navigation.

Glossary diagram - UI screenshot