> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.decube.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.decube.io/query-engines/amazon-athena.md).

# Amazon Athena

Amazon Athena is supported in Decube as a **compute engine** paired with the [AWS Glue](/transformation-tools/aws-glue.md). It is not a standalone catalog source — Athena works alongside Glue to execute queries against your S3-backed tables, unlocking data observability capabilities that Glue alone cannot provide.

## How the Glue + Athena pairing works

AWS Glue serves as the metadata catalog: it holds your table schemas, column definitions, and data job lineage (including Iceberg tables). Decube connects to Glue to extract and display this structural metadata.

Athena is a serverless query engine that runs SQL against data stored in Amazon S3. Because Glue does not natively support query execution, Decube uses Athena to power profiling runs, sample data previews, and data quality monitors. When you enable Athena on a Glue connection, Decube routes compute operations through Athena while continuing to use Glue for all metadata and lineage.

## What becomes available with Athena enabled

Without Athena, a Glue connection provides metadata and lineage only. Enabling Athena unlocks:

* **Profiling** — run data profiles on your Glue-catalogued tables from the Profiler tab
* **Data preview** — view sample rows directly in the Catalog
* **Data quality monitors** — set up and run all five monitor types:
  * Freshness
  * Volume
  * Field Health
  * Custom SQL
  * Schema Drift
* **Iceberg table support** — profiling, data preview, and all data quality monitors on Iceberg tables (Athena is required to query Iceberg format)

{% hint style="info" %}
Job Failure monitors are not supported on Glue sources regardless of whether Athena is enabled.
{% endhint %}

## Setting up Athena

Athena is configured as part of the AWS Glue connector setup. You will need:

* An S3 bucket to store Athena query results
* An Athena Workgroup
* Additional IAM policies attached to the Glue IAM user

Full setup instructions are in the [AWS Glue](/transformation-tools/aws-glue.md#enable-athena-for-data-observability) section of the AWS Glue connector page.


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