The task
Scenario. You finally documented customers_raw: a clear description and PII tags on the sensitive columns. Everything built on top of it, the views, the marts, the dashboards, should inherit that context, but it does not happen on its own. You want to walk the lineage once and carry the description and tags forward while the work is fresh.
The ask
- The downstream lineage for customers_raw
- Every view, table, and dashboard it feeds
- The description and PII tags copied onto each
Hero prompt
Take the description and PII tags from the customers_raw table and propagate them outward through its downstream lineage, expanding hop by hop.
Step by step
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Trace the downstream lineage from the source.
Trace the downstream lineage from <source table> one hop at a time.
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Walk the downstream nodes: views, tables, dashboards.
List the downstream views, tables, and dashboards.
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Apply the source's descriptions and tags to each.
Copy the description and <tag> tags from <source table> to all of them.
What you'll give it
Required context
- A source asset with complete metadata (customers_raw)
- Lineage populated for that asset
- Permission to update the downstream assets
Optional context
- Which tags to carry versus leave behind (you may want PII to travel but not a team-specific tag)
- A depth limit, if the lineage runs many hops and you only want the first level
What Atlan creates
Outputs
- The downstream lineage of customers_raw, listed by asset type
- The source description applied to each downstream asset that lacked one
- The PII tags carried onto every downstream asset that inherits the sensitive columns
Summary. Context stops dead-ending at the source. The description and the PII classification now travel with the data, so a governance policy that keys on the PII tag fires downstream too.
Changed: descriptions and PII tags on the downstream assets. Left untouched: the source table, and any downstream asset that already carried its own description.
Follow-up prompts
Keep going once the first answer lands.
Carry ownership too
Also set the same owner as customers_raw on any downstream asset that has no owner.
Stop at a boundary
Propagate only to the analytics schema and stop; do not touch anything in sandbox.
Verify it landed
Show me every downstream asset that still has no PII tag after the run so I can check why.
Tips & troubleshooting
Do this right after you finally document a source table. Push it downstream while it's fresh.
- Match the tool to the work. Lineage propagation touches many assets at once; run it in an AI tool that lists the targets before it writes, so a wrong tag does not spread.
- Automate or chain it. Chain it onto your documentation workflow: whenever a source table gets new PII tags, propagate them the same night.
- Ask what it changed. Add "list every downstream asset you tagged and which tags you added." When classification travels, you want the receipt.