The Atlan MCP Cookbook

Reuse before you rebuild

Before you write SQL to derive a metric, check whether it already exists — and reuse the governed one.

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On the menu

Use case
Find & understand data
Action
Look up
Persona
AI Builder, Data Engineer
Effort
Quick
Runs in
any AI tool

The task

Scenario. Someone's about to write SQL to derive MRR for a new exec view. The risk isn't the work; it's ending up with a second, slightly-different definition of a number the company already calculates. Check where it already lives first.

The ask

  • Where the metric is already materialized
  • The best existing implementation to reuse
  • A reuse-or-rebuild verdict

Hero prompt

Hero prompt

Does MRR already exist somewhere I can reuse before I build it?

Step by step

  1. Find the metric's governed term.

    Step 1

    I'm about to derive <metric> — find its governed term in Atlan first.

  2. Find everywhere it's already materialized.

    Step 2

    Show every certified asset linked to that term where <metric> already lives.

  3. Recommend the single best one to reuse.

    Step 3

    Give me the one certified asset to reuse, with its owner and location, and a reuse-or-rebuild verdict.

What you'll give it

Required context

  • The metric you're about to build (and its governed term, if you know it)

Optional context

  • Where the new asset will live, so the recommendation fits your stack
  • Works from a ticket, a Slack ask, or ad hoc

What Atlan creates

Outputs

  • Everywhere the metric is already materialized — e.g. MRR across ~30 assets
  • The best one to reuse — e.g. a certified warehouse column such as executive_summary.total_monthly_recurring_revenue, plus the BI copies that already report it
  • A one-line verdict: reuse the certified column, don't re-derive — one governed definition, not two

Summary. A duplicate model you just didn't build. Reuse the governed number instead of minting a second, slightly-different one.

Read-only

Nothing is written — it searches and recommends; you decide what to reuse.

Follow-up prompts

Keep going once the first answer lands.

Compare the options

Compare the options

Between the top two, which is the certified one and which do more teams already use?

Confirm it's official

Confirm it's official

Is the column I'd reuse linked to the governed term, so I know it's the official calc?

Get access

Get access

Who owns it and how do I get access to reuse it?

Tips & troubleshooting

Cook's note

Reuse the certified implementation. A second definition of the same metric is how two dashboards start disagreeing.

  • Match the tool to the work. Any AI tool works; it reads and recommends, so it's safe to run before any build.
  • Automate or chain it. Chain it into your modeling workflow: before a new metric model is written, check for an existing governed one.
  • It only reads. No writes — pairs naturally with "Understand how a metric is calculated" (confirm the definition, then reuse it).
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