---
title: "Understand how a metric is calculated - Atlan MCP Cookbook"
url: "https://atlan.com/mcp-cookbook/understand-how-a-metric-is-calculated/"
description: "Get the governed definition of a metric - and where it's documented - without asking a data engineer."
---

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Recipe 2 in [The Atlan MCP Cookbook](https://atlan.com/mcp-cookbook/). Get the governed definition of a metric - and where it's documented - without asking a data engineer.

Use case: Find & understand data / Action: Look up / Persona: Data/Business User, Data/BI Analyst, AI Builder / Effort: Quick / Runs in: any AI tool

Requires Atlan MCP connected to your AI tool: [set up Atlan MCP](https://docs.atlan.com/product/capabilities/atlan-ai/how-tos/remote-mcp-overview).

## 1. The task

**Scenario.** "How is MRR calculated?" keeps landing on the data team. It's not a task, it's a question - and the answer already lives in a governed glossary term. Anyone can ask Atlan for it directly instead of routing it through an engineer.

The ask:
- The governed definition of the metric
- The calculation
- Where it's documented, and who owns it

Hero prompt: "How is MRR calculated here, and where is that documented?"

Step by step:

1. Look up the governed term for the metric. Prompt: "Find the governed glossary term for [metric]."
2. Return its definition and calculation. Prompt: "Show the plain-English definition and the exact calculation."
3. Show who owns it and which certified assets carry it. Prompt: "Tell me who owns the term and which certified tables or columns use it, so I query the official one."

## 2. What you'll give it

Required context:
- The metric or term name (an alias is fine - MRR, monthly recurring revenue)

Optional context:
- Whether you want the SQL/formula or just the plain-English definition
- No Atlan training needed - ask like you'd ask a coworker who knows
- If the metric is defined in more than one glossary (say a team copy and a company one), ask for the certified, company-level term so you get the canonical number

## 3. What Atlan creates

Outputs:
- The governed term - e.g. the VERIFIED "Monthly Recurring Revenue" term, owned by finance: "the normalized amount of subscription revenue the company expects to earn each month from active customer contracts; excludes one-time charges but includes usage not contracted to recur"
- The calculation, and the certified assets that carry the term

**Summary.** The official definition, straight from the source, in one ask. The person who needed it never had to interrupt an engineer.

**Read-only.** Nothing is written - it reads the governed term and returns it.

## 4. Follow-up prompts

- **Show me the math:** "If the term only stores a prose definition, reconstruct the calculation from the linked certified column so I can see the exact math."
- **Which one's canonical?:** "Among the certified assets that carry this term, which is the most-queried one I should treat as canonical?"
- **Is it on the column?:** "Is the calculation documented on the specific column I'd query, or only on the term?"

## 5. Tips & troubleshooting

**Cook's note.** The governed, certified term is the answer - not the first column that happens to be named for the metric.

- Match the tool to the work. Any AI tool works; the recipe reads and returns, nothing to set up.
- Automate or chain it. Put it behind a Slack assistant so "how is X calculated?" is answered from Atlan without a ticket.
- It only reads. No writes - the point is self-serve: whoever asked could have asked Atlan directly.

## Related recipes

- [Reuse before you rebuild](https://atlan.com/mcp-cookbook/reuse-before-you-rebuild/): Before you write SQL to derive a metric, check whether it already exists - and reuse the governed one.
- [Get build-ready for a new dashboard](https://atlan.com/mcp-cookbook/get-build-ready-for-a-new-dashboard/): Before you build a dashboard: the trusted source, the confirmed definition, and how the data is really used - as the build recipe.
- [See what a SQL change will break before you merge](https://atlan.com/mcp-cookbook/see-what-a-sql-change-will-break-before-you-merge/): Find every downstream consumer of a changed column or table before merging.

[Browse all recipes](https://atlan.com/mcp-cookbook/) / [Set up Atlan MCP](https://docs.atlan.com/product/capabilities/atlan-ai/how-tos/remote-mcp-overview)