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Set up Glean

Before running your first sync, complete the one-time setup tasks in this guide: create a Glean datasource to receive the indexed terms, generate the API credentials needed for both indexing and curated Answers, and save them in Atlan.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

  • Admin access to the Glean admin console
  • Permissions to create API tokens in Glean
  • Your Atlan tenant URL (for example, your-tenant.atlan.com)
  • Admin or API Token creation permissions in Atlan

Create Glean datasource

A Glean datasource is the named container that holds all the documents indexed from Atlan. You create it once and reference it in every sync run.

  1. Log in to your Glean admin console.
  2. Navigate to Workspace Settings > Custom Apps.
  3. Click Add datasource and select KNOWLEDGE_HUB as the datasource type.
  4. Choose a short, unique internal name using only lowercase letters, digits, and underscores (for example, atlan_glossary). Enter this name in Atlan when saving credentials.
  5. In the datasource URL pattern field, enter a regex that matches your Atlan tenant URLs:
    ^https://your-tenant.atlan.com/(assets|glossary)/.*$
    Replace your-tenant with your actual Atlan tenant name.
  6. Complete the datasource configuration and save. New datasources start in test mode. You'll promote the datasource to production after validating your first sync.

Generate Glean API tokens

This connector requires two Glean API tokens: an Indexing token (scope: Indexing) to push glossary terms as searchable documents, and a Client API token (scope: Client API) to manage curated Answers. Both are required, even if curated Answers aren't enabled. To generate each token:

  1. In the Glean admin console, navigate to Workspace Settings > API tokens.
  2. Click Create token.
  3. Select the appropriate scope for the token you're creating.
  4. Copy and securely save both tokens. You can't view them again after leaving the page.

Generate Atlan API key

The connector uses an Atlan API key to read glossary terms. Because the connector only reads data, a low-privilege token is sufficient.

  1. In Atlan, go to Settings > API Tokens.
  2. Click Generate API Token.
  3. Enter a descriptive name, such as Glean Sync.
  4. Assign the Guest or Data Steward persona. The connector only reads glossary term metadata.
  5. Click Save and copy the generated token.

Save credentials in Atlan

  1. In the top navigation, click Marketplace.
  2. Search for Glean and select it.
  3. Click Install.
  4. Once installation completes, click Setup Workflow on the same tile.

If you navigated away before installation completed, go to New > New Workflow and select Glean to proceed.

  1. In the Credential step, click Add credential.
  2. Fill in the credential form:
    • For Glean Instance URL, enter your Glean backend hostname without https:// or a trailing slash. For example: your-company-be.glean.com.
    • For Atlan API Key, paste the API key you generated in the previous step.
    • For Glean Indexing API Token, paste the indexing token.
    • For Glean Client API Token, paste the client API token.
    • For Glean Datasource Name, enter the datasource name you created earlier (for example, atlan_glossary).
  3. Click Save to store the credential.

Your credentials are now saved.

Next steps