Manage assets

Create, retrieve, update, delete, and restore assets through the API. Rather than covering every asset type in detail, the guides below focus on the operations and patterns to follow for each operation.

Create asset

Create any type of asset in Atlan using the Asset builder pattern with the Python SDK (pyatlan). Enrich assets with attributes before creation via POST /api/meta/entity/bulk.

Retrieve asset

Retrieve assets in Atlan by GUID or qualified name using Asset and the Python SDK (pyatlan). Access full or minimal asset representations via GET /api/meta/entity/{guid}.

Update asset

Update assets in Atlan using the Python SDK — call the asset type's updater() with qualifiedName and name, then set only the attributes you want to change without overwriting unrelated fields.

Delete an asset

Delete assets in Atlan using Asset and the Python SDK (pyatlan) — soft-delete (archive) or hard-delete (purge), including bulk deletion via DELETE /api/meta/entity/bulk.

Restore asset

Restore soft-deleted (archived) assets in Atlan using Asset and the Python SDK (pyatlan).

Find and apply suggestions

Find and apply metadata suggestions to assets programmatically using the Atlan Python SDK (pyatlan) and Suggestions API.

Review asset changes

Query asset change history in Atlan using AuditSearchRequest and the Python SDK. URl is POST /api/meta/entity/auditSearch returns a dedicated audit log distinct from the main indexsearch index.

Review accesses of an asset

Track asset view activity in Atlan using SearchLogRequest and the Python SDK — POST /api/meta/search/searchlog returns viewer counts, most-viewed assets, and detailed log entries per asset.

In many cases, you can also combine multiple operations into a single API call for efficiency.