Metadata enrichment
Common questions about how context agents work, what they support, and how enrichment is tracked.
Does AI overwrite my existing metadata?
No. Context agents only enrich assets that are missing the target metadata attribute. If an asset already has a description, README, or linked terms, the agent skips it. Existing values are never overwritten.
How long does enrichment take?
Enrichment can take up to a few hours for large collections (1,000+ assets). You can monitor progress live from the collection overview without leaving the page.
Do agent runs cost AI credits?
Yes. Each agent run consumes AI credits based on the number of assets processed.
Why don't I see Popular BI Reports or Upstream of Popular BI collections?
These collections are only created when a supported BI source is connected to Atlan. If no BI source is connected, these collections don't appear.
Which sources are supported for each default collection?
| Collection | Sources |
|---|---|
| Popular SQL Assets | Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery |
| Popular BI Reports | All supported BI sources |
| Gold Layer | BI + SQL sources |
| Upstream of Popular BI | BI + SQL sources |
| DQ Connected Assets | All sources with connected DQ tools |
| Assets with Owners | All sources |
| Assets with Product or Domain | All sources |
| Assets with Terms | All sources |
What assets does each agent support?
| Agent | Supported assets |
|---|---|
| Description | Tables |
| README | Tables, datasets, BI dashboards, BI reports |
| SQL Intelligence | Tables and views with query history |
| Link Terms (coming soon) | Tables, columns, BI assets |
The Description agent doesn't yet support column-level descriptions. This is planned for a future release.
How often do collections refresh?
Collections refresh periodically based on usage signals from your connected sources: query logs, lineage relationships, and BI usage data. They update automatically as your usage patterns change.
How's metadata coverage calculated?
Coverage % is the percentage of assets in a collection that have a given attribute filled in. For example, if 60 out of 100 assets have a description, the coverage for Description is 60%.
How many assets can be enriched per run?
Each collection has an enrichment limit of 500 assets per agent run. When a collection contains more than 500 assets, the first 500 are selected based on popularity. If popularity data isn't available, assets are selected alphabetically.
Can I create my own collections?
Custom collection creation is coming soon. This lets teams create their own groupings of assets using tags and custom metadata, enabling more fine-grained, domain-level groupings—for example, tagging a set of high-priority assets and creating a collection from that tag to focus enrichment efforts.
Can I track additional metadata attributes beyond defaults?
Yes. Click + Track metadata in the collection detail view to add or remove the attributes shown in the coverage overview.
See also
- Collections: How default collections are built and populated
- Context agents: What each agent generates and which assets it supports
- Trigger AI enrichment: Step-by-step guide