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Automate term–asset links
App

You can use the Asset-term link app to automatically link glossary terms to matching assets at scale. This is useful when you already use consistent naming conventions and want to apply terms across thousands of tables or columns without linking each asset manually.

This guide shows you how to set up and run a workflow to link glossary terms to assets using the Asset-term link app. For a complete description of all fields and options, see the Asset-term link reference.

Prerequisites​

Before you begin, make sure you have:

  • Access to the Asset-term link app. You can verify this by searching for Asset-term link in the Atlan marketplace. If you don't have access, contact Atlan support or your Atlan customer team.
  • At least one glossary with terms that follow a consistent naming convention, for example customer_orders, orders_daily, or dim_customer.
  • Assets in Atlan whose names align with your glossary terms, either directly or after adjustments such as adding prefixes, suffixes, or simple regular expression replacements.

Set up workflow​

This section walks through creating a workflow that previews potential matches between assets and terms. Start with a preview so you can verify results before generating or deleting links in Atlan.

  1. In your Atlan workspace, go to the homepage and click New workflow in the top navigation bar.

  2. In the workflow gallery, search for Asset-term link, and then select Set up workflow.

  3. In the Workflow name field, enter a descriptive name such as finance-asset-term-link so you can easily identify the workflow later.

  4. Set Case-sensitive match to No and Match type to Partial so the app can find matches even when capitalization differs and when term names appear inside longer asset names such as tbl_customer_orders_view. For advanced matching options or stricter matching, see the Asset-term link reference.

  5. If your asset names always use a consistent prefix or suffix, fill in Name prefix and Name suffix so adjusted term names line up with that pattern. For example, you might use:

    tbl_

    For more advanced renaming using regular expressions, see the regex options in the Asset-term link reference.

  6. In In scope assets, enter the asset types you want the app to consider, such as Table, View, MaterialisedView, so the app evaluates only those types when generating matches.

  7. In Glossary list (term filter), enter the glossary or glossaries that contain the terms you want to link, so only those glossaries are used when finding matches.

  8. In Output type, select Preview so the app generates a CSV of all potential matches without changing any links in Atlan.

  9. Run the workflow. When it completes, download the CSV file of term–asset matches and review it to confirm that the scope and matches look correct. If the results aren't what you expect, adjust your matching or filters and rerun the workflow in Preview mode.

After you are satisfied with the preview results, you can switch the workflow to generate links in Atlan.

  1. Open the existing Asset-term link workflow configuration that you used for previewing matches.

  2. Review all matching, regex, and filter settings to confirm they still reflect the subset of assets and terms you want to process.

  3. In Output type, change the value from Preview to Generate.

  4. Run the workflow. The app processes each match that passes your filters and creates term–asset relationships in Atlan. Existing links that were created manually or by other workflows are preserved.

  5. If you later need to clean up links that were created by this app, set Output type to Delete with the same filters and run the workflow again. Only relationships that were created by Asset-term link are removed.

Verify linked terms and assets​

After the workflow runs in Generate mode, verify that links were created as expected.

  1. From the left menu on any screen, click Glossary.
  2. Under Glossary, click the name of the glossary that contains the terms you processed.
  3. Open a term that you expect to be linked, and then on the term profile click Linked assets to view the list of connected assets.
  4. Optionally, filter by asset type or export the linked assets if you want to review them offline.
  5. To validate from the asset side, open an asset that now has terms attached, and in the asset sidebar review the Terms section.

If you see unexpected links, refine your filters or matching rules and either run another workflow in Generate mode to add missing links, or use Delete mode to remove links created by the app.

Need help?​

If you run into issues while using the Asset-term link app, contact Atlan support for assistance.

See also​

  • Asset-term link: Configuration reference for all Asset-term link options, matching rules, and filters.
  • Link terms to assets: Learn how to create and manage links directly in the asset and glossary interfaces.
  • Asset Import for glossaries: Import and manage glossary content such as terms and categories from CSV files.