## Propagate metadata through lineage

URL: https://docs.atlan.com/product/capabilities/lineage/how-tos/propagate-metadata-through-lineage

> Propagate metadata like owners, certificates, and tags from upstream assets to downstream dependents automatically using the Metadata Propagator app. The app follows existing lineage relationships to push governance metadata downstream without manual updates.

Use the Metadata Propagator app to automatically push metadata—such as [owners](https://docs.atlan.com/llms/catalog/discovery/add-owners/llms.txt), [certificates](https://docs.atlan.com/llms/catalog/discovery/add-certificates/llms.txt), [tags](https://docs.atlan.com/llms/governance/tags/attach-a-tag/llms.txt), and custom metadata—from upstream source assets to their downstream dependents through [lineage](https://docs.atlan.com/llms/catalog/lineage/what-is-lineage/llms.txt). This eliminates manual metadata updates and ensures governance policies set on curated source tables flow automatically to all derived assets.

## Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

- Access to the Metadata Propagator app. You can verify this by searching for **Metadata Propagator** in the Atlan marketplace. If you don't have access, contact [Atlan support](https://docs.atlan.com/support/submit-request) or your Atlan customer team to request it.
- An Atlan API token with sufficient permissions to read and write asset metadata. Your Atlan admin can generate one from the **API tokens** section in the Atlan admin panel.
- Lineage already established between your source and target assets. The Metadata Propagator follows existing lineage relationships and doesn't create them.
- A clear understanding of which assets are your source assets and which metadata you want to propagate.

## Setup workflow

This guide walks through propagating owner groups and certificates from a set of source tables downstream through lineage. This is a typical pattern for data teams who want governance metadata set on curated, upstream tables to flow down to all derived assets in the same pipeline.

1. In your Atlan workspace, click **Connectors** in the left sidebar.

 If you are using the **Old UI (Classic)**, click **New Workflow** in the top navigation.

2. Search for **Metadata Propagator**, and then select **Set up workflow**.

3. In the **Authentication** screen, paste your Atlan API token into the **API token** field. This token enables the workflow to access dynamic asset and metadata dropdowns in later steps.

4. In the **Configurations** screen:

 - Under **Attributes to propagate**, select **Owner Groups** and **Certificate**. These are the attributes that get copied from each source asset to its downstream dependents.

 - Under **Propagation direction**, select **Lineage**, then:
 - Set **Lineage direction** to **Downstream**.
 - Leave **Lineage depth** empty to propagate through the full depth of the lineage graph.
 - Leave **Check direct dependency** at its default (**Yes**) to propagate only to assets with a single upstream dependency, which avoids applying conflicting metadata when multiple sources feed into the same target.

 - Under **Propagation mode**, select **Replace** to overwrite any existing owner group or certificate values on the target assets with those from the source.

 - Under **Operation type**, select **Preview**. You'll run a preview first to verify the results before committing any changes.

 - Leave **Mode** set to **Full** so all matching assets are evaluated.

5. In the **Filters** screen, narrow down the source asset population:

 - Set **Connector** to the connector of your source tables (for example, **Snowflake**).
 - Set **Connection** to the specific connection that contains your source tables.
 - Optionally, set **Certificate** to **Verified** to restrict propagation to assets that have already been certified, ensuring only trusted metadata flows downstream.

 Leave all other filters empty to include all matching assets within the selected connection.

6. Skip the **Source Custom Metadata Filters** screen unless you need to filter source assets by custom metadata values.

7. In the **Impacted Asset Filters** screen, leave all filters empty to propagate to all downstream assets reachable through lineage. You can optionally restrict by **Asset Type** (for example, only **Tables** or **Views**) to prevent propagation to report-level assets.

8. Skip the **Impacted Custom Metadata Filters** screen unless you need to restrict target assets by custom metadata values.

9. Run the workflow in **Preview** mode. After it completes, download the generated CSV file from the workflow run output and review it to confirm that the expected source assets and downstream targets are listed with the correct attribute values.

10. Once you've confirmed the preview results look correct, return to the workflow configuration, change **Operation type** to **Propagate**, and run the workflow again to apply the metadata changes.

11. Open one of the target assets in Atlan to verify that the owner group and certificate have been applied from the source asset.

For a complete list of all configuration options—including custom metadata propagation, hierarchy-based propagation, relationship-based propagation, and name matching—see the [Metadata Propagator reference](https://docs.atlan.com/llms/catalog/lineage/metadata-propagator/llms.txt).

## Need help?

If you encounter any issues configuring or running the app, contact [Atlan support](https://docs.atlan.com/support/submit-request).

## See also

- [Metadata Propagator](https://docs.atlan.com/llms/catalog/lineage/metadata-propagator/llms.txt): Complete configuration reference for all propagation options, filters, and matching settings.
- [What is lineage](https://docs.atlan.com/llms/catalog/lineage/what-is-lineage/llms.txt): Learn how Atlan represents upstream and downstream asset relationships through lineage.
- [Tag propagation](https://docs.atlan.com/llms/governance/integrations/tag-propagation/llms.txt): Atlan's built-in tag propagation feature and how it compares to using the Metadata Propagator app.

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