Lineage

Lineage shows where a number comes from and what uses it: from your warehouse tables (and, if you use dbt, the sources and models behind them), through blocks, to the dashboards and Apps that show them. ZLens builds it from your synced warehouse catalog or dbt manifest plus your ZLens files, so it is always up to date after npm run sync (or zlens compile).

Trace lineage from dbt to an App Lineage traces the certified monthly_revenue block end to end: the dbt sources and models it reads on the left, the App page that shows it on the right.

1. Open Lineage from the left rail.
2. Pick the monthly_revenue block to trace.
3. The graph shows dbt sources and models upstream, the block in the middle, and its chart, dashboard and App downstream.
4. Click the orders dbt model to highlight its path into the block.
5. Click the Jaffle Growth Review App to highlight the path from the block to the App.

Trace one item

1. In the left rail, click Lineage.
2. Trace lineage asks you to pick something. Use the tabs (Blocks, Apps, Notebooks, Dashboards) or Search blocks….
3. Click an item, such as the block Top customers by lifetime spend.

The graph shows everything upstream and downstream of it. In the sample project that is: the raw dbt sources, the staging and mart models (stg_customers, orders, customers and so on), the block, the dashboard page, and the App.

Each card names the item and its type, such as dbt Model, DQL Block, Dashboard or App. Certified blocks have a green shield.

The status bar reads, for example, End-to-end lineage of Top customers by lifetime spend · 18 nodes · 18 edges and Compiled from the dbt manifest. The status bar names what the lineage was built from: on a project without dbt (warehouse-first) it reads Compiled from the synced warehouse catalog, and on a hybrid project it names both.

Focus on one path

Click a card. Everything that is not upstream or downstream of it fades. A card in the corner shows how many items are upstream and downstream, and offers:

• Trace from here: make this item the one you trace.
• Ask about this: ask AI to explain where it comes from and what uses it.

Click the empty canvas, or Show all, to clear the focus.

Change the view

Control	Options
View	Technical (sources and dbt), Domain (terms, domains, metrics, certified blocks), End-to-end (everything)
Layout	Flow or Layered
Direction	LR (left to right) or TB (top to bottom)

To trace something else, click Tracing at the top left, or type in Search another block, app, or notebook….

From other places

• A notebook cell: open Cell SQL lineage or Project block lineage under the cell, then View in DAG.
• A block: the Lineage tab at the bottom of Block Studio.
• An App: Lineage in the dashboard toolbar opens the page's lineage.

From the terminal

zlens lineage                                     # summary of the whole project
zlens lineage "Top customers by lifetime spend"   # one block, App, model, metric…
zlens lineage --domain finance                    # one domain
zlens lineage cross-domain                        # flows between domains
zlens lineage --format json                       # the whole graph as JSON

For one item, it prints its direct and full upstream and downstream, for example:

  Block Lineage: Top customers by lifetime spend
  ==================================================
  Type: block
  Status: certified

  Direct Upstream (1):
    dbt_model:customers

  Direct Downstream (2):
    chart:Top customers by lifetime spend (table) (uncategorized)
    dashboard:customer-overview/overview

Lineage reads dql-manifest.json. If it says No lineage data found, run zlens compile first.

What lineage tracks

Node types: source tables, dbt sources and models, semantic metrics and dimensions, business terms and views, domains, blocks, charts, notebooks, dashboard pages and Apps. For the full model, see Lineage model.