How to attach a tag

Atlan allows users to add tags to assets. You can use them to identify key characteristics of assets or group them together for usage or data protection.

Atlan also supports attaching tags imported from the following supported sources:

• Databricks
• dbt
• Google BigQuery
• Snowflake

For tags created in Atlan, these are displayed in sentence case by design in the governance center, asset sidebar, and tags filter. For imported tags, Atlan will display the source version only in the tag popover when you hover over the tag in the asset sidebar.

Directly tag an asset

To directly tag an asset:

1. In the left menu from any screen in Atlan, click Assets.
2. On the Assets page, click an asset to view its asset profile.
3. Under Tags in the right menu, click the + icon.
4. In the popup, check the boxes to select one or more tags for the asset.
5. No propagation is the default setting. Next to your selected tag(s) in the popup, click Edit to configure the propagation of tags:
   • Click Hierarchy & lineage to allow propagation of tags to the child and downstream assets. 
   • Click Hierarchy only (no lineage) to allow propagation of tags to the child assets only.
   • Click No propagation to disallow any propagation of tags.
6. (Optional) For tags imported from supported sources, you can configure the following:
   • For Snowflake assets, you can attach a Snowflake tag. If reverse sync is enabled, any updates made in Atlan will also be synced to Snowflake. If reverse sync is disabled, updates will be restricted to Atlan. Under Snowflake tags, select a synced Snowflake tag and then:
     
     • Click the Select tag value dropdown to attach an allowed value from a predefined list, if available.
     • For Add value, enter a tag value of your choice, if no predefined allowed values are present. Tag values added in Atlan are case-sensitive.
   • For dbt Cloud or dbt Core assets, you can attach a dbt tag.
   • For Google BigQuery assets, you can attach a Google BigQuery tag.
   • For Databricks assets, you can attach a Databricks tag and tag values. If reverse sync is enabled, any updates made in Atlan will also be synced to Databricks. If reverse sync is disabled, updates will be restricted to Atlan.
   🚨 Careful! If there are multiple synced tags mapped to an Atlan tag, you will only be able to select one synced tag. You can also only select imported tags that belong to the same connection as the selected asset.
7. Click Update to confirm your selections.
8. Click Save to save the tag(s) to your asset.
9. (Optional) Hover over the attached tag to view tag propagation details in a popover, including username of the user who applied the tag, mode of tag propagation, and when the tag was configured.
10. (Optional) Filter tagged assets by attached tags, including tags imported from supported sources.

For reverse sync to work for tags imported from Snowflake and Databricks, first ensure that reverse sync is enabled on the imported tag and then you must attach the imported tag to the asset (complete step 6 above).