> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.opendatadiscovery.org/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.opendatadiscovery.org/features/data-discovery/catalog-overview.md).

# Catalog Overview page

The **Catalog Overview** is the catalog's home page — a single landing surface that combines every Data Discovery entry path the platform offers. A first-time user opening the platform lands here and reaches Search, the Directory's first level, the catalog's most-used tags, the Domains drill-down, a per-class Entities report, and (once they own data) personalised quick-jumps from one screen.

The Catalog Overview is the user's first encounter with the catalog and the unified pivot that links every other Data Discovery surface. It does not introduce new functionality of its own — it surfaces the existing pillars in one place.

![Catalog Overview page rendered on a populated deployment — main search, top tags, the per-class Entities report, the source-type Directory, and the Recommended quick-jumps.](/files/VAPbBYIh8Jqc07HQBdKx)

## Sections

The page renders the following sections top-to-bottom. Three sections are conditional — Domains appears only when at least one [Data Entity Group](/features/data-discovery/groups-domains.md) is flagged as a domain; Directory appears only when at least one DataSource has been registered (a fresh deployment hides the band); and Owner association appears only when authentication is enabled and the signed-in user is not yet linked to an Owner.

### Main search

Full-text search bar across the catalog. The same Search facets that the [Search and Filtering](/features/data-discovery/search.md) page exposes are reachable from here — typing a term lands on the Catalog page with the query pre-populated.

### Top tags

The most-used tags across the deployment, rendered as one-click filter chips. Selecting a chip pre-filters the catalog to entities carrying that tag. Tag vocabulary is curated under [Management → Tags](/features/management.md); this surface is read-only.

### Domains *(conditional)*

A list of [Data Entity Groups](/features/data-discovery/groups-domains.md) that have been flagged as domains, rendered as quick-jump tiles. The section appears only when at least one DEG is domain-flagged; on a fresh deployment it is hidden.

### Entities

The per-class usage report — one card per [Data Entity class](/introduction/main-concepts.md) registered on the platform (Datasets, Transformers, Transformer Runs, Quality Tests, Quality Test Runs, Consumers, Inputs, [Groups](/features/data-discovery/groups-domains.md), Relationships — the list is platform-driven and grows when new classes ship). Each card shows the total number of entities of that class, the number of "unfilled" entities (those with only a title and no metadata, owners, tags, or related terms), and is clickable — clicking runs a pre-filtered search for that class.

The Entities card grid is the catalog's coverage-at-a-glance surface: an operator scanning it sees per-class counts and the unfilled fraction, which together signal which classes need stewardship attention.

### Directory *(conditional)*

Quick links into the source-system [Directory](/features/data-discovery/directory.md), grouped by data source type. This surface renders the same level-1 cards the standalone Directory page renders — clicking a card drills directly into level 2.

The band appears only when at least one DataSource is registered on the platform. On a fresh deployment with no DataSources, the band is hidden; the standalone [Directory](/features/data-discovery/directory.md) page remains reachable through navigation but is empty until a DataSource starts producing entities.

### Recommended

Personalised quick-jumps for the signed-in user, grouped into four columns. Surfaces recently-ingested owned entities and entities related to them through lineage, helping a returning user pick up where they left off without typing a search.

The Recommended panel requires the signed-in user to be linked to an [Owner](/configuration-and-deployment/enable-security/authorization/user-owner-association.md); without the user-owner association in place, the Recommended panel is empty. On auth-disabled deployments (`auth.type=DISABLED`) the panel is **hidden from the home page entirely** — there is no user-owner identity to filter on, so the entire surface is removed rather than rendered with unfiltered data. The underlying `GET /api/dataentities/popular` REST endpoint that backs the Popular column remains reachable under DISABLED for any caller on the network.

The four columns:

1. **My Objects** — the most recently ingested five data entities where the user is mentioned as an owner.
2. **Upstream Dependencies** — data entities that serve as direct origins to those the user owns.
3. **Downstream Dependencies** — entities that are direct targets of those the user owns.
4. **Popular** — the most-viewed data entities across the catalog, ranked by view count alone (highest first). See the caveat below — this ranking is trivially inflatable.

<figure><img src="/files/Bwfm5eq3LlC9hYU3sCK4" alt="" height="155" width="700"><figcaption><p>Wizards on Recommended panel</p></figcaption></figure>

{% hint style="warning" %}
**The Popular column ranks by view count alone, and view count is trivially inflatable — treat it as a rough popularity hint, not a trustworthy signal.** The only input to the Popular ranking is each entity's view count, sorted highest-first; there is no weighting by recency, ownership, or any other signal. View count, in turn, is bumped by **+1 every time a detail page is fetched**, with no rate limit, no per-user de-duplication, and no authentication required (one page-open registers one view as of 0.28.0 — releases up to 0.27.x double-counted each open; see [Data entity detail page → view count](/features/data-discovery/entity-detail-page.md#general-panel-view-count-caveats)). Because the `GET /api/dataentities/popular` endpoint and the detail-page read are both reachable on a deployment with authentication disabled (`auth.type=DISABLED`), a short scripted read loop can push any chosen entity to the top of the Popular column. Do not use the Popular ranking as evidence of real usage in audits or capacity decisions; cross-check against your own access logs.
{% endhint %}

Each tile carries a freshness indicator — an orange "time" icon signals stale entities (see [Metadata stale](/features/data-discovery/metadata-stale.md) for the freshness window and how operators tune it) and a per-class icon on the right indicates the entity type. Clicking a tile opens that entity's [detail page](/features/data-discovery/entity-detail-page.md), defaulting to the Overview tab.

All four columns are rendered by a single shared list component, so they share rendering, sort, refetch, and pagination semantics. Each column shows up to five entries; there is no per-column "view more" affordance and no per-column sort or filter. A change that affects column rendering affects all four uniformly.

{% hint style="warning" %}
**`exclude_from_search` is a full-text-search signal only — it does not hide entities from the Recommended panel or from any other list surface.** The platform's nine list-shape consumers (the Popular column, the By-Owner list, the By-Term list, the DEG-experiment runs view, the entity dimensions surfaces, the entity-detail GET, and the query-suggestions endpoint) all read through a shared SQL helper that filters on soft-delete and hollow flags only — it does **not** apply the `exclude_from_search` predicate. The flag IS honoured on the full-text search path and on the count / statistics aggregates. An operator who toggles `exclude_from_search=true` on a staging or internal entity expecting it removed from the Recommended panel discovers it still appears there (and on By-Owner / By-Term / lineage list surfaces) until a platform-side fix lifts the predicate into the shared helper. Until that ships, treat the flag as a search-engine signal, not a platform-wide hide signal.
{% endhint %}

This surface is **distinct from the Alerts → My Objects tab**, which is a different feature with the same name (Alerts → My Objects filters open alerts on the user's owned entities; Recommended → My Objects surfaces recently-ingested owned entities). See [Alerting → Alert views — All, My Objects, Dependents](/features/active-platform-features/alerting.md#alert-views-all-my-objects-dependents) for the distinction.

### Owner association *(conditional)*

When authentication is enabled and the signed-in user is not yet linked to an [Owner](/configuration-and-deployment/enable-security/authorization/user-owner-association.md), this surface renders one of three states depending on whether the user has previously submitted a request. Once the user is bound to an Owner, the surface is replaced with the [Recommended](#recommended) panel (the four-column quick-jumps live in the same vertical band).

| Branch       | Trigger condition                              | What the user sees                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         | Path forward                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   |
| ------------ | ---------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Form**     | Signed in, no Owner binding, no prior request. | The Owner-association form with the Owner-name autocomplete and the **Send a request** button (see [User-owner association → For regular users](/configuration-and-deployment/enable-security/authorization/user-owner-association.md#for-regular-users)). | Submit the form; the request enters the admin-approval flow.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   |
| **Pending**  | Request submitted, status `PENDING`.           | A "Request is being checked" screen with no cancel affordance — the request is one-shot.                                                                                                                                                                   | Wait for an admin to approve or decline on Management → Associations → New requests. There is no self-service cancel today; see [User-owner association → Changing or removing your association](/configuration-and-deployment/enable-security/authorization/user-owner-association.md#changing-or-removing-your-association). |
| **Declined** | Most recent request returned `DECLINED`.       | A dismissable banner with the declined notice, followed by the request form so the user can submit a new request.                                                                                                                                          | Dismiss the banner and submit a new request; note the banner dismiss is **per-session and not persisted** — see [User-owner association → If your request is declined](/configuration-and-deployment/enable-security/authorization/user-owner-association.md#if-your-request-is-declined).                                     |
| **Approved** | User bound to an Owner.                        | The four-column Recommended panel takes over the same vertical band — see [Recommended](#recommended) above.                                                                                                                                               | The form is gone; quick-jumps replace it.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      |

Pending Owner-association requests are routed to [Management → Associations](/features/management.md) for an operator with the `OWNER_ASSOCIATION_MANAGE` permission to approve. On auth-disabled deployments (`auth.type=DISABLED`) the section is hidden (no user identity, nothing to associate).

## Catalog Overview vs entity Overview tab

{% hint style="info" %}
**Two distinct things share the name "Overview".** The **Catalog Overview** described on this page is the catalog's home page — the unified surface combining Search, Directory, tags, Domains, Entities, Recommended, and the optional Owner association request. The [per-entity **Overview tab**](/features/data-discovery/entity-detail-page.md) is the landing tab inside any data entity's detail page — entity description, owners, tags, terms, custom metadata. They are different surfaces; do not confuse them when reading docs or filing bug reports.
{% endhint %}

## Where to next

* [Search and Filtering](/features/data-discovery/search.md) — the query-driven entry path the Catalog Overview surfaces at the top.
* [Directory](/features/data-discovery/directory.md) — the hierarchy-driven entry path the Catalog Overview surfaces inline (level-1 cards).
* [Data entity detail page](/features/data-discovery/entity-detail-page.md) — the destination of every Recommended tile, every Search result row, and every Directory entity row.
* [Manual Object Tagging](/features/data-discovery/tagging.md) — the source data behind the Top tags chip strip.
* [Data Entity Groups & Domains](/features/data-discovery/groups-domains.md) — the source data behind the Domains section.
* [Metadata stale](/features/data-discovery/metadata-stale.md) — the freshness signal Recommended tiles render via the orange "time" icon.
* [User-owner association](/configuration-and-deployment/enable-security/authorization/user-owner-association.md) — the operator-side configuration the Owner association section + the Recommended panel both depend on.
* [Data Discovery overview](/features/data-discovery.md) — the bucket landing this page sits under.


---

# Agent Instructions
This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. Learn more at gitbook.com.

## Querying This Documentation
If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.opendatadiscovery.org/features/data-discovery/catalog-overview.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.
