# 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.
## Sections
The page renders the following sections top-to-bottom. Two sections are conditional — Domains appears only when at least one [Data Entity Group](/features/data-discovery/groups-domains.md) is flagged as a domain, 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
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.
### 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 (and on auth-disabled deployments the panel is visible but the per-user filtering does not apply).
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 or most-used data entities across the catalog.
Wizards on Recommended panel
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 Structure page.
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 section invites them to request the link. The request surfaces in [Management → Associations](/features/management.md) for an operator with the `OWNER_ASSOCIATION_MANAGE` permission to approve.
On auth-disabled deployments 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** 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).
* [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: 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=
```
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.