Directory

Directory — the browsable catalog. Walk down data source types → data sources → entity types → entities without typing a query.

The Directory is the catalog's browse-oriented entry point. Where Search is query-driven (you know what you're looking for and type a term), the Directory is hierarchy-driven (you don't yet know the exact entity name and want to drill down through known structure). It's the second of the two top-level navigation paths into the catalog.

When to use the Directory

Reach for the Directory when:

• You want to see what data sources are registered in the platform without scrolling through search facets.

• You know the kind of source (PostgreSQL, Snowflake, Kafka, Airflow, ...) but not the specific instance or entity.

• You're auditing per-source coverage — how many entities did the collector pull from each source, and which entity types are present.

• You're onboarding a teammate and want to walk them through the catalog visually before showing them search.

For everything else — full-text lookup, faceted filtering by tags / domains / owners — use the Search tab.

Directory level 1 — one card per ODDRN-prefix data source type registered in the platform; each card carries the type's display name and the total entity count across every data source of that type. Clicking a card drills down to level 2.

Navigation hierarchy

The Directory is a four-level drill-down. Each level is its own UI page (and its own API endpoint — see below).

Level	What you see	URL
1. Data source types	One card per ODDRN prefix that the platform's registered data sources resolve to (postgresql, snowflake, kafka, airflow, mysql, ...). Each card shows the type's display name and a total entity count across every registered source of that type.	/directory
2. Data sources of the selected type	The list of registered data source instances for the chosen type — name, ODDRN-derived properties (host, port, database, ...), and per-source entity count.	/directory/{type-prefix}
3. Entity types within the selected data source	The distinct Data Entity classes present in the chosen data source (Dataset, Transformer, Transformer Run, Quality Test, Quality Test Run, Consumer, Input, Group, Relationship, ...).	/directory/{type-prefix}/{data-source-id}/all (UI surfaces this on the data-source detail page)
4. Entities of the selected (data source, entity type) pair	The paged list of data entities matching both filters; click an entity to land on its detail page (Overview tab).	/directory/{type-prefix}/{data-source-id}/{type-id}

The Directory's first level also surfaces in a condensed form on the Catalog Overview home page under the "Directory" section — a quick-jump card grid that links directly into level 2.

API surface

The Directory's four backing endpoints are documented at API Reference → Directory — one GET endpoint per drill-down level under /api/directory, with the level-1 ODDRN-parsing implementation detail included alongside.

Where it sits in the UI

• Top-navigation Catalog drops the user on the Search-first landing.

• Top-navigation Directory opens the standalone level-1 view (/directory).

• Catalog Overview page → Directory section renders the same level-1 cards inline (so the home page surfaces both Search and Directory entry points side by side).

Where to next

• Search and Filtering — the query-oriented counterpart, with seven facets.

• ODDRN — the addressing scheme whose prefix is what the level-1 cards group by.

• Main Concepts → Data Discovery — where Search and the Directory sit in the broader governance map.