What is Catalog Explorer?

Databricks Catalog Explorer provides a UI to explore and manage data, schemas (databases), tables, models, functions, and other AI assets. To open Catalog Explorer, click Catalog in the sidebar.

What can you do with Catalog Explorer?

Catalog Explorer has two primary functions:

• Finding data assets.

  For example, you can use Catalog Explorer to view schema details, preview sample data, see table and model details, and explore entity relationships. To learn how to use Catalog Explorer to discover data, see Discover data and the articles listed below.

• Managing Unity Catalog and Delta Sharing.

  For example, you can use use Catalog Explorer to create catalogs, create shares, manage external locations, view and change object ownership, and grant and revoke permissions on all objects. To learn how to use Catalog Explorer to manage Unity Catalog and Delta Sharing, see What is Unity Catalog?.

Catalog Explorer also supports the following AI-assisted data discovery tools:

• AI-generated comments on data and AI objects, such as catalogs, tables, columns, volumes, and models. See Add AI-generated comments to Unity Catalog objects.

• Databricks Assistant for prompt-driven information about table lineage and insights. See Get table lineage using Databricks Assistant.

note

The Catalog Explorer UI is not live in all Databricks workspaces. For information about the previous UI, see Explore and create tables in DBFS.