Assets overview

About data assets in Astro Observe.

The Asset Catalog captures Airflow assets (dags, tasks, datasets) and data assets (tables) that are automatically emitted during Airflow job runs. Assets in Astro represent the storage and movements of data through Airflow jobs.

Astro Assets are distinct from Airflow Assets, a user-defined logical grouping of data. Astro Assets include but are not limited to Airflow Assets.

You can find a list of assets in your Organization in the Asset Catalog page of Observe.

Adding assets to Observe

After your dags run at least once, Observe automatically stores information about the tasks, datasets, warehouse tables, and local files you use in your dags as Assets. You can then find these assets in the Asset Catalog.

View the Asset Catalog

To view the Asset Catalog:

1. In the Astro UI, click Observe > Asset Catalog.

The Asset Catalog displays all assets in your Organization. Each asset shows:

• Asset name and type
• Deployment name
• Dag ID for Airflow assets
• Operator Class for Airflow tasks
• Previous 14 runs status
• Last updated timestamp
• Owner
• Tags

Search and filter assets

Use the search and filter controls to find specific assets:

• Search: Use the search box to filter assets by name.
• Sort: Sort assets by last updated time.
• Asset Type: Filter by asset type, including:
  • Airflow Task
  • Airflow Dag
  • Airflow Dataset
  • OpenLineage Dataset
  • Databricks Table
  • Snowflake Table
• Namespaces: Filter assets by namespace.
• DAGs: Filter assets by dag.
• Tags: Filter assets by tag.
• Dependencies: Filter by dependency type:
  • Leaf Assets: Assets that have no downstream dependencies.
  • Root Assets: Assets that have no upstream dependencies.

Access asset information

Click an asset from the Asset Catalog to view detailed information about that asset.

After you open a specific asset, you can see detailed information about the Asset and its performance in each tab.

Details

The Details tab includes metadata and information about your asset, organized in the following sections:

• Basic: information about Asset metadata
• Task metadata (Airflow tasks only): Specific task metadata, such as the dag ID, owner, operator class, and task arguments
• Source: The last accessor of the asset

Event timeline

The Event Timeline tab shows a chronological view of all events associated with the asset, including task successes, failures, SLA breaches, and dataset writes. Use the timeline to track asset activity, troubleshoot issues, and understand historical performance patterns. See Event timeline.

Lineage

The Lineage tab displays an interactive graph showing the upstream and downstream dependencies for the asset. This visualization helps you understand data flow and relationships in your pipelines. See Asset lineage.

Metrics

The Metrics tab displays performance metrics for the asset, including task retries, failures, and duration over time. These metrics help you identify trends and potential issues in your data pipelines.

Data products

The Data Products tab shows which data products include this asset. This helps you understand the business context and impact of the asset across your organization. See Data products.