PRODUCT · ALATION CATALOG
The definitive record for your entire data estate.
Alation Catalog is the enterprise record of your data, establishing what exists, what it means, who owns it, and whether it can be trusted. Built on 14 years of observed usage that no newer tool can replicate, our platform connects to 120+ sources without moving data. Every interaction enriches the record. Used by people to find and understand data. Used by agents to act.
WHY IT MATTERS
You already have a catalog. Can you trust what's in it?
Your data changes every day. Your catalog updates every quarter. The catalog your agents run on has to be complete enough to trust, broad enough to span every platform, and durable enough to compound rather than decay.
Built on evidence
The record reflects observed behavior across 14 years of enterprise deployments: object names, hierarchy, DDL, joins, query patterns, ownership, and quality scores. Stewards curate, agents draft, quality checks score, and usage patterns rank. The catalog gets deeper with every interaction rather than waiting for the next curation sprint. Discoverable by people. Consumable by agents via MCP and API.
Always current
The catalog does not wait for a steward to notice a change. Automated enrichment, continuous quality monitoring, and usage-based ranking keep the record current by default. When an agent gets it wrong, the correction improves the catalog for every agent and every person using the same record. Usage analytics, curation progress, and stewardship coverage are queryable in real time.
Platform-neutral
Pre-built connectors to every major platform. Open Connector Framework for the long tail. Change your warehouse, BI tool, or model provider without rebuilding what you know about your data. Fix a definition in the catalog and it propagates to every consuming platform. No reconciliation. No drift between systems. Your knowledge outlasts any platform decision.
Catalog FAQ
What you need to know about
Alation Catalog
Q1 —
What is a data catalog?
A data catalog is the enterprise record of what data you have, what it means, who owns it, and whether it can be trusted. Most catalogs were built for search: helping people find tables and read descriptions. Alation Catalog is built for AI. Every node carries business definitions, ownership, trust signals, quality scores, and usage context. Connected to 120+ sources without moving data. Used by people to find and understand data. Used by agents to act on it.
Q2 —
How is Alation Catalog different from platform catalogs?
Platform catalogs govern one estate. Your enterprise runs on many. Unity Catalog knows Databricks. Horizon knows Snowflake. Neither governs both, plus SAP, Oracle, and tools that existed before either. Alation connects to 120+ sources and builds one governed record across all of them. Definitions mastered once propagate to every platform. When you change your warehouse or BI tool, your knowledge doesn't have to be rebuilt. Open formats solved data portability. Context portability requires an independent catalog.
Q3 —
How does Alation Catalog improve over time?
Every interaction enriches the record. Queries teach the catalog what the business relies on. Curation deepens meaning. Quality checks update trust scores. Agent corrections close gaps. The catalog gets smarter through the work already happening, without asking anyone to do more. Automated enrichment, continuous quality monitoring, and usage-based ranking keep the record current as data changes. A newer catalog can copy the features. It starts with an empty record. 14 years of observed usage cannot be replicated.
Q4 —
How do AI agents use Alation Catalog?
Agents access the catalog through MCP and API with the same governed context that people see: business definitions, ownership, quality scores, trust signals, and lineage. Alation Skills encode how to navigate your specific catalog so agents select the right asset rather than guessing. When an agent gets an answer wrong, the correction writes back to the catalog so the next answer is better. The catalog is not just a source agents read from. It is a record they improve by using.
Start a Conversation
Speak with an Alation Expert
A 30-minute call to discuss your priorities, challenges, and goals.
Then we’ll show you how the Alation Intelligence Operating System ensures apps and agents act on current, quality, and compliant data.
Enterprises absolutely have to trust the data underneath their most critical process and decisions. We will help you get it right.