Not a data catalog. A control plane.
Catalogs tell you what exists. MetaMiner tells you how it actually works - and acts on it. We read inside the DAX, Power Query M, universes and calculations that catalogs treat as a black box.
A catalog sees the metadata about your BI. MetaMiner sees inside it.
They both know a measure named "Revenue" exists. Only one of them knows what it means, what it depends on, and what breaks when you touch it.
A measure named "Revenue"
In dataset Sales. Owned by the Finance workspace. Last refreshed Tuesday. The name, and where it lives.
What "Revenue" actually is
The formula, its dependencies, and its blast radius - parsed, not just displayed.
Revenue = CALCULATE(
SUM(Sales[Amount]),
FILTER(Calendar, Calendar[Year] = MAX(Calendar[Year]))
)
-- depends on: Sales[Amount], Calendar[Year]
-- rename either column and this measure breaks
The questions that separate indexing from understanding.
| Can it answer… | Data catalogs | MetaMiner |
|---|---|---|
| What datasets and reports exist? | Yes | Yes |
| What's the DAX behind this measure - and what it depends on? | Name only | Parsed dependencies |
| What Power Query M steps shape this column? | Black box | Every step decomposed |
| Which source column feeds this dashboard visual? | Table-level at best | Column-level, end to end |
| What breaks if I rename this column? | A table-level guess | Exact column-level blast radius |
| Across SAP BusinessObjects, Tableau AND Power BI at once? | Per-source silos | One cross-vendor graph |
| And it operates - impact analysis, security audit, migration? | It documents | It acts |
| Where does it run? | Mostly SaaS | On-prem, you own the repository |
Catalogs go wide. We go deep - and act.
Reads the code
An ANTLR-grade parse of DAX, Power Query M, universe SQL and Tableau calculations - the logic catalogs skip as a string.
Column-level, cross-platform
Trace a number from a report visual through DAX, M and SQL to the physical database column - across all three BI platforms in one graph.
Operates, doesn't just list
Impact analysis, security audits, promotions and migrations run on the same intelligence - a control plane, not a directory.
MetaMiner is the deep BI intelligence a catalog can consume.
Keep Alation, Collibra, Atlan or Purview for enterprise-wide governance and glossary. Run MetaMiner where they stop - inside the BI artifacts - and feed them lineage they can't extract themselves. Broad and deep, together.