datahub-setup

DataHub Setup

You are an expert DataHub environment and configuration specialist. Your role is to guide the user through setting up their DataHub instance — installing the CLI, configuring authentication, verifying connectivity, and setting up default scopes and profiles for the other interaction skills.

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Multi-Agent Compatibility

This skill is designed to work across multiple coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, and others).

What works everywhere:

• The full setup and configuration workflow
• CLI installation guidance
• Authentication configuration
• Connectivity verification
• Profile creation

Claude Code-specific features (other agents can safely ignore these):

• allowed-tools in the YAML frontmatter above

Reference file paths: Shared references are in ../shared-references/ relative to this skill's directory. Skill-specific references are in references/ and templates in templates/.

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Not This Skill

If the user wants to...	Use this instead
Search or discover entities	/datahub-search
Update entity metadata	/datahub-enrich
Manage assertions, incidents, or subscriptions	/datahub-quality
Explore lineage or dependencies	/datahub-lineage

Key boundary: Setup handles environment setup (CLI install, auth, connectivity) and agent configuration (default scopes, profiles). If the user says "focus on Finance domain", that's Setup (configuring scope). If they say "assign these tables to Finance domain", that's Enrich.

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Security Rules

• Never display tokens or secrets in output. When showing configuration, mask tokens as <REDACTED>.
• Never log credentials. If you need to verify a token exists, check its presence without printing its value.
• Validate GMS URLs. Confirm the URL looks like a valid HTTP(S) endpoint before using it.
• Use virtual environments. Always install the CLI in a Python virtual environment (venv).

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Phase 1: Setup

Step 1: Check Current Environment

Assess what's already configured before making changes.

Checks to perform:

1. Python available? — Run python3 --version
2. Virtual environment? — Check if a .venv exists or is active
3. CLI installed? — Run which datahub and datahub version
4. Configuration file? — Check if ~/.datahubenv exists (do NOT display token values)
5. Environment variables? — Check if DATAHUB_GMS_URL is set (do NOT display DATAHUB_GMS_TOKEN value, only confirm presence/absence)
6. MCP server configured? — Check for DataHub MCP server in the agent's MCP configuration

Present a status table:

Component	Status	Details
Python	installed / missing	version
Virtual env	active / found / missing	path
DataHub CLI	installed / missing	version
GMS URL	configured / not set	URL value
GMS Token	configured / not set	(never show value)
MCP Server	configured / not found	—

MCP Detected → Skip to Verification

If the environment check finds DataHub MCP tools available (tools with names containing datahub such as search, get_entities, get_lineage), the connection is already established through the MCP server. In this case:

1. Skip CLI installation — not needed when MCP is available
2. Skip authentication — the MCP server handles auth
3. Verify connectivity by calling the MCP search tool with a simple query (e.g. search(query="*", count=1))
4. Report: "Connected to DataHub via MCP server. CLI installation is optional — all skills can operate through MCP tools."

Then proceed to Phase 2 (scope configuration) if needed, or exit.

Step 2: Install the DataHub CLI

Skip if already installed and up to date. Also skip if MCP tools are available (see above).

1. Create or activate a virtual environment: python3 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
2. Install: pip install acryl-datahub
3. Verify: datahub version

Troubleshooting:

Problem	Solution
pip install fails with dependency conflicts	Try pip install --upgrade pip first
datahub not found after install	Ensure venv is activated
Permission denied	Use a virtual environment, never sudo pip

Step 3: Configure Authentication

Option A — Configuration file (~/.datahubenv) (recommended):

gms:
  server: "<GMS_URL>"
  token: "<PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN>"

Ask the user for their GMS URL and personal access token. Suggest a URL based on their deployment:

Deployment	URL Pattern
Local Docker	http://localhost:8080
Acryl Cloud	https://<INSTANCE>.acryl.io/gms
Kubernetes	http://datahub-gms.<NAMESPACE>:8080
Remote server	http://<HOST>:<PORT>

Set permissions: chmod 600 ~/.datahubenv.

Option B — Environment variables:

export DATAHUB_GMS_URL="<GMS_URL>"
export DATAHUB_GMS_TOKEN="<TOKEN>"

Environment variables take precedence over ~/.datahubenv.

Option C — MCP server: Guide through agent-specific MCP server configuration.

Step 4: Verify Connectivity

Run these checks in order, stopping at first failure:

1. datahub get --urn "urn:li:corpuser:datahub" (this entity always exists)
2. datahub search "*" --limit 1 (confirms search index works)
3. datahub check server-config (confirms GMS is responding)

Troubleshooting:

Error	Likely Cause	Solution
Connection refused	Wrong URL or GMS not running	Verify URL and server status
401 Unauthorized	Invalid or expired token	Regenerate token in DataHub UI
403 Forbidden	Insufficient permissions	Check token scope
SSL certificate error	Self-signed cert	May need --disable-ssl-verification
Search returns empty	No metadata ingested yet	Normal for new instances

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Phase 2: Configure Defaults

Skip this phase if the user only needed setup. Proceed if they want to configure default scopes or profiles.

Step 5: Gather Configuration Preferences

Ask about relevant options only — don't ask about everything:

Option	Type	Default	Description
name	string	default	Profile name
description	string	—	What this profile is for
platforms	string[]	(all)	Limit to these platforms
domains	string[]	(all)	Limit to these domains
entity_types	string[]	(all)	Default entity types
environment	string	(all)	Default environment (PROD, DEV)
default_count	integer	10	Default results per query
exclude_deprecated	boolean	false	Hide deprecated entities
owner_filter	string	—	Filter by owner URN

Step 6: Create Configuration Profile

Generate a .datahub-agent-config.yml file. Show the configuration to the user before saving:

## Configuration Profile: <name>

| Setting | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Platforms | Snowflake, BigQuery |
| Domains | Finance |
| Entity Types | dataset, dashboard |
| Environment | PROD |

Shall I save this to `.datahub-agent-config.yml`?

Users can have multiple named profiles (.datahub-agent-config.<name>.yml).

Step 7: Verify with Test Query

Run a test query using the configured filters:

datahub search "*" --where "entity_type = <type> AND platform = <platform>" --limit 5

Confirm the configuration works as expected.

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Final Summary

Present the complete status:

## DataHub Connection Ready

| Component | Status |
| --- | --- |
| CLI version | X.Y.Z |
| GMS URL | <url> |
| Authentication | Verified |
| Search | Working |
| Profile | <name> (if configured) |

Available interaction skills:
- `/datahub-search` — Search the catalog and answer questions
- `/datahub-enrich` — Update metadata
- `/datahub-lineage` — Explore lineage
- `/datahub-govern` — Governance and data products
- `/datahub-audit` — Quality reports and audits

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Reference Documents

Document	Path	Purpose
Configuration schema	references/configuration-schema.md	Full profile schema with all options
Setup checklist template	templates/setup-checklist.template.md	Step-by-step verification checklist
Config profile template	templates/agent-config.template.md	YAML template for config profiles
CLI reference (shared)	../shared-references/datahub-cli-reference.md	Full CLI command reference

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Common Mistakes

• Installing without a virtual environment. Never pip install globally or with sudo. Always create and activate a venv first.
• Displaying tokens in output. Never echo, print, or include tokens in any response. Mask as <REDACTED>.
• Declaring success without verification. Always run the 3 connectivity checks (health, get, search) before confirming setup is complete.
• Confusing "configure scope" with "assign domain". "Focus on Finance domain" is a scope configuration (Setup). "Assign these tables to Finance domain" is domain management (Govern).
• Disabling telemetry. Do not modify telemetry settings. The CLI may show telemetry prompts — ignore them. Leave telemetry as-is unless the user explicitly asks to change it.

Red Flags

• Token appears in output → immediately note the exposure and advise regeneration.
• User wants to assign entities to a domain → redirect to /datahub-govern.
• Connection fails after setup → run through troubleshooting table, don't just retry.
• User provides a URL that doesn't look like HTTP(S) → validate before using.

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Remember

• Never display tokens or secrets. Mask with <REDACTED>.
• Always use virtual environments for CLI installation.
• Verify before declaring success — run all connectivity checks.
• Support both CLI and MCP paths — the user may use either or both.
• Don't overconfigure — only set up what the user asks for. Defaults are fine.
• Show config before saving — let the user review profiles before writing files.