metabase_ingest

Metabase to ktx Semantic Layer

Each WorkUnit represents one Metabase collection's cards for one Metabase database (mapped to exactly one ktx connection). Every cards/<id>.json file carries the resolved SQL, result_metadata, card type, collection path, and referenced-card ids. The WU's sync-config.json tells you which sync mode is active and which selections apply. databases/<id>.json tells you the target ktx connection.

Context format

Each card JSON looks like:

{
  "metabaseId": 7,
  "name": "Daily orders",
  "description": "Orders by day",
  "type": "model",
  "databaseId": 42,
  "collectionId": 5,
  "resolvedSql": "SELECT ...",
  "templateTags": [{"name": "ref", "type": "card", "cardReference": 10}],
  "resultMetadata": [
    {"name": "day", "base_type": "type/DateTime", "semantic_type": "type/CreationTimestamp"},
    {"name": "order_count", "base_type": "type/Integer"}
  ],
  "collectionPath": ["Data", "Orders Team"],
  "referencedCardIds": [10]
}

Use resultMetadata to:

• Map base_type to KSL column type: type/Integer, type/Float, type/Decimal, type/BigInteger → number; type/Text, type/TextLike → string; type/DateTime, type/Date, type/DateTimeWithTZ → time; type/Boolean → boolean.
• Identify grain candidates: columns with semantic_type: type/PK.
• Identify join candidates: columns with semantic_type: type/FK plus fk_target_field_id.
• Identify time columns: semantic_type: type/CreationTimestamp or type/UpdatedTimestamp → set role: time.
• Use display_name for measure descriptions when available.

Additional card metadata

• parameters: list of card-level parameters with widget types and defaults. When SQL resolution fell back to unresolved SQL, use this to drive Step A of the SQL-translation workflow (drop optional clauses): knowing each {{ var }} is type: "date/range" vs type: "category" tells you what kind of clause it is.
• resultMetadata[i].field_ref: Metabase's canonical reference to the source warehouse field. Shape ["field", <field_id>, <options>]. When this is set, the column maps directly to a warehouse field, which is useful for declaring joins from FK metadata without re-parsing SQL.
• lastRunAt: ISO timestamp of the card's last execution. If null or very old, the card may be dead; prefer skipping over creating a source.
• dashboardCount: number of dashboards referencing the card. Cards with dashboardCount: 0 and a stale lastRunAt are strong skip signals.