dScribe Catalog is a data catalog and business glossary — a central hub where your organization documents, discovers, and understands its data assets.
Whether you're looking for the right report to base a decision on, trying to understand what a KPI actually means, or responsible for making sure your data documentation stays accurate and current — dScribe Catalog is where you go.
Why it exists
Data teams get the same questions over and over: "Where do I find the sales report?", "What does this metric mean?", "Which version of the dashboard is the official one?"
dScribe Catalog gives everyone a single place to find trusted answers — reducing the time your data and BI teams spend on repetitive questions, and giving end users the confidence to act on data themselves.
The building blocks
Understanding dScribe Catalog is easier when you know the four core concepts:
Glossary
A shared library of business and data terminology. Each definition documents a term — what it means, how it's calculated, who owns it, and where it's used. A well-maintained glossary is the foundation for consistent, trustworthy reporting across your organization.
Examples: Revenue, Active Customer, FTE, Net Promoter Score
Catalog
A structured overview of your data assets — reports, dashboards, datasets, semantic models, and more. Each asset has its own page with a description, properties, related definitions, owners, and metadata pulled in automatically from your connected sources (such as Power BI or Databricks).
Examples: Monthly Sales Dashboard, Customer 360 Dataset, Finance Semantic Model
Search
A single search engine across everything in your Catalog and Glossary. You can search in plain language, filter by asset type, owner, tag, or validation status, and save filter selections and search page settings as Views.
dScribe in Power BI
A browser extension that brings dScribe functionality directly into your Power BI reports. Users opening a Power BI report will see notifications, hotspots, and key information from your catalog directly on each page. Documentation can also be updated from here — no need to switch tabs.
How they fit together
dScribe Catalog keeps your documentation connected and current. Reports, datasets, and definitions link to each other, lineage between data assets is tracked, and out-of-the-box and custom connectors sync your catalog with your source systems. Once content is in dScribe, it's reusable everywhere.
For example, a typical journey looks like this:
You open a Power BI report.
The dScribe extension shows context: what the report covers, who owns it.
You hover over a KPI → a linked Glossary definition explains exactly what it means.
You want to explore further → you click through to the full asset page in the Catalog.
From there, you find related reports, datasets, and owners.
Who uses dScribe Catalog
dScribe Catalog has three typical user roles, each with a different focus:
Role | Also called | What they do |
Administrator | Admin, Product Owner | Configures the catalog: SSO, integrations, asset types, teams, access policies |
Editor | Steward, Contributor | Creates and maintains content: definitions, asset documentation, validation |
End user | Viewer | Discovers and consumes content: searches, reads, follows assets, suggests edits |
Good to know: The standard dScribe teams are Administrators, Global Stewards, Contributors, and Viewers. Your organization may have configured additional custom teams. Check with your dScribe admin if you're unsure which team you belong to.
Navigating dScribe Catalog
When you log in to app.dscribe.cloud/catalog, you'll find:
Home — suggested actions (for editors), assets relevant to you, user activity and insights
Search — find any data asset or definition across the full catalog and glossary
Marketplace — find trusted data products including documentation, data accuracy and availability commitments, data quality scores and more
Admin Portal — configuration and management (visible to Administrators only)
Where to go next
Depending on your role, here's where to start:
I'm an Administrator
→ Onboarding Playbook — set up SSO, integrations, and invite your first users
I'm an Editor
→ Documenting assets — learn how to create and edit catalog content
I'm an End User
→ Search — find the datasets, reports and definitions you need
→ dScribe in Power BI — get context without leaving your report
→ Suggest — add comments or suggest edits on any documentation you think needs updating
Have a question or can't find what you're looking for? Use the chat icon inside the catalog to reach the dScribe support team.