Documenting an asset in dScribe means filling in its description, properties, and relations so the rest of your organization can understand and use it. There are two ways to make changes:
Open an individual asset and edit it directly on its detail page.
Select multiple assets on the Search page to bulk edit them.
This article covers the first approach. For bulk updates, see Bulk actions.
Editing an asset
Editing on a detail page is inline: there's no separate edit mode. Click into any editable field and start typing. As soon as you make a change, a banner at the top of the page tracks your unsaved changes — you can make several edits in a row, then click Save once to apply them all.
Why can't I edit an asset? If you don't see the edit options on an asset — or you can't change a property to a particular value — you most likely don't have the permission. Reach out to your dScribe administrator to request the right Access Policy. If the asset has owners assigned, your edits may also be routed through the suggestions workflow (see below).
What you can edit
Name
You can update an asset's name after creation. The exception is crawled assets (reports, datasets, and other assets ingested from a source system) — their name is managed by the source and can't be changed inside dScribe.
Documentation
The Documentation field is the main place to add a clear description and context for the asset. It supports rich text, lists, images, and several productivity helpers:
Scribble AI assistant — generate a starter description from the asset's metadata so you don't begin with a blank page.
@mentions — in any rich-text field, type
@to reference another asset. When you mention an asset, dScribe also creates a relation between the two automatically (see Relations).External links — select any text and turn it into a link to an external page.
Auto-detected links — when a word in your text matches an existing asset name, dScribe highlights it and suggests linking it automatically.
Properties
Below the Documentation field you'll find the asset's custom properties — the company-specific fields your administrators have set up (Business Domain, Sensitivity, Refresh Frequency, Contact Person...).
By default they're shown in the Default view, grouped into sections configured by your administrators per asset type. Switch to All properties to see a flat list of every enabled property on the asset.
Use the options at the top of the property area to hide empty values or collapse the Source Information section when you only need to scan filled-in fields.
Why can't I update the Source Information section? These properties are populated automatically from the source system that crawled the asset. Source properties are automatically updated every time the source integration runs.
Relations
On the Relations tab, you can link the asset to other assets in the catalog — for example, connecting a metric definition to the reports that visualize it. Each asset's detail page also shows several relation graphs (including automatically detected data lineage), and any @-mention you add in a text field becomes a relation.
For the full overview — including the relation graphs shown on every asset, how to edit them, and how data lineage is detected — see Relations.
Additional actions on the detail page
The top of every asset's detail page exposes a few one-click actions alongside the editable fields.
Switching language
If your organization has more than one documentation language enabled, a language button appears in the header. Click it to switch between language versions of the asset — including using AI to translate the existing content automatically. See Translations.
Validation status
The validation status appears in the top menu bar on the right. Click it to view the latest change or update the status from the dropdown. See Validation status.
Restrict discovery
To limit who can discover this asset, click the discovery tag in the header and assign a Discovery Policy. The asset will only be visible to users who have that policy assigned. See Restrict discovery.
Deleting an asset
To delete an asset, open the three-dot menu in the header and select Remove. A confirmation appears before the asset is removed.
This is permanent: Deleted assets cannot be restored from inside dScribe. If you only want to hide an asset from most users, use a Discovery Policy instead.
Editing assets that have owners
If an asset has one or more owners assigned, edits work a little differently:
Owners editing their own assets save changes directly — updates are applied immediately, as usual.
Everyone else: when you click Save, your changes are captured as a suggestion and routed to the owner(s) for approval. They only take effect on the asset once an owner approves.
For the full flow — how owners review suggestions, what happens when an asset has multiple owners, and how this interacts with permissions and validation — see Ownership & suggestions.
Where to go next
→ Relations — link assets to each other, including automatic data lineage
→ Bulk actions — update many assets at once from the Search page
→ Ownership & suggestions — how edits flow through approval when owners are assigned
→ Translations — document an asset in multiple languages
→ Validation status — signal which assets are trustworthy
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.