Hex Connector

• Requirements
• Metadata Ingestion
• Troubleshooting

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Requirements

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Hex Account Setup

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Step 1: Generate API Token

1. Log into your Hex account.
2. Navigate to Account Settings.
3. Go to the API Keys section.
4. Click Create API Key.
5. Choose the token type:
   • Personal Token: Provides access to projects you own or have access to.
   • Workspace Token: Provides access to all projects in the workspace (requires admin privileges).
6. Copy and securely store the generated token.

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Step 2: Verify API Access

• For personal tokens: Verify you have access to the projects you want to ingest
• For workspace tokens: Verify admin privileges are granted

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Metadata Ingestion

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Step 1: Add New Service

1. In the left navigation, click Connections.
2. On the Connections page, click Add New Service.

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Step 2: Select a Service and Connector

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Step 3: Add Service Name and Description

• Enter a unique, descriptive Service Name. Collate identifies services by their service name. Enter a name that distinguishes this deployment from other Hex services you are ingesting metadata from.
• Optional: Enter a Description for the service.

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Step 4: Configure Connection Options

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Select Ingestion Runner

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Enter Connection Details

• hostPort: URL to the Hex instance. Provide the URL to your Hex instance. For Hex cloud users, use https://app.hex.tech. For on-premise installations, provide your custom domain URL.
• tokenType: Type of authentication token. Select the type of token you’re using:
  • personal: Personal access token (default)
  • workspace: Workspace-level token (requires admin privileges)
• token: Hex API Token. Provide the API token generated from your Hex account. This token is used for authentication with the Hex APIs. To generate a token:
  • Log into Hex
  • Go to Account Settings > API Keys
  • Create a new API key
  • Copy the generated token
• includeTags: Import Hex Categories and Status as Tags. Enable this option to import Hex project categories and status as Collate tags. This helps in organizing and filtering your Hex projects within Collate. By default, this is set to true.
• Dashboard Filter Pattern: Use regex patterns to include or exclude specific dashboards from ingestion. This helps you control which Hex projects are imported into Collate. Examples:
  • Include only production projects: ^prod-.*
  • Exclude test projects: ^(?!test-).*

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Test Connection

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Step 5: Configure Ingestion Options

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How Filter Patterns Work

• Include: Add one or more comma-separated regular expressions. Collate ingests only assets whose names match at least one expression. Leave blank to include all assets.
• Exclude: Add one or more comma-separated regular expressions. Collate skips any asset whose name matches an expression. Leave blank to exclude nothing.

• contains: matches any name containing the value. For example, sales matches my_sales_data and sales_2024.
• starts with: matches names beginning with the value. For example, prod_ matches prod_db and prod_schema.
• ends with: matches names ending with the value. For example, _raw matches events_raw and logs_raw.
• is exactly: matches the exact name only. For example, analytics matches only analytics.
• matches regex: matches names using a regular expression. For example, ^prod_.*_v\d+$ matches prod_events_v1.

• Dashboard: Controls which dashboards Collate ingests from the source.
• Chart: Controls which charts within the ingested dashboards are included.
• Data Model: Controls which data models are included in metadata ingestion.

• Scan Mode: You can choose between the following scan modes:
  • Scan all: Ingests every asset of that type the connector can access. This is the default.
  • Only specific: Enables include rules so only assets matching at least one rule are ingested.
• Exclude system toggle: Use this toggle to automatically filter out system-reserved names defined by the connector — for example, Exclude system databases for the Databases section.
• Always exclude: Add permanent exclusion rules (shown in red). Assets matching these rules are never ingested, regardless of include rules.
• Preview: Shows a real-time summary of what will be in scope based on your current rules.
• Include rules (available only in Only specific mode): Click + Add to define a rule. Added rules appear as chips; an asset is included if it matches any rule.

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Step 6: Create & Deploy

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Configure Metadata Agent and Schedule Ingestion

1. In the left navigation, click Connections and select your service.
2. Click the Agents tab.
3. Click Add Agent and select Metadata from the dropdown. For some services, the dropdown is not available and clicking Add Agent takes you directly to the agent configuration page.
4. On the Configure Ingestion page, do the following and click Next.
   • Name this Ingestion: Enter a unique recognizable name for this ingestion pipeline.
   • Agent Setup: Configure ingestion parameters. The following fields are available:

     Field	Default	Description
     Db Service Prefixes	—	List of database service name prefixes used to resolve lineage between dashboards and database assets. Accepted formats: DBService, DBService.Database, DBService.Database.Schema, DBService.Database.Schema.Table.
     Query Parser Type	Auto	Select the SQL parser used for lineage extraction from dashboard queries. Auto selects the best available parser automatically. SqlGlot is a high-performance parser with excellent dialect support; falls back to SqlParse on failure. SqlFluff is a comprehensive parser with strong dialect support; falls back to SqlParse on failure.
     Mark Deleted Dashboards	On	Soft-delete dashboards in Collate when they are removed from the source. Associated lineage is also deleted.
     Mark Deleted Data Models	On	Soft-delete data models in Collate when they are removed from the source. Associated lineage is also deleted.
     Mark Deleted Charts	On	Soft-delete charts in Collate when they are removed from the source.
     Include Data Models	On	Ingest data model metadata.
     Include Draft Dashboards	On	Ingest dashboards that are in draft state.
     Include Usage	On	Collect and ingest usage statistics for dashboards.

     
   • Filter Patterns: Apply include or exclude rules to scope which dashboards, charts, data models, and projects this agent ingests. These follow the same filter options described in Step 5.
   • Scope & Behaviour: Control what metadata to include and how to handle deletions. Toggle each option on or off based on your needs:

     Toggle	Default	Description
     Enable Debug Log	Off	Sets the ingestion log level to DEBUG. Useful for troubleshooting.
     Include Current Owners	Off	When enabled, replaces the current owner with a new owner from the source if the current owner is null. Recommended to keep enabled during the first metadata ingestion to capture owner information.
     Include Tags	On	Ingest tags from the source.
     Override Metadata	Off	When on, source values overwrite existing descriptions, tags, owners, and display names in Collate. When off, Collate only updates fields that have no existing value.
     Override Lineage	Off	When on, existing lineage is replaced with newly extracted lineage on each run.

     
5. On the Schedule Interval page, set when the agent runs:
   • Schedule: Choose a preset interval (Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly) or enter a custom cron expression.
   • On-Demand: No automatic schedule; trigger the agent manually when needed.
   
6. Click Add to deploy the agent.

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Lineage

• Warehouse Query History: Directly queries data warehouse logs (Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Redshift, and others) to find queries executed by Hex
• Hex Metadata Identification: Identifies Hex-originated queries using metadata comments embedded by Hex containing project IDs
• SQL Parsing: Analyzes the discovered SQL queries to extract upstream table dependencies

• Which data warehouse tables are actually queried by each Hex project
• Real data usage patterns based on executed queries
• Impact analysis when making changes to underlying data sources

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Warehouse Query Log Requirements

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Snowflake

• Requires access to SNOWFLAKE.ACCOUNT_USAGE.QUERY_HISTORY
• Query history is automatically maintained by Snowflake

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BigQuery

• Requires access to INFORMATION_SCHEMA.JOBS_BY_PROJECT
• Query history is automatically maintained by BigQuery

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MySQL

• Requires general_log to be enabled:

SET GLOBAL general_log = 'ON';
SET GLOBAL log_output = 'TABLE';

• Grant access to mysql.general_log table

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Databricks

• Requires access to system.query.history
• Query history is automatically maintained

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Redshift

• Requires access to stl_query system table
• Query history is automatically maintained

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Other Warehouses

• Athena: Access to query history via CloudTrail or S3 logs
• ClickHouse: Access to system.query_log table

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Troubleshooting