### Step 2: Select a Service and Connector
From the service type dropdown, select **Dashboard Services**, then click the **Lightdash** connector tile.
### 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 Lightdash services you are ingesting metadata from.
* Optional: Enter a **Description** for the service.
#### Enter Connection Details
Enter the connection details for Lightdash. The right-hand panel in the UI displays inline help for each field.
* **Host and Port**: Specify the network location where your Lightdash instance is accessible, combining both hostname and port in a URI format: either `http://hostname:port` or `https://hostname:port`, based on your security needs.
* **Example**: For a local setup, use `http://localhost:8080`. For a server deployment, use something like `https://lightdash.example.com:3000`.
* Ensure the specified port is open and accessible through network firewall settings.
* **API Key**: This key authenticates requests to your Lightdash instance. Keep the API Key secure, sharing it only with authorized applications or users.
* **Project UUID**: This unique identifier links API requests or configurations to a specific project in Lightdash.
* **Space UUID**: Identifies a specific "Space" in Lightdash, used to organize dashboards, charts, and assets.
* **Proxy Authentication**: If your Lightdash instance requires authentication through a proxy server, provide proxy credentials. Proxy authentication controls access to external resources and Lightdash.
#### Test Connection
Once the credentials have been added, click on **Test Connection** and **Save** the changes.
### Step 5: Configure Ingestion Options
In the **What to Ingest** step, use filter patterns to control which assets Collate ingests from your dashboard service. Filter patterns use regular expressions applied to asset names.
#### 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.
Rules match asset names using one of five expressions:
* **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`.
When both Include and Exclude are set, Exclude takes priority.
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.
## Lineage
Lineage in Collate shows you which database tables power each dashboard. When lineage is set up, you can trace any dashboard back to the exact source tables in your database.
There is no separate lineage agent or lineage pipeline — lineage is collected as part of the same metadata ingestion workflow. To enable lineage, open the **Configure Metadata Agent** section above, scroll to the **Lineage Information** section in the agent setup, and enter one or more database service names in the **Db Service Prefixes** field.
Configuring **Db Service Prefixes** is optional but recommended — it restricts table matching to specific database services. If left blank, Collate attempts to match source tables across all ingested database services.
| What you enter | What it matches |
| ------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- |
| `SnowflakeProd` | All tables in the Snowflake service named `SnowflakeProd` |
| `SnowflakeProd.sales_db` | Tables in the `sales_db` database within `SnowflakeProd` |
| `SnowflakeProd.sales_db.public` | Tables in the `public` schema within `sales_db` |