2. Click **Add New Service**.
### Step 2: Select a Service and Connector
From the service type dropdown, select **Database Services**, then click the **BigTable** 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 BigTable services you are ingesting metadata from.
* Optional: Enter a **Description** for the service.
#### Enter Connection Details
Enter the connection details for BigTable. The right-hand panel in the UI displays inline help for each field.
* **GCP Credentials**: Authenticate with the BigTable instance using either `GCP Credentials Path`, specifying the file path of the service account key, or `GCP Credentials Values`, passing the values directly from the service account key file. For more information, see [Creating and managing service account keys](https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/keys-create-delete#iam-service-account-keys-create-console).
* **GCP Credentials Values**: Pass the raw credential values provided by BigTable, including the following information:
* **Credentials type**: The type of the account. For a service account, the value of this field is `service_account`. To fetch this key, look for the value associated with the `type` key in the service account key file.
* **Project ID**: A project ID is a unique string used to differentiate your project from all others in Google Cloud. To fetch this key, look for the value associated with the `project_id` key in the service account key file. Pass multiple project IDs to ingest metadata from different BigTable projects into one service.
* **Private Key ID**: This is a unique identifier for the private key associated with the service account. To fetch this key, look for the value associated with the `private_key_id` key in the service account file.
* **Private Key**: This is the private key associated with the service account that is used to authenticate and authorize access to BigTable. To fetch this key, look for the value associated with the `private_key` key in the service account file.
* **Client Email**: This is the email address associated with the service account. To fetch this key, look for the value associated with the `client_email` key in the service account key file.
* **Client ID**: This is a unique identifier for the service account. To fetch this key, look for the value associated with the `client_id` key in the service account key file.
* **Auth URI**: This is the URI for the authorization server. To fetch this key, look for the value associated with the `auth_uri` key in the service account key file. The default value for Auth URI is [https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth](https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth).
* **Token URI**: The Google Cloud Token URI is a specific endpoint used to obtain an OAuth 2.0 access token from the Google Cloud IAM service. This token lets you authenticate and access various Google Cloud resources and APIs that require authorization. To fetch this key, look for the value associated with the `token_uri` key in the service account credentials file. The default value for Token URI is `https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token`.
* **Authentication Provider X509 Certificate URL**: This is the URL of the certificate that verifies the authenticity of the authorization server. To fetch this key, look for the value associated with the `auth_provider_x509_cert_url` key in the service account key file. The default value for Auth Provider X509Cert URL is `https://www.googleapis.com/oauth2/v1/certs`.
* **Client X509Cert URL**: This is the URL of the certificate that verifies the authenticity of the service account. To fetch this key, look for the value associated with the `client_x509_cert_url` key in the service account key file.
* **GCP Credentials Path**: Pass a local file path that contains the credentials.
### Step 5: Configure Ingestion Options
In the **What to Ingest** step, use filter patterns to control which assets Collate ingests from your database service. Filter rules match asset names using the following match types.
#### How Filter Patterns Work
* **Include**: Add one or more comma-separated values. Each value uses one of the following match types. Collate ingests only assets whose names match at least one rule. Leave blank to include all assets.
* **Exclude**: Add one or more comma-separated values. Each value uses one of the following match types. Collate skips any asset whose name matches a rule. Leave blank to exclude nothing.
Rules match asset names using one of five match types:
* **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 core parameters for metadata extraction. The following fields are available:
| Field | Default | Description |
| - | - | - |
| **Default Owner** | — | Owner applied to any entity that has no owner from a more specific field below. Accepts a user or a team, by name or email. |
| **Service Owner** | — | Not applied during ingestion. This field doesn't affect the owners of databases, schemas, or tables. |
| **Database Owner** | — | Owner assigned to every database this agent ingests. Accepts either one owner for all of them, or a mapping of specific owners per database. |
| **Database Schema Owner** | — | Owner assigned to every schema this agent ingests. Accepts either one owner for all of them, or a mapping of specific owners per schema. |
| **Table Owner** | — | Owner assigned to every table this agent ingests. Accepts either one owner for all of them, or a mapping of specific owners per table. |
| **Enable Inheritance** | On | When on, a schema or table with no match of its own inherits the owner resolved for its parent. Default Owner still applies when nothing else resolves an owner. |
| **Query Log Duration** | 1 | How many days of query logs to look back through when processing stored procedure results. |
| **Query Parsing Timeout Limit** | 300 | How many seconds to spend parsing a single query before giving up on it and moving to the next. Raise this if large or complex queries are being skipped. |
| **Number of Threads** | 1 | How many tables to ingest in parallel. Raising this can speed up ingestion on databases with many tables, at the cost of more load on the source. |
| **Incremental Extraction** | Off | When on, a run extracts only entities that changed since the last successful run, instead of re-scanning everything every time. Faster on large, mostly-unchanged databases. |
| **Successful Pipeline Run Lookback Days** | 7 | Only used when Incremental Extraction is on. How many days back to search for a prior successful run to use as the starting point for "what changed since then." |
| **Safety Margin Days** | 1 | Only used when Incremental Extraction is on. Extra days added before that starting point, as a buffer so changes that were still in flight when the last run finished aren't missed. |
| **Extract JSON Schema** | Off | Sample values in JSON columns to infer and ingest their schema, so the individual fields inside a JSON column are visible in Collate rather than just "JSON". Requires `SELECT` permission on the sampled tables; if that permission is missing, the JSON column is still ingested, just without a detailed schema. |
| **JSON Schema Sample Size** | 10 | Only used when Extract JSON Schema is on. Number of rows sampled per JSON column to infer its schema. A larger sample gives more accurate results but takes longer to run. |
For more information, see [Hierarchical Owner Configuration](/how-to-guides/guide-for-data-users/ingestion/workflows/metadata/hierarchical-owner-configuration).
* **Filter Patterns**: Apply include or exclude rules to scope which databases, schemas, tables, and stored procedures this agent ingests. These follow the same filter options described in **Step 5**.
* **Scope & Behaviour**: Control how the agent handles metadata during ingestion. Toggle each option on or off based on your needs:
| Toggle | Default | Description |
| - | - | - |
| **Include Tables** | On | Ingest tables and their columns. Turn off to skip tables entirely, for example if this agent exists only to pull tags or stored procedures. |
| **Include Tags** | On | Ingest tags already defined on tables/columns in the source system (for example, a classification tag applied in Snowflake) and bring them into Collate as tags on the same assets. |
| **Include Stored Procedures** | On | Ingest stored procedures as their own assets, so they show up in the catalog and can be linked into lineage. |
| **Include DDL Statements** | Off | Also ingest the raw `CREATE TABLE` / `CREATE VIEW` statement for each asset, so it's viewable in Collate alongside the asset's metadata. |
| **Include Owners** | Off | When an ingested asset's owner in the source system is an email that matches an existing Collate user, assign that user as the asset's owner. Never overwrites an owner an asset already has in Collate. |
| **Include Custom Properties** | Off | Ingest source-specific metadata that doesn't map to a standard Collate field (for example, a database-specific attribute) into custom properties on the asset, if custom properties have been defined for that entity type. |
| **Mark Deleted Tables** | On | If a table this agent previously ingested no longer exists in the source, soft-delete it in Collate too. Only affects tables within schemas this agent actually scans. |
| **Mark Deleted Stored Procedures** | On | Same as Mark Deleted Tables, but for stored procedures. |
| **Mark Deleted Schemas** | Off | If an entire schema this agent previously ingested no longer exists in the source, soft-delete the schema and everything in it. |
| **Mark Deleted Databases** | Off | If an entire database this agent previously ingested no longer exists in the source, soft-delete the database and everything in it. |
| **Override Metadata** | Off | On: values from the source (descriptions, tags, owners, display names) overwrite what's currently in Collate, even if someone edited it there. A description or display name that the source doesn't send never replaces an existing value, and existing table constraints are kept when the source sends none. Off: Collate only fills in fields that are still empty, so manual edits in Collate are preserved. |
| **Enable Debug Log** | Off | Run this ingestion at DEBUG log verbosity instead of the normal level. Turn on when troubleshooting a failing or unexpected run; leave off otherwise, since debug logs are much larger. |
* **Advanced Config**: Driver-level options (connection arguments, scheme, and timeouts). Most connections never need these, and they vary by connector. This section also has one ingestion-scope toggle:
| Toggle | Default | Description |
| - | - | - |
| **Include Views** | On | Ingest views in addition to tables. Turn off to skip views entirely. Because view lineage is derived from parsing each view's SQL definition, turning this off also stops view-based lineage from being generated for this service. |
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.
## Troubleshooting