Module 1 of 6 · 10 min

# Getting Started with Collate

How metadata gets into Collate, and what the platform does with it once it arrives.

## Why this matters

Before you can judge whether a dataset is trustworthy, a connector has to have found it and an agent has to have described it, profiled it and placed it in context. Knowing how that happens tells you which metadata a person wrote and which an agent inferred.

## Before you start

### Connectors bring the metadata in

Metadata is not typed in by hand. A connector authenticates against a source system, reads its system tables, and pulls back the structure it finds: databases, schemas, tables, columns, types. That ingestion runs on a schedule, so the platform re-reads the source on a schedule and stays current as it changes.

### Agents fill in what the source system does not know

A source system knows a column is called cust\_id and holds an integer. It does not know the column is a customer identifier, that it is sensitive, or that ninety percent of its values are null. Collate runs agents over ingested metadata to generate descriptions, profile the data for shape and quality, and classify likely sensitive fields. That is why a freshly connected source arrives already partly documented.

### Automatic descriptions are proposals

Automatically generated descriptions and classifications are proposals. They are a better starting point than an empty field, and a steward still owns the decision.

## The interactive demo

Work through the demo below. It runs in your browser with nothing to install. Watch for:

*   •Setting up a Snowflake connector to ingest metadata
*   •AI agents automatically documenting, profiling and classifying the ingested data
*   •Reading an entity relationship diagram generated from the Snowflake metadata

This demo is also available on its own at [the Learning Center](/learning-center/product-demo-getting-started).

## After this module you should be able to

*   ✓Explain where the metadata in Collate comes from
*   ✓Tell the difference between metadata read from the source and metadata inferred by an agent
*   ✓Read an entity relationship diagram to understand how tables relate