datalineage-bigquery-asset-impact-analysis
Analyzes the downstream impact (blast radius) when a BigQuery table or view is broken, stale, or modified. Identifies all downstream tables, dashboards, and processes that will be affected. Use when: - Performing a blast radius or impact analysis for a BigQuery table or view. - Assessing the consequences of modifying, deleting, or pausing updates to a BigQuery asset. - Identifying downstream dependencies (tables, dashboards, processes) of a BigQuery asset. Don't use for: - General BigQuery query
Security Assessment
About datalineage-bigquery-asset-impact-analysis
This Google Cloud skill performs downstream impact analysis — a "blast radius" assessment — for a BigQuery table or view. It answers the question of what breaks when an asset is broken, stale, deleted, or modified, by identifying all downstream tables, dashboards, and processes that depend on it. It is intended for planning maintenance and triaging data incidents, not for general BigQuery querying or for creating and modifying lineage links.
The workflow relies on the Google Cloud Data Lineage (Knowledge Catalog) MCP server. It resolves the asset's fully qualified name, discovers the dataset location (via a read-only 'bq show --format=json' call, falling back to asking the user), constructs the parent path, and calls the DataLineageServer search_lineage tool in the DOWNSTREAM direction with sensible defaults (max depth 10, five processes per link). It then traverses the returned links to build an impact graph, distinguishing direct (depth 1) from indirect (cascading) impact and flagging exact-copy dependencies as identical stale copies. Output is a structured report: an executive summary, a critical-path highlight for prod/dashboard/reporting assets, a complete blast-radius table, and analysis metadata for transparency. Strong guardrails require exclusive use of the lineage tool, correct interpretation of empty responses, verifying asset existence before proceeding, and never claiming to have written files it did not create.
It targets data engineers, analytics engineers, and platform teams operating BigQuery-based data warehouses on Google Cloud. Typical use cases include pre-change impact reviews, incident response for stale or broken tables, and dependency discovery before deprecating an asset. The skill is read-only and documented in SKILL.md plus an MCP usage reference.
FAQ
What does this skill actually do?
It performs a downstream blast-radius analysis for a BigQuery table or view, listing every downstream asset (tables, dashboards, processes) affected if that asset breaks, changes, or goes stale.
What are the prerequisites?
Access to the Google Cloud Data Lineage API and an active connection to the Data Lineage (Knowledge Catalog) MCP server. It also uses a read-only 'bq show' command to discover dataset location.
Does it modify any data or lineage?
No — it is strictly read-only. It only retrieves downstream relationships via the DataLineageServer search_lineage tool and explicitly must not create or modify lineage links or guess alternative table names.
How deep does the analysis go?
By default it uses max_depth of 10 and max_process_per_link of 5, distinguishing direct (depth 1) impact from indirect cascading impact, and reports these limits so users can request a wider search.
What if no dependencies are found?
An empty lineage response is interpreted as no dependencies existing in the queried locations, and that is reported directly; the skill also verifies the source table exists before analyzing.
Install datalineage-bigquery-asset-impact-analysis
Quick Setup:
- Copy the skill folder to
.claude/skills/ - Claude will automatically detect and use the skill
Repository
google/skills