OpenLineage
- Stage boundary
- No direct role is recorded for Plan.
- Known limitation
- Lineage is only as complete as its instrumentation; inconsistent naming, missing events, facet-version drift, and backend retention can leave an incomplete history.
Decision support
Compare standards by the job they do
Place up to three profiles side by side. Focus on architectural role, evidence, and the first limitation to test—not on finding a single all-purpose standard.
Working set
Choose profiles
1 of 3 selected
OpenLineageData model / schema
Decision lens
Compare roles before you compare maturity.
The useful question is not “Which standard wins?” It is “Which job must this part of the architecture perform, and what remains uncovered?”
- Start with the job
Decide whether you need guidance, a domain payload, exchange, semantics, governance, or a reusable release.
- Map lifecycle reach
Use the matrix to see where each profile has a direct role. A filled cell is coverage, not a quality score.
- Test the boundary
Read what each option leaves unresolved before judging maturity, confidence, or implementation fit.
Three-part assessment
See the reach, the gaps, and the evidence.
Read left to right. Lifecycle reach comes first; maturity remains an editorial roll-up, not certification.
01 · Lifecycle reach
Where each profile contributes directly
Coverage shows a recorded role at that readiness stage. It does not imply end-to-end implementation.
| Profile | Plan | Acquire | Harmonize | Exchange | Learn + reuse |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenLineageData model / schema | OpenLineage has no direct role recorded in Plan. | OpenLineage has a direct role in Acquire. | OpenLineage has a direct role in Harmonize. | OpenLineage has a direct role in Exchange. | OpenLineage has a direct role in Learn + reuse. |
Direct role recordedNo direct role recorded
02 · Boundaries
What each option does not cover
These are design boundaries, not faults. Use them to identify the companion layers your architecture still needs.
03 · Detailed assessment
Check the fit and evidence behind the map
Use the source, status, and limitation together. A higher maturity label does not erase a scope mismatch.
| Assessment | OpenLineageOpenLineage |
|---|---|
| Purpose & coverage | Runtime and design-time events for jobs, runs, and datasets, with extensible facets for source code, schemas, versions, quality metrics, assertions, and other lineage context. Best fitOperational lineage instrumentation across ETL, ELT, laboratory, feature-engineering, and model-data pipelines. |
| Readiness stages | AcquireHarmonizeExchangeLearn + reuse |
| AI-ready contribution | Supports dataset and feature traceability and quality evidence, but does not establish scientific semantics, consent, label validity, or model fitness. |
| First limitation to test | Lineage is only as complete as its instrumentation; inconsistent naming, missing events, facet-version drift, and backend retention can leave an incomplete history. |
| Evidence | E1 + E3 Medium confidence Formal statusActively maintained living specification · documentation 1.50.0 ReviewSource-checked · watch |
| Maturity | Scaling Actively maintained specification and integration ecosystem |
| Sources & links | OpenLineage 1.50.0 object model (opens in a new tab)Read full profile |