Metricflow Semantic Authoring

MetricFlow Semantic Authoring

Author production-ready MetricFlow semantic model YAML for one or more database tables, validate it, and publish it to the Knowledge Base.

Source inspection

• After SQL preflight, call inspect_semantic_sources(tables=[...]) with the physical tables that need live DDL, schema, and relationship evidence. Batch all known tables when practical.
• Do not repeat describe_table for a table whose combined inspection succeeded. Use a separate schema call only to recover a specific table reported with ddl_error or schema_error.
• When profile_semantic_model_evidence is available because explicit historical/distribution profiling was requested, use it only for additional distribution and historical evidence; the combined source inspection remains the canonical physical schema snapshot for this run.

Field classification rules

Classify each column by actual data type and analytical usage, not by display convenience alone:

• Put DECIMAL/NUMERIC/INTEGER/FLOAT/DOUBLE or equivalent fields in measures when they represent measured quantities, scores, rates, prices, amounts, durations, counts, or percentages and historical SQL uses them in arithmetic, range predicates, numeric ordering, or numeric aggregates such as AVG, SUM, MIN, MAX, STD, VARIANCE, CORR, or COVAR.
• Do not model an aggregatable numeric business value as a categorical dimension just because it is selected, displayed, filtered, sorted, or appears in a WHERE clause. A DECIMAL field used by AVG(<field>) should be a measure with an appropriate aggregate such as AVG.
• Put text/enums/labels/booleans and numeric-coded category fields in dimensions when their values identify groups or labels and averaging or summing the raw value has no business meaning. Explain code semantics (e.g. "status: 1=Active, 2=Inactive") in the description.
• Put primary keys, foreign keys, unique entity IDs, and opaque IDs in identifiers. Do not classify identifiers as measures merely because their physical storage type is integer.
• Do not define the same column/name under both identifiers and dimensions.
• If schema type and SQL usage appear to conflict, prefer concrete SQL usage plus column comments/profiler evidence, and ask only when the modeling choice is business-critical.
• Define measures only for reusable aggregations. Use expr: "1" for row-count measures with agg: COUNT. For measures, use agg for the aggregation type; do not add a type field to measure entries.

Time dimension correctness

• Define type: TIME only for a physical DATE/TIME/TIMESTAMP column, or for a sql_query alias / SQL expression that is guaranteed to return a DATE/TIME/TIMESTAMP value.
• Do NOT mark numeric surrogate keys such as *_date_sk, *_date_key, *_dt_key, or integer YYYYMMDD keys as type: TIME. Model them as identifiers or categorical dimensions unless you explicitly convert them to a real date.
• If a fact table derives its business date by joining a calendar/date dimension, prefer a sql_query data source that joins the date dimension, selects the real date column with a clear alias, and uses that alias as the primary time dimension.
• When the user explicitly asks to preserve a durable result that normal semantic objects cannot represent, create or update a meaningful sql_query data source using the complete request SQL as evidence. Encode YAML with a literal block (|- when the statement has no trailing newline), never a folded > block.
• agg_time_dimension on measures must point to that real date/time dimension, not a numeric surrogate key.
• Include a primary time dimension only when a reliable DATE/TIME/TIMESTAMP column or expression exists; never force one.

Descriptions

Populate description fields for ALL measures, dimensions, and identifiers by COMBINING all available information:

• Start with DDL comments and preserve their original language — DO NOT TRANSLATE (Chinese comments stay Chinese).
• Append compact filter/group/aggregate evidence from inspect_semantic_sources.tables[].sql_usage.
• Append compact observed distribution evidence from profile_semantic_model_evidence when available: null rate, numeric ranges and percentiles, date spans/freshness/duration, distinct counts, representative stable values, referential coverage, common filter templates, and enum/code mappings.
• Describe what a column means first, then add concise observed evidence. Avoid long SQL snippets or procedural query instructions.
• ALWAYS wrap description values in double quotes ("). Escape special characters: " → \", \ → \\.

Example:

- name: status
  type: CATEGORICAL
  expr: status
  description: "Order status; commonly filtered with =/IN; representative values include paid/refund"

Multi-table workflow

When the request covers multiple tables:

1. Submit all required physical tables in one inspect_semantic_sources call when practical.
2. Use its declared foreign keys first, exact request-SQL JOINs second, and low-confidence column-name hints only as fallback.
3. Generate one YAML file per table. Use the entity field to reference other tables in singular form (customer, not customers); type: PRIMARY for the table's primary key, type: FOREIGN for columns that join to other tables. Linked identifiers share the same name (one PRIMARY, one FOREIGN).
4. Write ALL files before validation, then validate them together.

File paths

• Save files under subject/semantic_models/<current_datasource>/{table_name}.yml, relative to the filesystem sandbox root (use the exact prefix shown in the system prompt Workspace section).
• If a semantic model already exists, update it with edit_file instead of rewriting.

Validate and publish

1. Call validate_semantic(scope="semantic_model"). If validation fails, fix the YAML with edit_file and validate again; repeat until it passes. Common errors:
   • PostgreSQL column case sensitivity: wrap uppercase column names in double quotes (e.g., expr: '"SP_POP_TOTL"')
   • Column not found: check column names match the DDL exactly
   • Duplicate semantic element name: remove the column from either identifiers or dimensions
   • Invalid YAML syntax: check indentation and quoting
2. Only after validation succeeds, publish via publish_semantic_model with all generated file paths. Do not publish before validation passes; do not manually write Knowledge Base summary files.

Document structure rules

• A semantic model file defines data_source: document(s). Do NOT add a top-level metrics: list to the same YAML document — MetricFlow requires exactly one top-level object type per YAML document. Explicit metric: documents belong to the metrics workflow.
• Do not rely on create_metric: true for persisted metrics; runtime metrics are not part of the Knowledge Base metric catalog.
• All name fields follow ^[a-z][a-z0-9_]*[a-z0-9]$ (snake_case, no double underscores).
• Choose exactly ONE of sql_table (schema-qualified) or sql_query (databases without schema, or custom joins).
• Preserve original language everywhere (Chinese text remains Chinese) for optimal vector search.

MetricFlow semantic model structure specification

data_source:
  # === Required Fields ===
  name: string (required)             # Data source name, pattern: ^[a-z][a-z0-9_]*[a-z0-9]$

  # === Optional Metadata Fields ===
  description: string                 # Data source description
  display_name: string                # Display name
  owners:                             # List of owners
    - email@domain.com
  tier: string|integer                # Data tier

  # === Data Source Definition (Choose ONE) ===
  sql_table: schema.table_name        # For databases with schema support (PostgreSQL, Snowflake, Redshift, BigQuery)
  # OR
  sql_query: |                        # For databases without schema (SQLite, DuckDB) or custom queries
    SELECT * FROM table_name
    WHERE condition = 'value'

  # === Core Components ===
  measures:                           # Measure definitions (array)
    - name: string (required)         # Measure name
      agg: enum (required)            # SUM|MIN|MAX|AVERAGE|COUNT_DISTINCT|COUNT|PERCENTILE|MEDIAN|SUM_BOOLEAN
      description: string             # Description - put extracted comments here
      expr: string|integer|boolean    # Expression, defaults to column name
      agg_time_dimension: string      # Aggregation time dimension
      agg_params:                     # Aggregation parameters (for PERCENTILE)
        percentile: number
        use_discrete_percentile: boolean
        use_approximate_percentile: boolean
      create_metric: boolean          # Runtime MetricFlow metric only; not persisted to the Knowledge Base metric catalog
      create_metric_display_name: string
      non_additive_dimension:         # Non-additive dimension (snapshot/balance measures)
        name: string
        window_choice: MIN|MAX
        window_groupings: [string]

  dimensions:                         # Dimension definitions (array)
    - name: string (required)
      type: enum (required)           # CATEGORICAL|TIME
      description: string             # Description - put extracted comments/enums here
      expr: string|boolean
      is_partition: boolean
      type_params:                    # Required for TIME type
        is_primary: boolean           # Exactly one primary time dimension per data_source
        time_granularity: enum (required)  # DAY|WEEK|MONTH|QUARTER|YEAR
        time_format: string
        validity_params:              # For SCD Type 2
          is_start: boolean
          is_end: boolean

  identifiers:                        # Identifier definitions (array)
    - name: string (required)
      type: enum (required)           # PRIMARY|UNIQUE|FOREIGN|NATURAL
      description: string
      expr: string|boolean
      entity: string                  # Associated entity name (singular form)
      role: string
      identifiers:                    # Composite identifiers
        - name: string
          expr: string|boolean
          ref: string

  # === Mutability Configuration ===
  mutability:
    type: enum (required)             # IMMUTABLE|APPEND_ONLY|FULL_MUTATION|DS_APPEND_ONLY
    type_params:
      min: string
      max: string
      update_cron: string
      along: string

PostgreSQL column name case sensitivity (CRITICAL for PostgreSQL)

• PostgreSQL converts unquoted identifiers to lowercase. If a column was created with quotes (e.g., "SP_POP_TOTL"), it retains uppercase and MUST be quoted when queried.
• In expr fields, wrap uppercase column names with double quotes: wrong expr: SP_POP_TOTL, correct expr: '"SP_POP_TOTL"'.
• Check the DDL: if column names contain uppercase letters, they likely need quoting. This applies to measures, dimensions, and identifiers expr fields.

Example

data_source:
  name: my_transactions
  description: Transaction data with customer and order details
  owners:
    - data-team@company.com

  sql_table: analytics.transactions

  measures:
    - name: total_amount
      agg: SUM
      expr: transaction_amount
    - name: transaction_count
      agg: SUM
      expr: "1"
    - name: unique_customers
      agg: COUNT_DISTINCT
      expr: customer_id

  dimensions:
    - name: transaction_date
      type: TIME
      type_params:
        is_primary: true
        time_granularity: DAY
    - name: payment_method
      type: CATEGORICAL
    - name: is_refund
      type: CATEGORICAL
      expr: "CASE WHEN amount < 0 THEN 'Yes' ELSE 'No' END"
      description: "Refund status (1:Refunded, 0:Normal)" # Keep original enums in description

  identifiers:
    - name: transaction
      type: PRIMARY
      expr: transaction_id
    - name: customer
      type: FOREIGN
      expr: customer_id
    - name: order
      type: FOREIGN
      expr: order_id

  mutability:
    type: APPEND_ONLY