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Glossary
The platform's terms, each defined in one or two sentences.
In short
The words of Northstar, each in one or two sentences, with a link to the article that explains it. Terms are listed in alphabetical order.
Terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| AI assistant | A feature that uses AI to answer, write or suggest, always within your rights. More |
| Alert | A condition on a dataset that sends you an email when it is met. More |
| API key | The secret an integration account sends with each call to authenticate. More |
| Bronze, silver, gold | The layers of a dataset: raw, cleaned, ready for the business. More |
| Chat | Questions in plain language, answered from governed datasets and documents. More |
| Dashboard | A page of tiles built in Northstar, or a dashboard from another tool embedded in the catalogue. More |
| Dataset | A table, view or file registered in Northstar, with its documentation, quality rules and access rights. More |
| Deprecated | A dataset kept readable but flagged as no longer to be used. Chat does not answer from it. More |
| Developer account | An integration account: the machine account that scripts and pipelines use, with its API keys. More |
| Document collection | A folder of PDF files indexed so that Chat can answer from them. More |
| Early warning | A problem an analysis detects by itself, such as a schema change or stale data. More |
| External dataset | A dataset created outside Northstar and registered in it. More |
| Feature | A part of Northstar, such as Datasets or Chat, opened by your organization role. More |
| Figure | A chart or a table built on one dataset, in the Builder. More |
| Ingestion | The pipeline that loads a source into a warehouse. More |
| KPI | An indicator defined once on a dataset and computed for each period. More |
| Lineage | Where data comes from and what depends on it, down to the column. More |
| Managed dataset | A dataset built and refreshed by a Northstar transformation. More |
| Organization | The space your company works in: its data, teams and roles. More |
| Organization role | Decides which features you can use in an organization. More |
| Python SDK | The Python package that registers and governs resources from your code. More |
| Quality score | A score from 0 to 100, built on six dimensions, computed at each analysis. More |
| Resource | A dataset, document collection, KPI, figure or dashboard, shared with teams. More |
| Smart Cockpit | Your daily briefing on the KPIs you chose. More |
| Source | Where data comes from, such as a CRM or an internal API. More |
| Storage system | A connection to a warehouse or a file store. More |
| Team | A group of people in an organization, with whom resources are shared. More |
| Team preset | The most a team can do on a resource. Team roles get all or part of it. More |
| Team role | Decides what a team member can do on the team's resources. More |
| Transformation | A query that builds a silver or gold dataset from other datasets, and keeps it up to date. More |
| Validation rule | A business rule checked at every analysis, such as "revenue is positive". More |
| Workflow | A scheduled job or pipeline you can follow on the Workflows page. More |
FAQ
What is the difference between a source and a storage system? A source is where data comes from, such as a CRM. A storage system is where it is stored, such as your warehouse.
What is the difference between a KPI and a figure? A KPI is one governed number, computed every day. A figure is a chart or a table for exploring a dataset.
What is the difference between a feature and a resource? A feature is a part of Northstar, opened by your organization role. A resource is a specific asset, opened by your team roles.