// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did the Unity Catalog say to its friend? "You catalog my strengths.
| Unity Catalog | |
|---|---|
| Developer | Unity Catalog community (LF AI & Data Foundation) |
| Release | June 12, 2024 (open source) |
| Stable release | 0.6.0
/ August 20, 2026[1] |
| Written in | Java, Python, TypeScript, Scala |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Type | Metadata catalog, data governance |
| License | Apache License 2.0 |
| Website | www |
| Repository | github |
Unity Catalog is a metadata and governance catalog for data and artificial intelligence assets, released under the Apache License. It includes a unified namespace for tables, unstructured data volumes, and functions, with APIs that can be accessed with multiple compute engines. It also manages table formats including Delta Lake and Apache Iceberg.[2][3] The source code for the project is part of the LF AI & Data Foundation, an open source nonprofit software foundation.[4][5] The catalog was originally developed at Databricks, which also offers it as a managed service.[6]
Overview
[edit]Unity Catalog works by organizing data and AI assets in a hierarchical namespace consisting of catalogs, schemas, and other securable objects.[3][7][8] It manages structured tables, supporting formats such as Delta Lake, Apache Iceberg, Apache Parquet, CSV, and JSON; and unstructured data through volumes; and machine-learning assets such as functions and models.[3][9]
The governance features in the project include credential vending, a feature where the catalog server issues scoped credentials to clients accessing underlying cloud storage, and support for the Apache Iceberg REST Catalog API and Apache Hive metastore API.[3][9] By acting as a layer that exposes open APIs, implementation provides an interface for external clients, such as engines like Apache Spark to read tables, volumes, and functions that are managed by the catalog.[10]
Unity Catalog leverages an OpenAPI-based REST specification and an reference server, with client libraries and SDKs.[9][7] The server is compatible with the popular Apache Iceberg REST Catalog and provides compatibility with the Apache Hive metastore API.[3][9]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ↑ "Release v0.6.0". GitHub. August 20, 2026. Retrieved September 23, 2026.
- ↑ Krill, Paul (June 12, 2024). "Databricks races with Snowflake to open up data catalog source code". InfoWorld. Retrieved June 2, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 "Open sourcing Unity Catalog". Databricks Blog. June 12, 2024. Retrieved June 2, 2026.
- ↑ "Welcoming Unity Catalog to the LF AI & Data Foundation". LF AI & Data Foundation. June 20, 2024. Retrieved June 2, 2026.
- ↑ "Unity Catalog". LF AI & Data Foundation. Retrieved June 2, 2026.
- ↑ "What is Unity Catalog?". Microsoft Learn. Retrieved June 2, 2026.
- 1 2 "Unity Catalog Documentation". unitycatalog.io. Retrieved June 2, 2026.
- ↑ Unity Catalog: Open and Universal Governance for the Lakehouse and Beyond. Proceedings of the ACM SIGMOD/PODS Conference. 2025. doi:10.1145/3722212.3724459.
- 1 2 3 4 "unitycatalog/unitycatalog". GitHub. Retrieved June 2, 2026.
- ↑ "Databricks open-sources Unity Catalog, challenging Snowflake on interoperability for data workloads". VentureBeat. June 12, 2024. Retrieved June 2, 2026.
External links
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