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SQL DDL is under-modeled: CREATE TABLE/VIEW become generic Variable nodes with no lineage #574
Description
What problem does this solve?
SQL DDL is under-modeled. CREATE TABLE / CREATE VIEW are extracted but labeled generic Variable, CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW is dropped, and there is no table-to-table lineage. Every CREATE collapses to an untyped Variable node with zero lineage edges, so the graph cannot answer basic questions:
- "What tables/views does this view read from?"
- "What breaks downstream if I change this table?"
Public test bed: lerocha/chinook-database (pure CREATE TABLE / CREATE VIEW DDL).
Proposed solution
- Label
create_tableasTable, andcreate_view/create_materialized_viewasView. - Emit FROM/JOIN
relationreferences asUSAGElineage edges, resolved through the existing definition registry, so a view links to the tables/views it selects from. - Zero schema change: freeform node labels + the existing
USAGEedge type. Only relations that resolve against the registry emit an edge, so DML-only files fabricate nothing.
Scope: DDL labeling + FROM/JOIN lineage only.
Alternatives considered
- A new
REFERENCESedge type instead of reusingUSAGE: avoided to add no edge type;USAGEalready means "X refers to Y". - Modeling columns as
Fieldnodes: deferred to keep this small.
Confirmations
- I searched existing issues and this is not a duplicate.
Activity
DeusData commentedon Jun 23, 2026
Thanks — agreed this is under-modeled today (every
CREATEcollapsing to an untypedVariablewith no lineage). TypingTable/Viewand emitting FROM/JOIN asUSAGEedges through the existing definition registry, with zero schema change and no fabrication for DML-only files, is exactly the right minimal scope.This is already implemented in your PR #582, which I'm reviewing — let's continue the discussion there. Labeling
enhancement/parsing/quality.feat(sql): first-class Table/View nodes with FROM/JOIN lineage
DeusData commentedon Aug 20, 2026
Fixed on
main— landed in #1749, commit 7ba84e3 (merge 4bbc978).CREATE TABLEnow produces a Table node,CREATE VIEW/CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEWa View node, and a view'sFROM/JOINrelations resolve intoview -USAGE-> tablelineage edges. Schema-qualified DDL (CREATE TABLE app.users) is named by the table identifier rather than the schema prefix, andCREATE PROCEDUREnow types asFunction. DML-only files still produce no relation nodes — no fabricated lineage, exactly as you scoped it.The implementation is distilled from your PR #582 with co-authorship credit; the details of what was added around it are in #1749.
Thank you for the precise write-up here — the "every
CREATEcollapses to an untypedVariable" framing is what made the fix obvious, and the accompanying PR made it concrete.