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You use lakehouse data in Athena to explore tables that syncs copy from connected sources or transform projects publish. A namespace groups tables and controls your access to them. Open a shared namespace when you need to inspect its data, run a read-only query, or understand where a table comes from before using it in analysis.

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Inspect a table

  1. Open the lakehouse namespace shared with you. Find it with Search Assets, or open the link it was shared with.
  2. Select Browser to browse its tables, or Schema to inspect column definitions.
  3. Choose a table under Tables on the Overview to open its own page. Review Schema, Sample, and Snapshots (shown when the table has snapshots). The table page also shows Rows, Data files, and Columns.
  4. Read the table description and check its Owner, Certified, and Deprecated details when present. Use this context to decide whether the table fits your task.
The sample shows up to 20 rows from the current snapshot. It helps you inspect values; it is not the complete table. If your deployment turns off SQL, the card reads Sample unavailable.

How to open a shared namespace and inspect a table's documentation, schema and sample

  1. Search for the namespace
  2. Open it
  3. Open a table
  4. Read its documentation
  5. Check the schema
  6. Look at the sample

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Query your data

  1. Open SQL Editor from the namespace.
  2. Write a read-only SQL query using the table names shown in the namespace. Use filters or aggregates to focus on the data you need.
  3. Select Run and review the result.
You can also select Query on a table when that action is available. It opens a SELECT query in the namespace’s editor.

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Follow dependencies

  1. Select Lineage on the namespace, or find Lineage on a table page.
  2. Follow the connections to see what feeds the tables and what reads them.
  3. Open linked assets that you have permission to view. A table with no recorded lineage shows an empty state.

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Document a table

You need edit access to the namespace for this task.
  1. Open the table and select Document.
  2. Fill in Description and Owner. Describe what one row represents and who answers questions about the data.
  3. Set Certified or Deprecated as appropriate.
  4. Select Save. The documentation is stored on the table for other readers to use.

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Good to know

  • Lakehouse support must be configured on your deployment. Viewing metadata and lineage requires access to the relevant asset.
  • Lakehouse SQL is read-only. You publish data through syncs or transform projects.
  • Certified and Deprecated are documentation flags. Changing them does not delete table data.
  • Description accepts up to 4,000 characters. Owner accepts up to 320 characters.