canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/googleapis.com/dataplex

# Google Cloud Dataplex API

Cloud Dataplex is Google's data lake management service: it organises data spread across BigQuery, Cloud Storage, and other sources into governed lakes, zones, and assets. The API exposes 53 endpoints covering lakes and zones, content (notebooks and SQL scripts), data scans for quality and profiling, data taxonomies and policies, plus a unified entry-and-aspect catalog for metadata search. Agents and platform teams use it to enforce governance and discover data without standing up a separate metadata store.

## For AI agents

Manage data lakes, zones, assets, and metadata catalog entries in Cloud Dataplex. Lets agents run data quality scans, search the catalog, and apply governance policies programmatically.

## Scope

Does not run BigQuery queries, transform data in place, or replace BigQuery's IAM - use for lake, zone, asset governance, data scans, and unified catalog search only.

## Capabilities

- Create lakes, zones, and assets that group BigQuery and Cloud Storage data under governance
- Run data quality and data profile scans and generate quality rule recommendations
- Search the unified Dataplex Catalog by entry name, aspect, or fully qualified name
- Define aspect types and entry types that classify catalog metadata
- Manage notebooks and SQL scripts as first-class content under a lake
- Trigger and inspect data taxonomies that drive column-level policy tags

## Use cases

### Automated Data Quality Scans

Define data quality rules on BigQuery tables and run them on a schedule, with results surfaced through the Dataplex UI and the API. The service returns a DataScanJob with rule-by-rule pass and fail counts so platform teams can route failures into incident channels. generateDataQualityRules lets agents bootstrap rules from a profile scan instead of writing them by hand.

Example prompt: Trigger DataScan 'orders-quality' via POST /v1/{+name}:run, poll the resulting DataScanJob until state is SUCCEEDED, and report any rule failures back to the operator

### Unified Metadata Catalog Search

Search across all entries in a project's Dataplex catalog using POST /v1/{+name}:searchEntries with full-text and structured filters. The catalog covers BigQuery datasets and tables, Cloud Storage filesets, and custom entry types, so an agent can locate the right dataset without prior knowledge of which service it lives in. Results include entry name, type, and aspects.

Example prompt: Search Dataplex entries for query 'orders' across project 'acme-data', filter by entry type bigquery-table, and return the top 20 fully qualified names

### Lake-Zone-Asset Governance Setup

Stand up a Dataplex lake with raw and curated zones, then attach Cloud Storage and BigQuery assets so they inherit lake-level IAM and lifecycle policies. The API exposes create, list, update, and delete operations on lakes, zones, and assets, plus environments for lake-scoped notebooks. This is the foundation for governed data platforms on Google Cloud.

Example prompt: Create lake 'sales-lake', then a zone 'raw' of type RAW, then attach asset of resource type STORAGE_BUCKET pointing to gs://acme-sales-raw/

### AI Agent Data Governance Operator

An AI agent can manage lakes, run scans, and search the catalog through Jentic without operator hand-holding. Jentic search returns the matching Dataplex operation by intent, the agent loads the schema, and Jentic executes against dataplex.googleapis.com using vault-stored credentials. This compresses governance work that would otherwise require multiple SDK calls and bespoke OAuth handling.

Example prompt: Use Jentic to search 'run a dataplex data quality scan', load the run-DataScan schema, and execute it on DataScan 'orders-quality'

## Key endpoints

| Method | Path | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| POST | /v1/{+parent}/lakes | Create a Dataplex lake |
| POST | /v1/{+parent}/dataScans | Create a data quality or profile scan |
| POST | /v1/{+name}:run | Run a DataScan or task on demand |
| POST | /v1/{+name}:searchEntries | Search the Dataplex catalog |
| GET | /v1/{+name}:lookupEntry | Look up a catalog entry by fully qualified name |
| POST | /v1/{+name}:generateDataQualityRules | Generate quality rules from a profile scan |

## Key resources

- **Lakes** — Top-level governance container for data assets
- **Zones** — Raw and curated subdivisions of a lake
- **Assets** — Cloud Storage and BigQuery resources attached to a zone
- **DataScans** — Data quality and data profile scans on BigQuery tables
- **Entries** — Catalog entries representing datasets, tables, and filesets
- **AspectTypes** — Reusable metadata types attached to entries
- **Tasks** — Spark and notebook jobs that run inside lake environments

## Why Jentic

- **Setup:** Wiring the Cloud Dataplex API by hand means setting up Google OAuth, refreshing short-lived scoped tokens instead of embedding client secrets, and addressing lake, zone, and scan resources on dataplex.googleapis.com. Through Jentic you install once, import the Cloud Dataplex API from the API Directory, store the Google credential once, and your agent calls it.
- **Permission scoping:** The API carries the parent and resource name in the URL path (/v1/{parent}/lakes and /v1/{name}:run), so a rule can pin your agent to one lake or data scan. You choose the operations it may call, so it can create lakes and run data scans while anything you leave out stays unavailable.
- **Credential handling:** Your Google OAuth credential is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
- **Discovery method:** Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'run a Dataplex data quality scan', and Jentic returns the matching Cloud Dataplex operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing the reference docs.

## Related APIs

- **Data Catalog API** — Data Catalog is the legacy metadata search service; Dataplex Catalog is its successor with unified entries and aspects.
- **BigQuery API** — BigQuery holds tables that Dataplex governs and scans for quality.
- **Cloud Storage API** — Cloud Storage buckets are common Dataplex assets attached to raw zones.

## FAQ

### What authentication does the Cloud Dataplex API use?

Cloud Dataplex uses OAuth 2.0 with the cloud-platform scope. Through Jentic the OAuth client and refresh tokens are stored in your Jentic One instance and the agent receives short-lived scoped access tokens, so raw Google credentials never enter the agent context.

### Can I run data quality scans with the Cloud Dataplex API?

Yes. Create a DataScan of type DATA_QUALITY or DATA_PROFILE, then call POST /v1/{+name}:run to trigger a job. generateDataQualityRules can bootstrap rules from a profile result, so agents do not have to author them by hand.

### What are the rate limits for the Cloud Dataplex API?

Google enforces standard Cloud quotas on dataplex.googleapis.com: per-project rate limits on read/write calls and quotas on concurrent DataScan and task executions. Quotas are visible in the Cloud Console under IAM and admin, quotas, filtered to dataplex.googleapis.com.

### How do I search the Dataplex catalog through Jentic?

Search Jentic for 'search dataplex catalog entries', load the schema for POST /v1/{+name}:searchEntries, and execute with the project name, query string, and optional scope filter. Jentic returns the list of matching entries and their aspects.

### Is the Cloud Dataplex API free?

Lake, zone, and catalog metadata operations are free. Data quality and data profile scan executions are billed by data-scanned and runtime, plus the underlying BigQuery and Spark costs. See the Dataplex pricing page for the latest rates.

### How do I look up a single catalog entry by name?

Call GET /v1/{+name}:lookupEntry with the fully qualified entry name (for example projects/acme/locations/us/entryGroups/@bigquery/entries/...) to fetch the entry plus its aspects in one call. This is faster than searchEntries when the FQN is already known.

### Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the Cloud Dataplex API?

Yes. Because you run Jentic One yourself and set the rules, you decide which Cloud Dataplex operations your agent may call and which Google credential it uses. The API carries the parent and resource name in the URL path, such as /v1/{parent}/lakes and /v1/{name}:run, so your rules can pin the agent to a single lake or data scan and let it, for example, run a DataScan while creating or deleting lakes stays unavailable. Anything you do not grant simply cannot be called.