Data catalog
A searchable inventory of data assets across systems, pointing to their metadata, owners and lineage.
Also called: metadata catalog
A data catalog answers what data exists, and where? It indexes datasets and fields across many systems and connects each to its business glossary terms, owners, data lineage and quality. People use it to find data; increasingly, AI agents use it to ground themselves.
Example: searching "loan balance" returns LOAN_DTL.OUTSTANDING_BAL_AMT, its definition, its owner, and the reports it feeds.
Not to be confused with a data dictionary, which documents one system in depth.