topic Re: Synchronising metadata (e.g., tags) across schemas under Unity Catalog (Azure) in Get Started Discussions

Synchronising metadata (e.g., tags) across schemas under Unity Catalog (Azure)

AntonisCh — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 09:06:40 GMT

Hello all,

I hope you are doing great!

I want to synchronise metadata (e.g., description, comments, tags) across schemas under the Unity Catalog (e.g., test.dev, test.uat). For example, under the schema test.dev, there is a sales table with multiple columns. For each column, a comment and a tag are added. Also, the sales table exists in test.uat schema. How can I clone/merge the tags, comments to the test.uat schema? Is there any standard functionality to achieve this? Or is there a workaround solution using APIs?

Thank you in advance!

Re: Synchronising metadata (e.g., tags) across schemas under Unity Catalog (Azure)

Coffee77 — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 09:54:51 GMT

I think there is no automatic way of achieving this BUT try (and customize if needed) this script 😎. Change "source_schema" and "table_schema" as per your needs, and then run it as a query in a SQL Warehouse cluster:

WITH table_tags AS ( SELECT catalog_name, schema_name, table_name, NULL AS column_name, tag_name, tag_value FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_TAGS WHERE schema_name = 'source_schema' ), column_tags AS ( SELECT catalog_name, schema_name, table_name, column_name, tag_name, tag_value FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMN_TAGS WHERE schema_name = 'source_schema' ) SELECT 'ALTER TABLE target_schema.' || table_name || ' SET TAGS ("' || tag_name || '"="' || tag_value || '");' AS generated_sql FROM table_tags UNION ALL SELECT 'ALTER TABLE target_schema.' || table_name || ' ALTER COLUMN ' || column_name || ' SET TAGS ("' || tag_name || '"="' || tag_value || '");' AS generated_sql FROM column_tags

Re: Synchronising metadata (e.g., tags) across schemas under Unity Catalog (Azure)

AntonisCh — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 10:01:47 GMT

Thank you a lot! Much appreciated your response. I will try for it and let you know. Though a gap/risk I am thinking is the following. What if the sales table does not have the same number of columns or the same column names across schemas? Do you believe that there is a cross-check for this? I am not sure it can be validated

Re: Synchronising metadata (e.g., tags) across schemas under Unity Catalog (Azure)

Coffee77 — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 10:09:17 GMT

You can improve that script indeed. I created that in an "ad-hoc" way to help you and give insight on possible workaround. At least, I tested a little bit in a very simple scenario working fine BUT it's true it is very likely is not covering all cases. I would need hours instead of minutes to cover broader scopes.

Re: Synchronising metadata (e.g., tags) across schemas under Unity Catalog (Azure)

AntonisCh — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 10:21:01 GMT

It's completely fine, and I do understand. Thank you for your time and effort here!

Re: Synchronising metadata (e.g., tags) across schemas under Unity Catalog (Azure)

Coffee77 — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 10:36:31 GMT

Happy to hear that, I also stored in my personal repo to use it onwards 😀