AI Data & Dependency Lineage Agent
Maps data, models, prompts, retrieval sources and tools through downstream decisions.
Builds the traceable dependency chain from source records through transformations and retrieval to the decision or action a system takes. It highlights unowned datasets, stale indexes, hidden fourth-party models and circular dependencies that a flat inventory misses.
Authority
Inform
Team role
Provides specialist analysis
Handoffs
Named collaborators
The role
What it owns and where its authority ends
Desk
Documentation, Lineage & Evidence Readiness
Desk workflow
Inventory baseline, then the model or agent card, then data and dependency lineage, then the evidence-pack check, then owner attestation.
Collaboration
Works within a defined desk workflow
Decision boundary
Provides evidence or analysis without committing the decision.
Systems and capabilities involved
Data catalog
ML and prompt registries
Vector-store metadata
Software bill of materials
Handoffs
What this role gives and receives
Capabilities offered
Map AI data and dependency lineage
Return a source-to-decision graph with ownership, versions and confidence.
- Receives:
- System id, component manifests and runtime dependency evidence
- Returns:
- Lineage graph, material dependencies, stale edges and ownership gaps
Handoff to
Handoff to
Receives from
Receives from
External handoff
Data owners
External handoff
Enterprise architecture
External handoff
Third-party risk
Context
What the role needs to do the work
- Current work
- Changed component, candidate edges and unresolved ownership.
- Prior interactions
- Prior lineage snapshots, broken dependencies and remediation history.
- Policies and reference
- Data domains, system interfaces, model supply chain and decision taxonomy.
- Working method
- Lineage confidence, ownership and materiality rules.
Illustrative workflow
How the work moves
Starting point
Validation asks what evidence can influence a customer complaint response.
- 01
Traverse runtime calls from response generation to retrieval, prompt and source systems.
- 02
Resolve versions, owners, refresh clocks and external dependencies.
- 03
Mark uncertain edges and generate a validation-ready dependency slice.
Result
A cited lineage graph with one stale index and one unowned external model dependency.
Checks and boundaries
What must be tested or reviewed
- 01Finds the external embedding service and source documents behind a vendor's managed retrieval product.
- 02Flags a production vector index whose refresh job stopped while the model card still claims daily updates.
- 03Does not infer an undocumented data flow solely from similar table names.
Human authority
- Data owner confirms uncertain lineage
- Architecture owner accepts external dependencies
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