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Persona

Job function associated with a user

Overview

The Persona entity defines a job function associated with a user. Examples include Data Engineer or Data Consumer as personas of users in the metadata world. Personas help categorize users based on their professional roles and responsibilities.

Relationship Diagram

graph TB
    subgraph "Personas"
        P1[Persona<br/>Data Engineer<br/><i>Job Function</i>]
        P2[Persona<br/>Data Analyst<br/><i>Job Function</i>]
        P3[Persona<br/>Data Steward<br/><i>Job Function</i>]
        P4[Persona<br/>Data Consumer<br/><i>Default: true</i>]
    end

    subgraph "Assigned Users - Data Engineer"
        USR1[User<br/>john.doe<br/><i>Senior Data Engineer</i>]
        USR2[User<br/>jane.smith<br/><i>Data Engineer</i>]

        P1 -.->|users| USR1
        P1 -.->|users| USR2
    end

    subgraph "Assigned Users - Data Analyst"
        USR3[User<br/>alice.wilson<br/><i>Business Analyst</i>]
        USR4[User<br/>bob.analyst<br/><i>Data Analyst</i>]

        P2 -.->|users| USR3
        P2 -.->|users| USR4
    end

    subgraph "Domains - Data Engineer"
        DOM1[Domain<br/>Engineering<br/><i>Data Platform</i>]
        DOM2[Domain<br/>Infrastructure<br/><i>Core Systems</i>]

        P1 -.->|domains| DOM1
        P1 -.->|domains| DOM2
    end

    subgraph "Domains - Data Analyst"
        DOM3[Domain<br/>Analytics<br/><i>Business Intelligence</i>]
        DOM4[Domain<br/>Sales<br/><i>Sales Analytics</i>]

        P2 -.->|domains| DOM3
        P2 -.->|domains| DOM4
    end

    subgraph "UI Customization"
        UI1[UICustomization<br/>Engineer Dashboard<br/><i>Reference</i>]
        UI2[UICustomization<br/>Analyst Dashboard<br/><i>Reference</i>]

        P1 -->|uiCustomization| UI1
        P2 -->|uiCustomization| UI2
    end

    %% Styling
    classDef personaStyle fill:#EC4899,stroke:#DB2777,color:#fff,stroke-width:3px
    classDef userStyle fill:#059669,stroke:#047857,color:#fff,stroke-width:2px
    classDef domainStyle fill:#F59E0B,stroke:#D97706,color:#000,stroke-width:2px
    classDef uiStyle fill:#8B5CF6,stroke:#7C3AED,color:#fff,stroke-width:2px

    class P1,P2,P3,P4 personaStyle
    class USR1,USR2,USR3,USR4 userStyle
    class DOM1,DOM2,DOM3,DOM4 domainStyle
    class UI1,UI2 uiStyle

Key Relationships:

  • User Assignment: Users are assigned to personas to represent their job functions
  • Domains: Personas can be associated with specific data domains (inherited when not set)
  • UI Customization: Personas can reference UI customization configurations
  • Default Persona: A system-wide default persona can be set for users without assigned personas

Example Personas: - Data Engineer - Engineers building data pipelines and infrastructure - Data Analyst - Analysts performing data analysis and creating reports - Data Steward - Stewards managing data governance and quality - Data Consumer - General users consuming data products

Schema Specifications

View the complete Persona schema in your preferred format:

Complete JSON Schema Definition

{
  "$id": "https://open-metadata.org/schema/entity/teams/persona.json",
  "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
  "title": "Persona",
  "description": "This schema defines the Persona entity. A `Persona` is a job function associated with a user. An Example, Data Engineer or Data Consumer is a Persona of a user in Metadata world.",
  "type": "object",
  "javaType": "org.openmetadata.schema.entity.teams.Persona",
  "javaInterfaces": ["org.openmetadata.schema.EntityInterface"],
  "properties": {
    "id": {
      "$ref": "../../type/basic.json#/definitions/uuid"
    },
    "name": {
      "description": "A unique name of Persona. Example 'data engineer'",
      "$ref": "../../type/basic.json#/definitions/entityName"
    },
    "fullyQualifiedName": {
      "description": "FullyQualifiedName same as `name`.",
      "$ref": "../../type/basic.json#/definitions/fullyQualifiedEntityName"
    },
    "displayName": {
      "description": "Name used for display purposes. Example 'Data Steward'.",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "description": {
      "description": "Description of the persona.",
      "$ref": "../../type/basic.json#/definitions/markdown"
    },
    "updatedAt": {
      "description": "Last update time corresponding to the new version of the entity in Unix epoch time milliseconds.",
      "$ref": "../../type/basic.json#/definitions/timestamp"
    },
    "updatedBy": {
      "description": "User who made the update.",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "impersonatedBy": {
      "description": "Bot user that performed the action on behalf of the actual user.",
      "$ref": "../../type/basic.json#/definitions/impersonatedBy"
    },
    "href": {
      "description": "Link to the resource corresponding to this entity.",
      "$ref": "../../type/basic.json#/definitions/href"
    },
    "uiCustomization": {
      "description": "Reference to the UI customization configuration.",
      "$ref": "../../type/entityReference.json"
    },
    "users": {
      "description": "Users that are assigned a persona.",
      "$ref": "../../type/entityReferenceList.json",
      "default": null
    },
    "version": {
      "description": "Metadata version of the entity.",
      "$ref": "../../type/entityHistory.json#/definitions/entityVersion"
    },
    "changeDescription": {
      "description": "Change that lead to this version of the entity.",
      "$ref": "../../type/entityHistory.json#/definitions/changeDescription"
    },
    "incrementalChangeDescription": {
      "description": "Change that lead to this version of the entity.",
      "$ref": "../../type/entityHistory.json#/definitions/changeDescription"
    },
    "domains": {
      "description": "Domains the asset belongs to. When not set, the asset inherits the domain from the parent it belongs to.",
      "$ref": "../../type/entityReferenceList.json"
    },
    "default": {
      "description": "When true, this persona is the system-wide default persona that will be applied to users who don't have any persona assigned or no default persona set.",
      "type": "boolean",
      "default": false
    }
  },
  "required": ["id", "name"],
  "additionalProperties": false
}

View Full JSON Schema →

RDF/OWL Ontology Definition

@prefix om: <https://open-metadata.org/schema/> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .

# Persona Class Definition
om:Persona a owl:Class ;
    rdfs:subClassOf om:Entity ;
    rdfs:label "Persona" ;
    rdfs:comment "A job function associated with a user. Example: Data Engineer or Data Consumer is a Persona of a user in Metadata world." .

# Properties
om:personaName a owl:DatatypeProperty ;
    rdfs:domain om:Persona ;
    rdfs:range xsd:string ;
    rdfs:label "name" ;
    rdfs:comment "A unique name of Persona. Example 'data engineer'" .

om:personaDisplayName a owl:DatatypeProperty ;
    rdfs:domain om:Persona ;
    rdfs:range xsd:string ;
    rdfs:label "displayName" ;
    rdfs:comment "Name used for display purposes. Example 'Data Steward'." .

om:personaDescription a owl:DatatypeProperty ;
    rdfs:domain om:Persona ;
    rdfs:range xsd:string ;
    rdfs:label "description" ;
    rdfs:comment "Description of the persona" .

om:personaDefault a owl:DatatypeProperty ;
    rdfs:domain om:Persona ;
    rdfs:range xsd:boolean ;
    rdfs:label "default" ;
    rdfs:comment "System-wide default persona applied to users without assigned personas" .

om:hasUICustomization a owl:ObjectProperty ;
    rdfs:domain om:Persona ;
    rdfs:range om:UICustomization ;
    rdfs:label "uiCustomization" ;
    rdfs:comment "Reference to the UI customization configuration" .

om:hasDomain a owl:ObjectProperty ;
    rdfs:domain om:Persona ;
    rdfs:range om:Domain ;
    rdfs:label "domains" ;
    rdfs:comment "Domains the persona belongs to. Inherited when not set" .

om:hasUser a owl:ObjectProperty ;
    rdfs:domain om:Persona ;
    rdfs:range om:User ;
    rdfs:label "users" ;
    rdfs:comment "Users that are assigned a persona" .

# Example Instance
ex:dataEngineerPersona a om:Persona ;
    om:personaName "data_engineer" ;
    om:personaDisplayName "Data Engineer" ;
    om:personaDescription "Persona for data engineers building data pipelines and infrastructure" ;
    om:personaDefault false ;
    om:hasUICustomization ex:engineerUIConfig ;
    om:hasDomain ex:engineeringDomain ;
    om:hasUser ex:johnDoe .

View Full RDF Ontology →

JSON-LD Context and Example

{
  "@context": {
    "@vocab": "https://open-metadata.org/schema/",
    "om": "https://open-metadata.org/schema/",
    "rdfs": "http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#",
    "xsd": "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#",

    "Persona": "om:Persona",
    "name": {
      "@id": "om:personaName",
      "@type": "xsd:string"
    },
    "fullyQualifiedName": {
      "@id": "om:fullyQualifiedName",
      "@type": "xsd:string"
    },
    "displayName": {
      "@id": "om:personaDisplayName",
      "@type": "xsd:string"
    },
    "description": {
      "@id": "om:personaDescription",
      "@type": "xsd:string"
    },
    "default": {
      "@id": "om:personaDefault",
      "@type": "xsd:boolean"
    },
    "uiCustomization": {
      "@id": "om:hasUICustomization",
      "@type": "@id"
    },
    "domains": {
      "@id": "om:hasDomain",
      "@type": "@id",
      "@container": "@set"
    },
    "users": {
      "@id": "om:hasUser",
      "@type": "@id",
      "@container": "@set"
    },
    "updatedAt": {
      "@id": "om:updatedAt",
      "@type": "xsd:long"
    },
    "updatedBy": {
      "@id": "om:updatedBy",
      "@type": "xsd:string"
    }
  }
}

Example JSON-LD Instance:

{
  "@context": "https://open-metadata.org/context/persona.jsonld",
  "@type": "Persona",
  "@id": "https://example.com/personas/data_engineer",

  "name": "data_engineer",
  "fullyQualifiedName": "data_engineer",
  "displayName": "Data Engineer",
  "description": "Persona for data engineers building data pipelines and infrastructure",
  "default": false,

  "uiCustomization": {
    "@id": "https://example.com/ui-customization/engineer-dashboard",
    "@type": "UICustomization"
  },

  "domains": [
    {
      "@id": "https://example.com/domains/engineering",
      "@type": "Domain",
      "name": "Engineering"
    },
    {
      "@id": "https://example.com/domains/infrastructure",
      "@type": "Domain",
      "name": "Infrastructure"
    }
  ],

  "users": [
    {
      "@id": "https://example.com/users/john.doe",
      "@type": "User",
      "name": "john.doe"
    },
    {
      "@id": "https://example.com/users/jane.smith",
      "@type": "User",
      "name": "jane.smith"
    }
  ],

  "updatedAt": 1704240000000,
  "updatedBy": "admin"
}

View Full JSON-LD Context →

Use Cases

  • Categorize users by their job function (e.g., Data Engineer, Data Consumer)
  • Associate users with specific personas for role-based organization
  • Link personas to relevant data domains for domain-based access patterns
  • Reference UI customization configurations for persona-specific interfaces
  • Set system-wide default persona for users without assigned personas
  • Track and manage user job functions across the organization

JSON Schema Specification

Core Properties

id (uuid)

Type: string (UUID format) Required: Yes (system-generated) Description: Unique identifier for this persona instance Reference: ../../type/basic.json#/definitions/uuid

{
  "id": "e5f6a7b8-c9d0-4e1f-2a3b-4c5d6e7f8a9b"
}

name (entityName)

Type: string Required: Yes Description: A unique name of Persona. Example 'data engineer' Reference: ../../type/basic.json#/definitions/entityName

{
  "name": "data_engineer"
}

fullyQualifiedName (fullyQualifiedEntityName)

Type: string Required: No (system-generated) Description: FullyQualifiedName same as name. Reference: ../../type/basic.json#/definitions/fullyQualifiedEntityName

{
  "fullyQualifiedName": "data_engineer"
}

displayName

Type: string Required: No Description: Name used for display purposes. Example 'Data Steward'.

{
  "displayName": "Data Engineer"
}

description (markdown)

Type: string (Markdown format) Required: No Description: Description of the persona. Reference: ../../type/basic.json#/definitions/markdown

{
  "description": "Persona for data engineers building data pipelines and infrastructure"
}

href

Type: string (URI format) Required: No (system-generated) Description: Link to the resource corresponding to this entity. Reference: ../../type/basic.json#/definitions/href

{
  "href": "https://example.com/api/v1/personas/e5f6a7b8-c9d0-4e1f-2a3b-4c5d6e7f8a9b"
}

Configuration Properties

default

Type: boolean Required: No Default: false Description: When true, this persona is the system-wide default persona that will be applied to users who don't have any persona assigned or no default persona set.

{
  "default": false
}

uiCustomization (EntityReference)

Type: object (EntityReference) Required: No Description: Reference to the UI customization configuration. Reference: ../../type/entityReference.json

{
  "uiCustomization": {
    "id": "ui-config-uuid",
    "type": "uiCustomization",
    "name": "engineer_dashboard",
    "fullyQualifiedName": "engineer_dashboard"
  }
}

Association Properties

domains (EntityReferenceList)

Type: array of Domain references Required: No Description: Domains the asset belongs to. When not set, the asset inherits the domain from the parent it belongs to. Reference: ../../type/entityReferenceList.json

{
  "domains": [
    {
      "id": "domain-uuid-1",
      "type": "domain",
      "name": "Engineering",
      "fullyQualifiedName": "Engineering"
    },
    {
      "id": "domain-uuid-2",
      "type": "domain",
      "name": "Infrastructure",
      "fullyQualifiedName": "Infrastructure"
    }
  ]
}

users (EntityReferenceList)

Type: array of User references Required: No Default: null Description: Users that are assigned a persona. Reference: ../../type/entityReferenceList.json

{
  "users": [
    {
      "id": "user-uuid-1",
      "type": "user",
      "name": "john.doe",
      "displayName": "John Doe"
    },
    {
      "id": "user-uuid-2",
      "type": "user",
      "name": "jane.smith",
      "displayName": "Jane Smith"
    }
  ]
}

Metadata Properties

version (entityVersion)

Type: number Required: No (system-managed) Description: Metadata version of the entity. Reference: ../../type/entityHistory.json#/definitions/entityVersion

{
  "version": 0.1
}

updatedAt (timestamp)

Type: integer (Unix epoch milliseconds) Required: No (system-managed) Description: Last update time corresponding to the new version of the entity in Unix epoch time milliseconds. Reference: ../../type/basic.json#/definitions/timestamp

{
  "updatedAt": 1704240000000
}

updatedBy

Type: string Required: No (system-managed) Description: User who made the update.

{
  "updatedBy": "admin"
}

impersonatedBy

Type: object Required: No Description: Bot user that performed the action on behalf of the actual user. Reference: ../../type/basic.json#/definitions/impersonatedBy

{
  "impersonatedBy": {
    "id": "bot-uuid",
    "type": "bot",
    "name": "automation_bot"
  }
}

changeDescription

Type: object Required: No (system-managed) Description: Change that lead to this version of the entity. Reference: ../../type/entityHistory.json#/definitions/changeDescription

{
  "changeDescription": {
    "fieldsAdded": [],
    "fieldsUpdated": [
      {
        "name": "displayName",
        "oldValue": "Engineer",
        "newValue": "Data Engineer"
      }
    ],
    "fieldsDeleted": [],
    "previousVersion": 0.1
  }
}

incrementalChangeDescription

Type: object Required: No (system-managed) Description: Change that lead to this version of the entity. Reference: ../../type/entityHistory.json#/definitions/changeDescription

{
  "incrementalChangeDescription": {
    "fieldsAdded": [],
    "fieldsUpdated": [],
    "fieldsDeleted": [],
    "previousVersion": 0.1
  }
}

Complete Example

{
  "id": "e5f6a7b8-c9d0-4e1f-2a3b-4c5d6e7f8a9b",
  "name": "data_engineer",
  "fullyQualifiedName": "data_engineer",
  "displayName": "Data Engineer",
  "description": "Persona for data engineers building data pipelines and infrastructure",
  "href": "https://example.com/api/v1/personas/e5f6a7b8-c9d0-4e1f-2a3b-4c5d6e7f8a9b",
  "default": false,
  "uiCustomization": {
    "id": "ui-config-uuid-1",
    "type": "uiCustomization",
    "name": "engineer_dashboard",
    "fullyQualifiedName": "engineer_dashboard"
  },
  "domains": [
    {
      "id": "domain-uuid-1",
      "type": "domain",
      "name": "Engineering",
      "fullyQualifiedName": "Engineering"
    },
    {
      "id": "domain-uuid-2",
      "type": "domain",
      "name": "Infrastructure",
      "fullyQualifiedName": "Infrastructure"
    }
  ],
  "users": [
    {
      "id": "user-uuid-1",
      "type": "user",
      "name": "john.doe",
      "displayName": "John Doe"
    },
    {
      "id": "user-uuid-2",
      "type": "user",
      "name": "jane.smith",
      "displayName": "Jane Smith"
    }
  ],
  "version": 0.1,
  "updatedAt": 1704240000000,
  "updatedBy": "admin"
}

Common Persona Examples

Data Engineer Persona

{
  "id": "persona-uuid-1",
  "name": "data_engineer",
  "displayName": "Data Engineer",
  "description": "Persona for data engineers building data pipelines and infrastructure",
  "default": false,
  "domains": [
    {
      "id": "domain-uuid-1",
      "type": "domain",
      "name": "Engineering"
    }
  ],
  "uiCustomization": {
    "id": "ui-config-1",
    "type": "uiCustomization",
    "name": "engineer_dashboard"
  }
}

Data Analyst Persona

{
  "id": "persona-uuid-2",
  "name": "data_analyst",
  "displayName": "Data Analyst",
  "description": "Persona for data analysts performing analysis and creating reports",
  "default": false,
  "domains": [
    {
      "id": "domain-uuid-2",
      "type": "domain",
      "name": "Analytics"
    },
    {
      "id": "domain-uuid-3",
      "type": "domain",
      "name": "Sales"
    }
  ]
}

Data Consumer Persona (Default)

{
  "id": "persona-uuid-3",
  "name": "data_consumer",
  "displayName": "Data Consumer",
  "description": "Default persona for general data consumers",
  "default": true,
  "domains": []
}

Data Steward Persona

{
  "id": "persona-uuid-4",
  "name": "data_steward",
  "displayName": "Data Steward",
  "description": "Persona for data stewards managing governance and quality",
  "default": false,
  "domains": [
    {
      "id": "domain-uuid-4",
      "type": "domain",
      "name": "Governance"
    }
  ]
}

RDF Representation

Ontology Class

@prefix om: <https://open-metadata.org/schema/> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .

om:Persona a owl:Class ;
    rdfs:subClassOf om:Entity ;
    rdfs:label "Persona" ;
    rdfs:comment "A job function associated with a user" ;
    om:hasProperties [
        om:personaName "string" ;
        om:personaDisplayName "string" ;
        om:personaDescription "string" ;
        om:personaDefault "boolean" ;
        om:hasUICustomization "UICustomization" ;
        om:hasDomain "Domain[]" ;
        om:hasUser "User[]" ;
    ] .

Instance Example

@prefix om: <https://open-metadata.org/schema/> .
@prefix ex: <https://example.com/> .

ex:dataEngineerPersona a om:Persona ;
    om:personaName "data_engineer" ;
    om:personaDisplayName "Data Engineer" ;
    om:personaDescription "Persona for data engineers building data pipelines and infrastructure" ;
    om:personaDefault false ;
    om:hasUICustomization ex:engineerUIConfig ;
    om:hasDomain ex:engineeringDomain ;
    om:hasUser ex:johnDoe .

JSON-LD Context

{
  "@context": {
    "@vocab": "https://open-metadata.org/schema/",
    "Persona": "om:Persona",
    "name": "om:personaName",
    "displayName": "om:personaDisplayName",
    "description": "om:personaDescription",
    "default": {
      "@id": "om:personaDefault",
      "@type": "xsd:boolean"
    },
    "uiCustomization": {
      "@id": "om:hasUICustomization",
      "@type": "@id"
    },
    "domains": {
      "@id": "om:hasDomain",
      "@type": "@id",
      "@container": "@set"
    },
    "users": {
      "@id": "om:hasUser",
      "@type": "@id",
      "@container": "@set"
    }
  }
}

JSON-LD Example

{
  "@context": "https://open-metadata.org/context/persona.jsonld",
  "@type": "Persona",
  "@id": "https://example.com/personas/data_engineer",
  "name": "data_engineer",
  "displayName": "Data Engineer",
  "description": "Persona for data engineers building data pipelines and infrastructure",
  "default": false,
  "uiCustomization": {
    "@id": "https://example.com/ui-customization/engineer-dashboard",
    "@type": "UICustomization"
  },
  "domains": [
    {
      "@id": "https://example.com/domains/engineering",
      "@type": "Domain"
    }
  ],
  "users": [
    {
      "@id": "https://example.com/users/john.doe",
      "@type": "User"
    }
  ]
}

Relationships

Associated Entities

  • User: Users that are assigned a persona
  • Domain: Domains the persona belongs to (inherited when not set)
  • UICustomization: Reference to UI customization configuration

API Operations

Create Persona

POST /api/v1/personas
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "name": "data_engineer",
  "displayName": "Data Engineer",
  "description": "Persona for data engineers building data pipelines and infrastructure",
  "default": false
}

Get Persona

GET /api/v1/personas/name/data_engineer?fields=users,domains,uiCustomization

Update Persona

PATCH /api/v1/personas/{id}
Content-Type: application/json-patch+json

[
  {
    "op": "add",
    "path": "/domains/-",
    "value": {"id": "domain-uuid", "type": "domain"}
  }
]

Assign Persona to Users

PUT /api/v1/personas/{id}/users
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "users": [
    {"id": "user-uuid-1", "type": "user"},
    {"id": "user-uuid-2", "type": "user"}
  ]
}

Set as Default Persona

PATCH /api/v1/personas/{id}
Content-Type: application/json-patch+json

[
  {
    "op": "replace",
    "path": "/default",
    "value": true
  }
]