Consumption Layer
The consumption layer (gold) is where curated data becomes business-ready. Use it after finalizing your curated mappings, when you want to shape data into entities that analysts and downstream applications consume — for example customer_360, order_summary, or product_catalog. Nexa’s AI generates initial consumption entities from your curated layer, and you refine them through a table view or a visual canvas.
The consumption landing page
Section titled “The consumption landing page”Navigate to Canvas in the sidebar (or continue from the Curated Zone). You’ll land on the consumption landing page, which offers two views.
Table view (default)
Section titled “Table view (default)”A paginated card list showing entity pairs:
| Column | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Curated Entity | Source curated table name with a count badge showing the number of source tables |
| Consumption Entity | The generated business entity name with a status badge and AI-generated description |
Status badges indicate where each entity stands:
| Badge | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Entity created but not yet finalized |
| AI-generated | Entity was auto-generated and hasn’t been manually reviewed |
| Success | Entity has been reviewed and artifacts generated |
Each row has an AI Analyze button that triggers deeper AI analysis of the entity mapping.
Canvas view
Section titled “Canvas view”Toggle to the visual canvas for a diagram-based experience. The screen splits into two resizable panels:
- Header panel — a collapsible header with workspace tabs for SQL editing, sample records, ETL transformations, and NLP-to-code generation
- Canvas panel — the interactive consumption canvas showing entities as connected nodes
Editing consumption mappings
Section titled “Editing consumption mappings”Expand any entity row (table view) or select a node (canvas view) to open the mapping editor. Each column shows:
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| Column Name | The consumption entity column (read-only display with the full qualified name) |
| Data Type | Badge showing type and nullable status |
| Description button | Opens a side panel for viewing or editing the column description |
New columns that need attention are highlighted:
- Complete — the column has a name, type, and description (shown with a green border).
- Incomplete — the column needs review (shown with a yellow border and a warning icon).
The consumption canvas
Section titled “The consumption canvas”The visual canvas shows your data lineage across layers:
- Curated entities appear as purple nodes.
- Consumption entities appear as green nodes.
- Field-level mappings are shown as dashed lines connecting individual columns between entities.
Canvas interactions
Section titled “Canvas interactions”| Action | How |
|---|---|
| Drag nodes | Click and drag to rearrange the layout |
| Collapse/Expand | Toggle the arrow to show or hide a node’s column list |
| Create field mapping | Drag from a curated column handle to a consumption column handle |
| Edit column name | Click to rename consumption columns inline |
| Delete column | Use the remove button on individual consumption columns |
Auto-mapping
Section titled “Auto-mapping”When you rename a consumption column, the system automatically suggests matching curated columns based on name similarity. AI-generated mappings are marked with an autoGenerated flag and include a reason explaining why the match was suggested.
Mapping types include:
- Direct — one-to-one column mapping
- Expression — transformation-based mapping
- Aggregate — aggregation function applied
Workspace tabs
Section titled “Workspace tabs”The collapsible header in canvas view provides additional tools:
| Tab | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Workspace | SQL editor for writing custom transformations |
| Sample Records | Generate and preview sample data from tables |
| ETL Transformations | View generated transformation code |
| NLP-to-Code | Describe a transformation in plain English and get generated code |
Entity actions
Section titled “Entity actions”From the consumption landing page header:
| Action | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Generate Artifacts | Creates consumption-layer schema files, transformation code, and pipeline configs. Progress is polled and displayed in a modal. |
| Check Diff | Shows schema differences between branches for review |
| View Classifications | Opens the classification and tagging view |
| My Changes | Shows your pending modifications |
Search is available with a debounced input — type to filter entities by name.
What’s next
Section titled “What’s next”After finalizing your consumption entities: