Hex

Horizon Catalog collects metadata, cells, and column-level lineage from Hex using a Hex workspace API key. Complete the following steps to connect Hex to Horizon Catalog:

  1. Create an API key in Hex.
  2. Create the Hex connection.

Note

Horizon Catalog links Snowflake columns to the Hex cell that queried them, based on your Snowflake query history or directly from cell SQL. Table-level lineage is always attributed to the Hex project as a whole, not to individual cells.

1. Create an API key in Hex

  1. Sign in to Hex and open Settings (bottom-left).
  2. Under Account, select API keys.
  3. Create a new Workspace token:
    • Enter a meaningful description.
    • Set the expiration (Snowflake recommends No Expiry so metadata sync doesn’t break when the token expires).
    • Under API Scopes, enable Projects > Read access.
    • Under API Scopes, enable Cells > Read access. Horizon Catalog uses this to ingest the individual cells in each project for column-level lineage.
    • Optional: under API Scopes, enable Data connections > Read access. Horizon Catalog uses this to detect which Snowflake connection your Hex cells query, so it can also derive lineage directly from cell SQL, covering cells that haven’t been run yet, which query history alone can’t see. Without this scope, lineage still works, but only for cells that have already been queried.
    • Optional: under API Scopes, enable Users > Read access. Horizon Catalog uses this to show the real name of each project’s owner and creator. Without this scope, Horizon Catalog shows their email address instead.
  4. Select Generate token and copy the token. You’ll paste it into Horizon Catalog.

2. Create the Hex connection

In Snowflake, open Catalog > Connections, select Hex, and fill in the Define connection step:

FieldValue
Display NameA name for the connection
API KeyThe workspace token from Step 1
Hex URLYour Hex instance URL, made up of the base URL and your site ID (for example, https://app.hex.tech/<site>)
Snowflake DatabaseThe Snowflake database where Horizon Catalog stores the connector metadata (default: CONNECTORS)
Snowflake SchemaThe Snowflake schema where Horizon Catalog stores the connector metadata (default: METADATA)

Metadata starts loading automatically for every collection in your Hex workspace. Initial discovery can take up to 24 hours. When the sync completes, Hex projects, their cells, and lineage appear in Horizon Catalog.

Select collections to sync

Note

Horizon Catalog syncs every collection the first time it connects to your Hex workspace, because the list of collections isn’t known until after that first sync.

To limit which collections Horizon Catalog keeps syncing, reconfigure the data source and open Select collections. Deselecting a collection removes its projects from Horizon Catalog on the next sync.

Connection security

All communication between Horizon Catalog and Hex uses HTTPS (TLS 1.2 or higher), and the Hex API key is stored as an encrypted secret.

For more details, see Security and data protection.