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Gems

Gems are functional units in a pipeline that perform tasks such as reading, transforming, writing, or handling other data operations. When you build pipelines in a SQL project, some gems will be powered by Prophecy Automate, and some gems will be powered by SQL dbt.

Categories

CategoryDescriptionExecution
Source/TargetRead and write data from various data providers.Prophecy Automate
TransformModify, enrich, or reshape data during processing.SQL warehouse
PrepareClean, structure, and optimize data for analysis.SQL warehouse
JoinMerge, split, or link datasets.SQL warehouse
ParseInterpret structured formats in columns like XML and JSON.SQL warehouse
ReportShare results through channels such as email or Tableau.Prophecy Automate
SubgraphGroup gems into reusable components.Depends
CustomEnhance and extend Prophecy’s functionality.Depends

Interactive examples

To test a gem hands-on, you can try the interactive example of the gem. If you search for a gem in the project sidebar, you can open the associated example and run the pre-configured pipeline!

Gem instance

When you click on a gem from the gem drawer, an instance of that gem gets added to your pipeline canvas. Use the image and the table below to understand the UI of a gem.

CalloutUI elementDescription
1Gem labelThe name of this particular gem instance. It must be unique within a given pipeline.
2Gem type nameThe type of gem.
3Input portsOne or more ports that accept connections from upstream gems.
4Output portsOne or more ports that connect to downstream gems.
5Gem phaseThe phase for this gem instance, which defines the order in which gem instances are executed.
6OpenThe button that lets you open the gem configuration.
7Run buttonA button that runs the pipeline up to and including the gem.
8Action menuA menu that includes options to change the phase of the gem, add run conditions, delete the gem, and more.

Gem configuration

When you open a gem, you can configure how the gem will work.

Visual and code view

Some gems can be configured in the visual view or the code view. Use the visual expression builder to populate fields in the visual view. Prophecy will automatically convert visual expressions into SQL expressions. You can edit these SQL statements or write your own in the code view.

Action menu

The action menu gives you more granular control over individual gems. When you expand the action menu, you see the following options:

ActionDescription
ExplainCopilot adds a comment to the gem that explains what it does.
FixCopilot resolves an error in the gem configuration.
LabelCopilot renames the gem.
Add CommentManually write a comment that explains the gem.
Change PhaseChange the phase of the gem.
DeleteRemove the gem from the pipeline.

Gem phase

In a data pipeline, the phase of a gem determines the sequence in which it runs. Here’s how it works:

  • Gems are assigned a numerical phase (e.g., 0, 1, -1), where lower values run first. For example, a gem with phase 0 will execute before a gem with phase 1.
  • When a gem runs, all its upstream gems must also run. This means that if a downstream gem has phase 0 and an upstream gem has phase 1, the upstream gem will be grouped into phase 0 to ensure proper execution.
  • Because of this dependency, the phase assigned to the last gem in a branch determines the phase of the entire branch. This means that when configuring gem phases, you only need to focus on the leaf nodes—the final gems in each branch of the pipeline.