Downstream Lineage: Impacts

---
name: tracing-downstream-lineage-918d583da041
description: Map downstream lineage and blast radius for Airflow data assets. Use when the user needs to know which DAGs, tables, dashboards, or models depend on a dataset and what could break after a change.
---

# Downstream Lineage: Impacts

Answer the question: "What breaks if I change this?"

## Impact Analysis

### Step 1: Identify Direct Consumers

For tables:
1. List DAGs using `list_active_dags` and `list_paused_dags`
2. Search DAG source using `get_dag_source_code` for table references

For DAGs:
1. Determine outputs from DAG source
2. Trace consumer DAGs that read those outputs

### Step 2: Build Dependency Tree

Example:

```
SOURCE: fct.orders
    |
    +-- TABLE: agg.daily_sales -> Dashboard: Executive KPIs
    +-- TABLE: ml.order_features -> Model: Forecasting
```

### Step 3: Categorize by Criticality

- Critical: production dashboards, customer-facing apps
- High: internal ops dashboards, downstream ETL
- Medium: ad-hoc analysis
- Low: deprecated or test data

### Step 4: Assess Change Risk

Consider:
- Schema changes
- Data timing changes
- Deletion or deprecation

### Step 5: Find Stakeholders

- DAG owners in DAG definitions
- Dashboard owners in BI tools

## Output: Impact Report

Include:
- Summary of downstream assets
- Impact diagram
- Detailed impacts and owners
- Risk assessment and mitigations

## Related Skills

- tracing-upstream-lineage
- checking-freshness
- debugging-dags
- annotating-task-lineage
- creating-openlineage-extractors