Browsing the Catalog

/listing-objects is a read-only catalog viewer for exploring tables, procedures, views, and functions before running pipeline stages. It never writes to the catalog.

Subcommands

list -- enumerate objects by type

/listing-objects list tables
/listing-objects list procedures
/listing-objects list views
/listing-objects list functions

Lists all objects of the given type from the catalog as a numbered list. If no subcommand is given, list is the default.

show -- inspect a single object

/listing-objects show silver.DimCustomer
/listing-objects show dbo.usp_load_dimcustomer

Displays whatever state the catalog currently holds for the object:

• Tables: columns, plus scoping results and analyzed statements if present
• Procedures: parameters, references, statements (if analyzed), raw DDL summary
• Views: references and definition

refs -- trace references to an object

/listing-objects refs silver.DimCustomer

Shows which procedures and views reference the given object, grouped into:

• Writers -- procedures that modify the object (INSERT, UPDATE, MERGE, DELETE)
• Readers -- procedures and views that select from it

Known limitation: procedures that write only via dynamic SQL (EXEC(@sql), sp_executesql) will not appear as writers.

Example workflow

A typical exploration session before scoping:

1. List all tables to see what is in the catalog:

   /listing-objects list tables
   

2. Pick a table and inspect its details:

   /listing-objects show silver.DimCustomer
   

3. Check what writes to it to understand which procedures are candidates for scoping:

   /listing-objects refs silver.DimCustomer
   

4. Inspect a candidate procedure to see its parameters, references, and raw DDL:

   /listing-objects show dbo.usp_load_dimcustomer
   

5. Decide what to scope based on the catalog state, then proceed to /analyzing-table or /scope-tables.

When to use

• Before scoping -- understand which tables exist, which procedures write to them, and what the catalog contains before committing to a migration batch
• During debugging -- inspect catalog state to understand why a guard is failing (e.g. check if selected_writer is set, or if statements are resolved)
• After setup -- verify that ad-migration setup-source populated the catalog correctly

Prerequisites

manifest.json must exist in the project root. If missing, run ad-migration setup-source first.

Error handling

Situation	Behavior
Object not found	Reports which object was not found and stops
Catalog directory unreadable	Reports IO error and stops
Procedure with parse error	Shows raw_ddl for manual inspection

Related pages

• Listing Objects -- full schema details and CLI reference
• Scoping -- using catalog data for writer discovery
• Glossary -- definitions of catalog, item_id, routing flags