Supported functionality

Foundry Branching availability

Foundry Branching is a Beta feature, and is in active development. Some functionality may change before this feature becomes generally available.

The scope of Foundry Branching is currently limited to Pipeline Builder, the Ontology, Workshop, and running Actions on a branch. Anything outside of this scope is not supported. For instance, if your Workshop module contains non-Workshop elements such as Quiver dashboards, these will not be modifiable on a branch.

Contact your Palantir representative to enable the Foundry Branching application on your enrollment. Before using Foundry Branching, familiarize yourself with the full scope of functionalities, especially what is not currently supported.

Supported functionality

Foundry Branching currently provides coverage for Pipeline Builder, Ontology Manager, and Workshop.

The current feature set includes the ability to:

  • Create a Foundry branch from Pipeline Builder, the Ontology, Workshop, or from the Foundry Branching application. Branches are associated with a single Ontology.
  • Access an existing Foundry branch from any Pipeline Builder or Workshop resource, or from Ontology Manager.
  • View modified resources on your branch at any point in your workflow using the branch taskbar or the Foundry Branching application.
  • Preview data in Workshop. Workshop will load data from the branch for all resources that have been modified on that branch. For resources in the Workshop module that have not been modified, data will be loaded from Main.
  • Run Actions on a branch. You may test Actions in a Workshop module to validate that they have been configured correctly. When all relevant object types are indexed on a branch, you can run the action type and see the edits on the branch.
    • Running Actions on a branch is intended as a testing mechanism, therefore no edits will be merged back into Main.
    • To view action edits on a branch, all object types edited by an action type must be indexed on that branch. You can do this through the individual object type page, or through the action type page in Ontology Manager.
    • Some known limitations:
      • User edits from Main are currently unavailable for object types that are indexed on the branch. Only dataset information is available.
      • Webhooks and email notifications are not executed when an Action is run on a branch.
      • Functions that make calls to external systems are not supported on a branch.
  • Track what is ready to be previewed on a branch.
  • Manage the review process centrally. The review process will respect local Approvals settings for each application. Specifically, Pipeline Builder will follow local policies set on individual pipelines, and the Ontology will require an approval from at least one editor for each resource.
  • Deploy changes centrally for Pipeline Builder, the Ontology, and Workshop changes.
  • Set retention policies for Foundry Branching. Branches that see no activity after a certain number of days are automatically marked as Inactive and later automatically closed. Resources of closed branches are deleted or de-indexed if not deployed to Main. Currently, you cannot reopen closed branches. Refer to the retention policy for additional details.

Unsupported functionality

  • Restricted views do not currently build on a branch. If your workflow includes restricted views, we recommend only using Foundry branching for changes downstream of the Ontology, as updates to the data backing a restricted view are unavailable on a branch. Development for this feature is ongoing.
  • Dataset branches in Code Repositories: This feature is experimental, and expected to move to Beta in the first half of 2025. To try this feature, contact Palantir Support.
  • Typescript functions and AIP Logic functions: Currently, it is not possible to modify functions on a branch. Alternatively, you may reference a specific version of a function on a branch and test that version before merging it back to the Main branch.
  • Outside of Workshop, any application that leverages the Ontology is not currently able to be branched. For instance, if your Workshop module contains non-Workshop elements such as Quiver dashboards, these will not be modifiable on a branch.
  • Object Storage V1 backed object types.
  • Materializations: Currently, Action edits submitted on a branch will not be reflected in any of the materialization datasets.
  • Object types created in Pipeline Builder are not modifiable in Ontology Manager on a branch. Development for this feature is ongoing.
  • User edits from Main are currently unavailable for object types that are modified on the branch. Only dataset information is available.
  • Currently, you cannot reopen closed branches. This feature is coming later in 2025.