Glossary

What is data lineage, and how is it different from provenance?

Updated September 1, 2026

Data lineage is the map of how a value moved and changed inside your systems: which pipelines transformed it, which tables it landed in, which reports consumed it. Provenance is the stronger claim underneath it: which real-world source produced the value in the first place, and under what conditions. Lineage tells you the path; provenance tells you whether the starting point deserves belief.

A record can have immaculate lineage and worthless provenance: a number retyped from a fax, then tracked perfectly through nine pipelines, is still a retyped fax.

SuperTruth scores both. Provenance is the heaviest-weighted DTI dimension at 25%, and the lineage of every transformation travels with the record so an auditor can replay how the score was earned.