Every answer can show its work.
When an AI answer is wrong, disputed, or audited, the first question is where it came from. Data.co Control records lineage from the source system through sync, classification, and indexing to the retrieval and model call that produced the response.
Citations are not lineage.
Many AI tools show a list of source links under an answer. That tells you which documents were used, but not which version, when it was last synced, how it was labeled, which model processed it, or which policy allowed the retrieval. Those are the questions an auditor, a data owner, or a privacy team actually needs answered.
Lineage in Control is recorded as part of the pipeline, not reconstructed afterward. Each step, from source read to model call, writes a link that references the step before it.
From answer back to source, in one query.
$ dataco lineage trace evt_01JC9Q4…
answer evt_01JC9Q4… model=local:llama-70b@2026-10 policy_set=v118
└─ chunk idx:claims-notes/88213 label=PHI(confirmed)
└─ doc claims/2026/11/C-48812.pdf version=v3
└─ sync job_7731 mode=cdc at 2026-11-04T13:58:41Z
└─ source sharepoint-claims item=01HXR… etag="{9F1…},3"Illustrative example · final API surface documented in /docs
Questions lineage answers.
| Situation | Lineage query |
|---|---|
| An answer is disputed | Trace the answer to the exact document versions and chunks it used |
| A source document was wrong and has been corrected | Find every answer and agent action that used the earlier version |
| A deletion request arrives | Locate every index chunk derived from the subject's records so they can be removed |
| A label was misapplied | Find retrievals of the affected content under the incorrect label |
| A model version regressed | List answers produced by that version for review |
What makes the lineage usable.
Version-aware
Records are tied to source versions or change markers where the source provides them, not just document IDs.
Linked to audit
Lineage and audit records share identifiers, so an access review can drill into exactly what was used.
Local
The lineage graph is stored in your environment with the same access controls as the catalog.
Bidirectional
Trace forward from a source record to its uses, or backward from an answer to its origins.
A payer rule was wrong for a month. What did it affect?
A claims team discovers that a payer policy document in a shared library contained an outdated rule, and it was corrected today. Lineage turns a vague worry into a bounded list.
- 1
Find the versions
The source item and its earlier versions are identified from the catalog, with the sync jobs that ingested each one.
- 2
Run impact
A forward trace lists every answer and agent action that retrieved chunks from the earlier version, with dates and the identities involved.
- 3
Prioritize
Agent actions that wrote to other systems are reviewed first, since an answer read by a person is easier to correct than a record created from it.
- 4
Confirm the fix
After the next sync, a backward trace on a fresh answer shows it now draws on the corrected version, which closes the loop for the review.
Recorded by each step, at the time it happens.
Reconstructing lineage after the fact means joining logs from systems that were never designed to agree on identifiers. Control avoids that by having each stage write its link as it runs. The connector records the source item and its version or change marker. The sync job records its run ID, mode, and time. Classification records the labels applied. Indexing records which chunks came from which document version. At query time, retrieval records which chunks were returned, and the gateway records the model endpoint, model version, and policy set version that produced the decision.
Two limits are worth knowing in advance. Version precision depends on the source: systems that expose versions or change tokens give exact answers, while sources without them are tied to the sync job that read them. And for query-in-place sources, lineage records the query, identity, and time, but row-level detail is only as good as what the source can report. Both limits are visible in the lineage record rather than papered over.
Questions buyers ask
Does lineage cover structured queries as well as documents?
Yes. For query-in-place sources, lineage records the query, the identity it ran as, the source, and the time. Row-level detail depends on what the source exposes.
Can lineage help with data subject deletion requests?
It is designed to support them by locating derived artifacts, such as index chunks, that came from a subject's records. Your privacy team still owns the request process and confirms deletion in the source systems.
How long is lineage retained?
Retention is configurable and is typically aligned with audit log retention, since the two are used together.
Does lineage include the model and prompt?
It includes the model endpoint and version and the policy set version. Prompt and response text is not written to the decision log, which stays content-free and records hashes instead.
How is this different from citations in a chat interface?
Citations show which documents were used. Lineage adds the version, sync job, labels, model version, and policy set behind the answer, and supports forward queries from a source to everything that used it.
Who can query lineage?
Lineage is governed by Control roles, like the catalog. Because it reveals which documents fed which answers for which people, access is usually limited to data owners, security, and auditors.
See it against your own use case.
A 30-minute technical walkthrough, policy simulation on your scenarios, and a deployment recommendation for on-prem, private cloud, or hybrid.