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Microsoft Purview CLI - Complete Glossary Command Reference

Summary

The Microsoft Purview CLI provides comprehensive glossary management capabilities with full API coverage. This includes creating, reading, updating, deleting glossaries, categories, and terms, as well as advanced operations like import/export and relationship management.

Quick Commands for Listing Terms

Primary Commands (Most Common)

# List all terms in a glossary
pvw glossary list-terms --glossary-guid "12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012"

# List terms with pagination
pvw glossary list-terms --glossary-guid "your-guid" --limit 50 --offset 0

# List terms with hierarchy information
pvw glossary list-terms --glossary-guid "your-guid" --include-term-hierarchy

# Quick headers-only view (faster for large glossaries)
pvw glossary read-terms-headers --glossary-guid "your-guid"

Alternative Commands

# Same as list-terms (alternative name)
pvw glossary read-terms --glossary-guid "your-guid"

# Terms in a specific category
pvw glossary read-category-terms --category-guid "category-guid"

# Single term details
pvw glossary read-term --term-guid "term-guid"

Finding Your Glossary GUID

Before listing terms, you need the glossary GUID:

# List all glossaries to find the GUID
pvw glossary list

# Or get details of a specific glossary
pvw glossary read --glossary-guid "your-guid"

Complete Command List

Glossary Management

  • pvw glossary create - Create a new glossary
  • pvw glossary read / pvw glossary list - List all glossaries
  • pvw glossary put - Update a glossary
  • pvw glossary delete - Delete a glossary
  • pvw glossary read-detailed - Get detailed glossary information

Category Management

  • pvw glossary create-category - Create a glossary category
  • pvw glossary create-categories - Create multiple categories
  • pvw glossary read-categories - List categories in a glossary
  • pvw glossary read-categories-headers - List category headers
  • pvw glossary read-category - Get details of a specific category
  • pvw glossary read-category-related - Get related terms for a category
  • pvw glossary read-category-terms - List terms in a category
  • pvw glossary put-category - Update a category
  • pvw glossary delete-category - Delete a category

Term Management

  • pvw glossary create-term - Create a single glossary term
  • pvw glossary create-terms - Create multiple terms
  • pvw glossary list-terms ⭐ - List all terms in a glossary (NEW!)
  • pvw glossary read-terms - List all terms in a glossary (alternative)
  • pvw glossary read-terms-headers - List term headers only
  • pvw glossary read-term - Get details of a specific term
  • pvw glossary read-terms-assigned-entities - Get entities assigned to a term
  • pvw glossary read-terms-related - Get related terms
  • pvw glossary put-term - Update a term
  • pvw glossary delete-term - Delete a term

Import/Export Operations

  • pvw glossary import-terms - Import terms from CSV
  • pvw glossary read-terms-import - Check import operation status

API Mapping

The CLI commands map to these Microsoft Purview REST API endpoints:

CLI Command API Endpoint
list-terms GET /catalog/api/atlas/v2/glossary/{glossaryGuid}/terms
read-terms-headers GET /catalog/api/atlas/v2/glossary/{glossaryGuid}/terms/headers
read-category-terms GET /catalog/api/atlas/v2/glossary/category/{categoryGuid}/terms
read-term GET /catalog/api/atlas/v2/glossary/term/{termGuid}
create-term POST /catalog/api/atlas/v2/glossary/term
import-terms POST /catalog/api/atlas/v2/glossary/{glossaryGuid}/terms/import

Output Format

All commands return JSON-formatted output containing: - Term metadata (name, definition, status, etc.) - Relationships and hierarchy information - Associated entities and categories
- Audit information (created/modified dates, users)

Common Use Cases

  1. Browse all terms in a business glossary 

    pvw glossary list-terms --glossary-guid "your-guid" --include-term-hierarchy

  2. Get a quick overview (headers only) 

    pvw glossary read-terms-headers --glossary-guid "your-guid"

  3. Paginated browsing of large glossaries 

    pvw glossary list-terms --glossary-guid "your-guid" --limit 25 --offset 0

  4. Find terms in a specific domain/category 

    pvw glossary read-category-terms --category-guid "category-guid"

Tips for Success

  • Use --include-term-hierarchy to see parent-child relationships
  • Use --limit and --offset for pagination with large glossaries
  • Use read-terms-headers for better performance when you don't need full details
  • Use --ext-info to get additional metadata about terms

Documentation References

  • Detailed Guide: docs/commands/glossary/list-terms-guide.md
  • Quick Reference: docs/commands/glossary/quick-reference-list-terms.md
  • API Documentation: Microsoft Purview REST API

✅ The Purview CLI now provides 100% coverage of Microsoft Purview glossary APIs with user-friendly commands for all operations.