Which Command Should I Use?

Use this page as a routing guide before opening detailed command reference pages.

Quick Decision Matrix

If you want to...	Use this command family	Start here
Search or browse the catalog	search	Search commands
Read, create, update, classify, or bulk-load assets	entity	Entity commands
Manage glossaries, categories, terms, or term imports	glossary	Glossary commands
Configure scans, credentials, triggers, filters, or scan rulesets	scan	Scan commands
Create or inspect relationships between objects	relationship	Relationship commands
Inspect lineage graphs and asset dependencies	lineage	Lineage commands
Manage collections and resource set rules in the account plane	account	Account commands
Manage Purview accounts, private endpoints, and default account settings	management	Management commands
Work with policies and scopes	policystore	Policy Store commands
Work with sharing artifacts	share	Share commands
Work with type definitions	types	Types commands
Work with governance objects such as domains, terms, data products, OKRs, and CDEs	uc	Unified Catalog guide

Choose By The Thing You Are Touching

• Asset, schema, label, classification, business metadata: use entity
• Glossary, term, category, assigned term: use glossary
• Data source, credential, scan, trigger, ruleset: use scan
• Collection, resource set rule, account-level data-plane configuration: use account
• Purview account resource, default account, private endpoint: use management
• Relationship edge between metadata objects: use relationship
• Governance object in the modern Unified Catalog model: use Unified Catalog

Choose By The Outcome You Need

• I need to find something first: start with search
• I need to create or update many assets from files: start with Entity Bulk CSV Guide
• I need to fix throttling or malformed CSV imports: start with Bulk CSV Troubleshooting
• I need step-by-step operational guidance: start with Common Workflows
• I need every doc page, even niche ones: use Full Documentation Catalog

After You Pick The Family

Use the task guides when the family is clear but the verb is not.

• Create: Create Tasks
• Update: Update Tasks
• Delete: Delete Tasks
• Import and bulk operations: Import Tasks

High-Frequency Routes

Find and inspect assets

pvw search query --keywords "customer"
pvw entity read --guid <entity-guid>

Import or update metadata in bulk

pvw entity --help
pvw glossary createTermsImport --help

Configure and run scans

pvw scan putdatasource --help
pvw scan putscan --help
pvw scan runscan --help

Work in Unified Catalog

pvw uc --help
pvw uc term list
pvw uc dataproduct list

If You Are Still Unsure

1. Open Command Groups for a grouped overview.
2. Open the matching command family page.
3. Fall back to Full Documentation Catalog only if the guided routes do not answer the question.