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How to Set up Looker

Updated this week

Setup takes about 10–15 minutes.

Introduction

Connecting Looker to Foundational allows Foundational to determine lineage and list Looker dashboards.
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To make the connection, you need to:

  • Create an API user and API key in Looker
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  • Assign the Looker permissions to Foundational
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  • Connect to Foundational using your Looker server URL and API credentials

Prerequisites

Ensure you have:

  • Looker admin rights
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  • A source code connection in Foundational, like GitHub or BitBucket etc., if you want Foundational to analyze and ingest LookML models.
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  • Added Foundational IP addresses to the allowlist, see the article Allowing IP access to Foundational.

Access permissions

Foundational reads metadata only and does not access your data.
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The permissions you assign to Foundational enable it to:

  • List dashboards, looks, explores, and models
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  • Retrieve LookML files
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  • Read schedules and queries
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  • Extract lineage and relationships between different Looker objects.

Create an API user and API key in Looker

Use Admin Role (Recommended)

This approach provides access to both shared dashboards and objects as well as user's dashbaords and objects.

  1. In Looker, go to Admin > Users.
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  2. Select an existing user or create a new one and assign the user the admin role

  3. Open the Edit User page, select API Keys, and click Edit Keys.
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  4. Click New API Key. Copy the Client ID and Client Secret. You’ll need these to set up the connection.

Use Custom Role (User's Dashboards Require Explicit Sharing)

While all shared dashboards are accessible in this approach, user's dashboards and objects are not accessible by default. You need to make sure that you provide explicit access for Foundational role to every user's dashboards and folders.

  1. In Looker, go to Admin > Users.
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  2. Select an existing user or create a new one and assign the user these limited permissions.

    1. access_data

    2. explore

    3. manage_models

    4. see_datagroups

    5. see_lookml

    6. see_lookml_dashboards

    7. see_looks

    8. see_pdts

    9. see_queries

    10. see_schedules

    11. see_sql

    12. see_system_activity

    13. see_user_dashboards

    14. see_users

  3. Open the Edit User page, select API Keys, and click Edit Keys.
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  4. Click New API Key. Copy the Client ID and Client Secret. You’ll need these to set up the connection.

Connect Foundational to Looker

  1. In Foundational, open the Connectors & Integrations page.
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  2. In BI & Analytics, select the Looker card and click Connect.
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  3. The initial setup screen opens. Click Start Setup.
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  4. The Set Up New Connection screen opens.
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    Enter the details:
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    • Server URL, e.g., https://yourcompany.cloud.looker.com
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    • API Key ID: Client ID from Looker
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    • API Key ID & Secret: Client secret from Looker
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  5. Click Next.
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  6. The final setup screen opens. To complete the connection, click Save.
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Foundational is now connected to Looker.

Add LookML repositories (optional)

Once connected, if you want Foundational to have access to LookML files, you’ll need:

  • A source code connection in Foundational (like GitHub, GitLab, Azure DevOps etc.)

  • The relevant LookML repositories are configured in the source code connection.

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