openlineage-airflow

What it is and what it does

OpenLineage Airflow is a library that hooks into Apache Airflow to automatically capture task lineage, inputs, outputs, and execution metadata, then emits that data to an OpenLineage-compatible backend (such as Marquez). It provides built-in extractors for common operators (SQL databases, cloud services, dbt, SageMaker, and others) and allows custom extractors for operators you own. The package automatically registers itself in Airflow 2.3+ and collects metadata on task start and completion, including task parameters, execution time, state, and linked code versions.

However, this package is no longer maintained. The description explicitly states it will receive no bug fixes, security updates, or new features. For Airflow 2.7 and later, the native apache-airflow-providers-openlineage package is the official replacement and is actively developed. This package is only suitable for Airflow versions prior to 2.7 and should not be used with Airflow 2.8 or later.

Use it for:

• Track data lineage across Airflow DAGs running on Airflow 2.3–2.6 to understand inter-DAG dependencies and data flow.
• Automatically capture SQL task inputs and outputs from PostgreSQL, MySQL, Snowflake, BigQuery, and other SQL operators without manual configuration.
• Emit task metadata and execution events to a Marquez or OpenLineage-compatible metadata store for governance and data discovery.
• Link Airflow task runs to versioned code (e.g., GitHub) to correlate lineage with code changes.
• Extract metadata from custom Airflow operators by implementing get_openlineage_facets_on_start() or get_openlineage_facets_on_complete() methods.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Integrates Apache Airflow DAGs with OpenLineage to automatically collect and emit task lineage, metadata, and data provenance events.

No. This package is explicitly unmaintained and deprecated for all current Airflow versions. For Airflow 2.7+, use apache-airflow-providers-openlineage instead. For Airflow 2.1–2.6, it remains functional but will not receive security updates or bug fixes. Only install if you are locked into an older Airflow version with no path to upgrade and accept the risk of running unsupported code.

Install

openlineage-airflow on PyPI

pip install openlineage-airflow

uv add openlineage-airflow

poetry add openlineage-airflow

Installing openlineage-airflow

Before you install

Low install friction with four runtime dependencies. Package is no longer maintained and explicitly deprecated for Airflow 2.7+; the description states it will receive no bug fixes, security updates, or new features. Active repository status reflects historical maintenance only.

License in practice

Licensed under Apache-2.0 (permissive), allowing use, modification, and distribution with minimal restrictions. No licensing barrier to adoption, though the package's unmaintained status is the primary concern.

Quickstart

pip install openlineage-airflow

import openlineage.lineage_backend

# Set AIRFLOW__LINEAGE__BACKEND=openlineage.lineage_backend.OpenLineageBackend
# Configure OPENLINEAGE_URL and optional OPENLINEAGE_API_KEY environment variables

Requires Airflow >= 2.1, < 2.8. For Airflow 2.7+, must use apache-airflow-providers-openlineage instead. Requires Python >= 3.9.

Verify before relying

• Whether existing Airflow 2.3–2.6 deployments using this package will continue to function without maintenance or security patches.
• Compatibility of bundled extractors (PostgresOperator, BigQueryOperator, etc.) with current operator implementations across Airflow versions.
• Whether custom extractors registered via OPENLINEAGE_EXTRACTORS will continue to work as Airflow evolves.

Package facts

Evidence: openlineage_airflow-1.41.0-py3-none-any.whl

Keywords: openlineage

Tags

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