# About the Catalog

The Quilt Catalog is the second half of Quilt. It provides an interface on top of your S3 bucket that brings Quilt features like data packages and search to the web.

[**For a hands-on demo, check out the public demo catalog**](https://open.quiltdata.com/b/quilt-example)**.**

Note that you can use the Quilt Python API without using the Quilt Catalog, but they are designed to work together.

### Brief tour

The Quilt Catalog provides a homepage for your data catalog, based on a `README.md` file that you can optionally create at the top of your bucket.

#### Browse

![Homepage](/files/-LfaqE2HhrTPKY0UMSEE)

The Catalog lets you navigate packages in the registry using the "Packages" tab.

![Packages tab](/files/-MMTjQkqCc1cM_T2t_QO)

You can also browse the underlying S3 objects using the "Bucket" tab.

![Files tab](/files/k9XCSKXi7b4ENdI9TUcN)

#### Search

Catalogs also enable you to search the contents of your bucket. We support both unstructured (e.g. "`San Francisco`") and structured with [Query String Queries](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/7.10/query-dsl-query-string-query.html#query-string-syntax) (e.g. "`metadata_key: metadata_value`") search. Hits are previewed right in the search results.

![Search](/files/-MK0AFKkPUx6nbCc_OEX)

#### Upload package

You can upload a new package providing the name of the package, commit message, files, metadata, and [workflow](/workflows.md).

The name should have the format `namespace/package-name`.

The message needs to add notes on a new revision for this package.

Files are the content of your package.

The associated workflow contains the rules for validating your package.

The metadata can be added with the JSON editor for both packages and individual file entries within a package, represented as a key/value table with infinite nesting. If your workflow contains a JSON schema, you will have predefined key/value pairs based on the schema.

**JSON editor**

To add a new key/value field double click on an empty cell and type the key name, then press "Enter" or "Tab", or click outside of the cell. To change the value double click on that value.

Values can be strings, numbers, arrays, or objects. Every value that you type will be parsed as JSON.

> Limitations
>
> * References and compound types are not currently supported.

#### Push to bucket

You can push an existing data package from one S3 bucket to another. To use this feature consult the [Workflows](/workflows.md) page.

#### Compare revisions

To see what changed between two revisions of a package, click the double-arrow diff icon on the package revisions list. The diff view highlights added, removed, and modified entries between the selected revisions.

#### Summarize

Adding a `quilt_summarize.json` file to a data package (or S3 directory path) will enable content preview right on the landing page.

See [Visualization & dashboards documentation](https://docs.quilt.bio/quilt-platform-catalog-user/pages/TI1BMRExTH2qFUEjKhOJ#quilt_summarize.json) for details.

![Package landing page](/files/-M7Q92LUYckJ1gIvXqHB)

### Admin UI

The Quilt Catalog includes an Admin panel where you can manage users and buckets in your stack and customize the display of your Quilt Catalog. See [Admin UI docs](/quilt-platform-administrator/admin.md) for details.

[**To learn more, check out the public demo catalog**](https://open.quiltdata.com/b/quilt-example).


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