Column lineage in the browser: dplyneage on webR

r
webr
wasm
lineage
dplyr
Author

Ran Li

Published

November 5, 2026

Rambling

  • isnpired by Travis Gerke’s Quack to the Future talk at posit::conf 2026 — {ducklake} + dplyneage
  • lienage and preovnance work is suepr valuable for scalbility
  • its well deveoep din data engienenir and analytics enignerering
  • but not so uhc in the tidyvese world
  • so i ahve some quesitons for this tidbit
    • can this run fully in the browser via webR? no install, editable demo
    • what syntax does dplyneages support (dplyr? duckplyr? dbplyr?)
    • if dbplyr, does it wokr on any data base or does it require a opent able format like ducklake?

Understanding

  • COre questions
  • WebR - fully supported see Reprex below
  • Dplyenages current supprots for syntax APIs (some are in preview and not GA)
    • dbplyr
    • dtplyr
    • arrow
    • duckplyr
  • Super excitin that arrow is supported! (+1 for modualrity and iteropertablity!)
  • So dplyeages works on any database dbplyr supports (postgers, duckdb, snowflake … etc) - IT DOES NOT REQUQIRE OPEN TABLE FORMAT (like duckake)
  • How it works
    • each query API produces a plan (to be evlauted on a lazy object)
    • this pacakge (dplyneage) turns it into a in memory lineage object that is convertable intothe gold-stadnrd lineage JSON shceam (OpenLineage)
    • this lineage object is then visabilze via react flow

Simple Reprex

Runs in your browser with webR — no R install. Edit the pipeline and hit Run Code; the first run downloads packages, so give it a moment.