> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.gable.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Introduction

> What Gable does and how to use it.

Gable reads your code and maps how your data actually moves through your
services, down to the level of individual fields. With that map you can trace
where any piece of data comes from and where it goes, produce evidence for
audits, and see what a change will affect before you ship it.

Most teams can see their infrastructure, deployments, and databases, but not how
their software actually produces and moves the data the business runs on, or
what happens to that data when the code changes. Gable answers those questions.
For any output field, it shows the upstream sources it came from, how it was
computed, and every downstream service that depends on it.

## What Gable shows you

With Gable you can:

* Understand where data enters a service, how it is transformed, and where it
  leaves.
* Follow any field across your services, from where it originates to everywhere
  it ends up.
* See which services and people depend on a given piece of data.
* Trace how sensitive and regulated data flows across your services.

## What you can do with Gable

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Trace data lineage" icon="route" href="/docs/tracing/end-to-end-lineage">
    Follow any field across your services to see where it comes from and
    everywhere it is used.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Generate compliance evidence" icon="shield-check" href="/docs/tracing/compliance-evidence">
    Show where regulated and sensitive data originates and flows, ready for
    audits and exams.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Understand change impact" icon="git-compare" href="/docs/impact/comparing-lineage-versions">
    Compare versions to see what a change alters and which downstream
    dependencies it affects, before you release.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Maintain an approved lineage snapshot" icon="badge-check" href="/docs/impact/approvals">
    Approve a lineage version as a trusted baseline and track what has changed
    since it was approved.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Who it's for

Gable is built for teams that need decisions backed by evidence drawn directly
from the code, not from manually maintained spreadsheets or undocumented team
knowledge.

* **Compliance & governance.** Prove where regulated and sensitive data
  originates and where it flows, and answer audit and exam questions from
  evidence traced out of your code instead of assembling provenance by hand. See
  [Tracing Data Flow & Compliance Evidence](/docs/tracing/end-to-end-lineage).
* **Change management & release decisions.** Before a change ships, see its real
  impact: what changed, which downstream dependencies are affected, and
  whether sensitive data is involved, so the go/no-go call is backed by evidence
  rather than a self-attested checklist. See
  [Data Change Impact & Safe Releases](/docs/impact/comparing-lineage-versions).

It's also useful day to day for **developers** tracing an output back to the code
that produced it and checking what a change affects, and for **reviewers**
making a confident ship / no-ship call.

## Start here

<Card title="Connect your first service" icon="arrow-right" href="/docs/onboarding/services-and-data-components">
  New to Gable? Start by connecting your services and data stores, then explore
  the map in the Lineage Explorer.
</Card>

For programmatic access, see the [CLI Reference](/docs/cli/introduction) and the
[API Specifications](/api-reference/introduction).