Field notes from the data stack
Practical write-ups in three lanes — Superset features, stack comparisons, and production operations.
Superset features
How specific Superset capabilities behave in real deployments.
LatestYour Dashboard Doesn't Explain Itself
AI that explains what the dashboard is showing
Non-authors open a live board and still ask the analyst what it means. We built an AI side panel in Superset that explains what the dashboard is showing.
9 min readRead article
Embedding Superset without iframes
a microfrontend architecture that runs in the host DOM
The iframe SDK hits a structural wall: theming, SSO, cookies, filters, speed. Here is the microfrontend architecture we run in production instead — single-spa, same-origin proxy, real session auth — including the honest trade-offs.
12 min readRead article
Filter presets in Apache Superset
the feature removed in 4.0 — and how we rebuilt it
Superset deleted its experimental Filter Sets in 4.0. The need didn't go anywhere. The history of the removal, why every workaround falls short, and how our fork rebuilt presets with drift detection, sync, and per-user defaults.
11 min readRead article
6 problems with iframe-embedded Superset
documented in GitHub issues, unfixable by configuration
Theme flashes, SSO session eviction, dead third-party cookies, trapped filter state, 15-second loads, and exposed admin links — the six structural pain points of the official Superset embedding SDK, with receipts.
12 min readRead article
How Superset Embedded SDK actually works
guest tokens, RLS, and the config nobody documents in one place
A walkthrough of the official @superset-ui/embedded-sdk: the iframe lifecycle, the guest token flow, row-level security, and every config switch you need to flip.
10 min readRead article
Superset Tags vs Folders
what actually works for large deployments
Why Apache Superset's flat dashboard list breaks at fifty assets, why the native TAGGING_SYSTEM introduces database and UX failures, and how curated folder hierarchies scale to hundreds of dashboards.
14 min readRead article
Comparison
Superset against other BI stacks — where it wins and where it does not.
Apache Superset vs Metabase
an engineering-first comparison of the two open-source BI platforms engineers actually ship
Stack and runtime model, SQL-first vs visual-first, where the governance paywall lands, and what embedded licensing really costs — a side-by-side for engineers picking an open-source BI stack, not a marketing funnel.
14 min readRead article
Apache Superset vs Microsoft Power BI
an engineering-first comparison for teams picking a BI stack inside — or outside — the Microsoft orbit
Where queries run, how Fabric capacity pricing actually behaves, what Entra ID lock-in means in practice, and how embedded licensing diverges — a side-by-side for engineers picking a BI stack, not a marketing funnel.
15 min readRead article
Apache Superset vs Tableau
an engineering-first comparison for teams that have to live with the choice
Where queries run, how the semantic layer behaves, what governance actually costs, and how embedded licensing differs — a side-by-side for engineers picking a BI stack, not a marketing funnel.
14 min readRead article
Production & operations
GitOps, certification, and keeping BI honest once dashboards ship.
