Inspector: fetch and display database column comments

Problem

Data warehouses like BigQuery and Snowflake support column-level comments that teams use to document business definitions, units, caveats, and ownership — but the inspector ignores this metadata entirely. When analysts review a column profile, they see statistical summaries without the semantic context that the warehouse already knows. This forces them to context-switch to a separate schema browser or documentation site to understand what a column means, breaking the profiling workflow. Surfacing column comments directly in the inspector report would bring warehouse-authored documentation inline with the statistical profile where analysts are already looking.

Context

• Column comments are fetched for supported adapters with graceful fallbacks.
• Inspector UI shows comments in consistent locations without clutter.
• Caching/performance behavior is acceptable for large schemas.

Possible Solutions

Plan

• Implement adapter-specific metadata queries for column comments.
• Normalize comment payload shape across warehouses and missing-data cases.
• Render comments in inspector templates with truncation/expand UX rules.
• Add tests for adapter coverage and large-schema performance behavior.
• Document support matrix and known warehouse-specific limitations.

Implementation Progress

• GitHub issue: https://github.com/fivetran/dataface/issues/386

Review Feedback

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