Data Vault Foundations

An interactive learning system that teaches Data Vault, SQL, dbt and EU compliance through fourteen chapters of hands-on practice.

Learning design, interface, development, sole authorRole
Live, free, independent workStatus
Fourteen static chapter pages that run in any browserFormat
100+, with feedback and a progression that unlocks as you goExercises
Learning systemsPractice

Open the platform Repository Certification and enterprise Data Vault: Scalefree

Data Vault Foundations — the chapter portal

Who it is for

People who have to work with a Data Vault and have never built one: analysts, engineers moving to a new warehouse, and the compliance people who must sign off on it. The goal is usable understanding, not a certificate. By the last chapter you have written the SQL and taken the compliance self-test.

The curriculum

Fourteen chapters, in the order you take them. Five are regulatory.

Chapter 1: Ontology
Chapter 2: Data Vault Deep Cuts
Chapter 3: SQL SELECT
Chapter 4: SQL JOINs
Chapter 5: Compliance and GDPR
Chapter 6: dbt Tools
Chapter 7: EU Regulations
Chapter 8: Compliance Mechanisms
Chapter 9: AI Act and Data Vault
Chapter 10: SQL CREATE TABLE
Chapter 11: SQL Practice and dbt
Chapter 12: Integration Day
Chapter 13: Compliance Self-Test
Chapter 14: Python Vault Runner

Exercises and feedback

More than a hundred exercises, each answered on the spot, and quests that string them into something you finish rather than a list you abandon. The progression unlocks as you go.

The regulatory track

Five of the fourteen chapters are regulatory: GDPR, EU regulations, compliance mechanisms, the AI Act, and a compliance self-test. They treat compliance as part of the data model — which satellite holds the sensitive attributes, what a deletion has to leave behind — rather than a chapter bolted on at the end. The same question, taken further, became a paper: Engineering AI Act data governance for data teams.

Gamification

The progression logic follows Yu-kai Chou's Octalysis framework; the same reading produced the Gamification Helper Tool on this site.

Design and build

Fourteen static pages that open from one chapter portal. It runs anywhere a browser runs.

I design the product and make the technical calls — architecture, stack, interactions — then direct AI coding tools that build to my spec. I review and test everything that ships.

Where it stands

Live and free. This is independent work and this site sells no Data Vault consulting. For certification and enterprise Data Vault, see Scalefree.

Hire me for this

Available on retainer, for a few clients at a time. Everything I hand over is built so your team can use it without me.

Let’s work together

Email lorenzo.colombani@live.fr LinkedIn /in/locolombani