Anomaly Description
The Description is a business-friendly explanation of the data quality issue captured by an anomaly. It appears in the Description section of the anomaly details view and serves as a free-text field that complements the structured attributes (Status, Severity, Failed Checks, etc.) with narrative context.
For the step-by-step tutorial on editing, see Edit Anomaly Description.
How the default description is built
When Qualytics creates an anomaly during a Scan operation, it auto-fills the description by combining the messages of every failed check into a multi-line summary like:
Field customer_id is expected to be not null;
Field email is expected to match pattern ^[^@]+@[^@]+\.[^@]+$
Each failed-check message includes the rule type, the field involved, and the expected condition that was violated. The default acts as a starting point: users can leave it as-is, refine it, or rewrite it entirely.
Note
The default description is only set at anomaly creation. Once a user edits the text, re-running a Scan does not overwrite it.
Editing the description
Any user with the Editor team permission (or higher) on the anomaly's datastore can edit the description. The Edit button appears next to the Description label in the anomaly details view. Clicking it switches the section into edit mode, with the following actions:
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Edit | Opens the description in edit mode. |
| Save | Saves the new text and exits edit mode. The change is recorded in the anomaly's History. Disabled if the description is empty or contains only whitespace. |
| Cancel | Discards unsaved changes and reverts to the previous description. |
The Edit button is hidden on archived anomalies (Resolved, Duplicate, Invalid, Discarded) and for users without the Editor team permission.
AI-suggested description
When Agent Q is configured on the deployment, a second button appears next to the Description label: Suggest a description . Clicking it asks Agent Q to generate a candidate description from the anomaly's failed checks. The suggestion appears in an overlay with three options:
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Use | Replaces the current description with the suggestion. The text appears in the editor so you can still refine it before saving. |
| Regenerate | Asks Agent Q for a fresh suggestion. Useful if the first proposal does not match the issue. |
| Dismiss | Closes the overlay and keeps the current description unchanged. |
If Agent Q is not configured for the deployment, the Suggest button is hidden. For details on configuring Agent Q, see the Agent Q documentation.
Description and masked fields
If the failed check involved a masked field, the original value never appears in the description. The check failure message permanently shows ***MASKED*** in place of the actual value, both in the default description and in any later regeneration. To investigate the underlying value, reveal masked source records via the Source Records toolbar instead. See Masked Fields in Source Records.
Archived anomalies are read-only
Once an anomaly is archived (status Resolved, Duplicate, Invalid, or Discarded), the description becomes read-only. The Edit and Suggest buttons disappear. To edit the description, restore the anomaly first; see Restore Anomalies.
History tracking
Every description change is recorded in the anomaly's History section, alongside status changes, tag updates, assignee changes, and comments. Each entry shows:
- The user who made the change.
- The timestamp of the edit.
- The previous value and the new value, so you can see exactly what changed.
See the History section of the Anomaly Insights page for details on the timeline.
Permissions summary
| Action | Required permission on the anomaly's datastore |
|---|---|
| Read the description | Viewer team permission |
| Edit the description | Editor team permission |
| Suggest a description with Agent Q | Editor team permission + Agent Q configured on the deployment |