# Checks Introduction

Source: https://userguide.qualytics.io/data-quality-checks/checks/deep-dive/introduction/

A check turns an expectation about your data into a result Qualytics can evaluate: a rule type applied to a table or a file, run by every Scan, with each failure reported as an [anomaly](https://userguide.qualytics.io/anomalies/overview/). This deep dive is the reference for the concepts every check shares, whatever its rule type. Each rule type has its own section under **Rule Types**.

## Why Use Checks

Checks are how a data quality program writes down what "correct" means, so it can be tested every time the data changes.

Use checks to:

- **Catch bad data early:** Every Scan tests new data against your rules, so a broken load or an unexpected value shows up as an anomaly before anyone builds on it.
- **Write down business rules:** Authored checks hold the limits, references, and relationships your team knows to be true, and automation never changes them.
- **Start from what the data already does:** AI Managed checks give broad coverage from observed patterns, with no rule written by hand.
- **Focus on what matters:** Importance and impact metrics decide how loudly each failure speaks during triage.
- **Test before you trust:** Validate and Dry Run show what a check will flag before a Scan relies on it.
- **Keep a record:** Every change to a check, and the discussion behind it, stays on its Timeline.

## What You Will Find Here

- **How a Check Works**

  What a check is made of, who creates it, how AI Managed checks are generated, how a Scan evaluates it, and how its status changes.

  [How a Check Works](https://userguide.qualytics.io/data-quality-checks/checks/deep-dive/how-it-works/)
- **Authored Checks**

  What an Authored check is, who governs it, and how it differs from an AI Managed check.

  [Authored Checks](https://userguide.qualytics.io/data-quality-checks/checks/deep-dive/authored-checks/)
- **AI Managed Checks**

  What an AI Managed check is, which edits convert it to Authored, and how to go back.

  [AI Managed Checks](https://userguide.qualytics.io/data-quality-checks/checks/deep-dive/ai-managed-checks/)
- **Check Ownership**

  Who is responsible for a check, the four ways ownership changes, notifications, and filtering by owner.

  [Check Ownership](https://userguide.qualytics.io/data-quality-checks/checks/deep-dive/ownership/)
- **Check Importance**

  How much a check's failures matter, and how its tags raise or lower it.

  [Check Importance](https://userguide.qualytics.io/data-quality-checks/checks/deep-dive/importance/)
- **Impact Metrics**

  Numbers measured over a check's failed records that show how big a failure is.

  [Impact Metrics](https://userguide.qualytics.io/data-quality-checks/checks/deep-dive/impact-metrics/)
- **Dry Run**

  What a Dry Run evaluates and how to read its results, anomalies, and source records.

  [Dry Run](https://userguide.qualytics.io/data-quality-checks/checks/deep-dive/dry-run/)
- **Check Views**

  The check lists, the check page, and the side panel: how to reach each one, what it shows, and what you can do there.

  [Check Views](https://userguide.qualytics.io/data-quality-checks/checks/deep-dive/check-details/check-views/)
- **Check Anomalies**

  The anomalies a check has produced, and how to triage them from the check's page.

  [Check Anomalies](https://userguide.qualytics.io/data-quality-checks/checks/deep-dive/check-details/anomalies/)
- **Check Timeline**

  The change log of a check, its past versions, and the comments your team leaves on it.

  [Check Timeline](https://userguide.qualytics.io/data-quality-checks/checks/deep-dive/check-details/timeline/)
- **Check Examples**

  Scenarios that show ownership and AI Managed checks in practice.

  [Check Examples](https://userguide.qualytics.io/data-quality-checks/checks/deep-dive/examples/)
- **Check Permissions**

  Which team permissions can view, create, edit, archive, and delete checks, change owners, and edit AI Managed checks.

  [Check Permissions](https://userguide.qualytics.io/data-quality-checks/checks/deep-dive/permissions/)
- **Getting Started with Checks**

  Every rule type, in the same groups as the rule type picker, with a link to its own reference, examples, how-tos, and API.

  [Getting Started with Checks](https://userguide.qualytics.io/data-quality-checks/checks/getting-started/)

*Last updated: November 10, 2026.*