Tag Best Practices¶

Guidelines for a tag library that stays small, consistent, and worth filtering on.

Search before you create¶

Tag names are unique and case-sensitive, so PII, pii, and Personal-Data can all exist side by side and split the same meaning three ways. Search the Tags list, and look at the categories in use, before adding a tag. If the label you need is already there, apply it instead.

Write down what the tag means¶

A tag named Critical means something different to every reader. Use the description to say what the tag marks and when to apply it, for example "Tables that feed the monthly finance close. Apply at the table level." The description shows on the tag's page, where people land before applying or removing it.

Group tags with categories¶

Give related tags the same category, such as Sensitivity, Domain, or Lifecycle. Categories keep a long list scannable, let you filter and sort the Tags list by group, and make it obvious when a new tag duplicates an old one.

Tag at the highest level that is true¶

A tag on a datastore reaches every table, field, and check inside it, and a tag on a table reaches its fields and checks. Apply the tag where it is true for everything below, and you tag hundreds of assets with one action that stays correct as tables are added. Tag individual fields only when the label applies to some of them, such as personal data columns.

Keep weights meaningful¶

Most tags should keep the default weight of 1, which changes nothing. Reserve high weights for the data you are responsible for, and negative weights for data that should count less, such as sandbox or deprecated tables. If every tag is weighted 10, none of them stand out. See Weight Modifier.

Use team tags for team vocabulary¶

Labels that only make sense to one team, such as Q3 Close or Needs Backfill, belong in a team tag. The team manages them on its own, and they stay out of everyone else's pickers. Keep global tags for the vocabulary the whole organization shares.

Let the catalog own external tags¶

When your governance team maintains tags in a data catalog, import them as external tags instead of recreating them in Qualytics. Change their names and descriptions in the catalog, and set only the category and weight in Qualytics.

Merge duplicates instead of deleting them¶

When two tags mean the same thing, merge one into the other. Merging moves every asset, Flow, schedule, and saved filter to the tag that stays. Deleting a tag only strips it from its assets, and anything that filtered on it loses the label. Check the tag's Footprint on its page first, so you know what will move. See Merge Tags.

Review a tag before restricting its scope¶

Restricting a global tag to a team removes it from every asset outside that team's datastores, and making it global again later does not put it back. Use Review in the edit form to see every asset that loses the tag before you save.