Create and manage attributes
Learn to create, track, and manage attributes in Attio.
What are attributes?
Attributes are customizable fields that store information about your records in Attio. They help you capture and organize important data points such as a person’s location, their company, or the date of your last email interaction.
Attributes are useful for filtering, sorting, and segmenting your records to fit your workflow. Each column in the below table view is an attribute: Domains, Description, Categories, and LinkedIn.
System and custom attributes
Each object in Attio, such as People, Companies, or Deals, includes a set of system attributes. These are built-in fields automatically created by Attio. While system attributes cannot be deleted or archived, you can customize which attributes are shown on record pages. For a complete list of system attributes available for standard objects, see Manage standard objects.
In addition to system attributes, you can create custom attributes to store any additional data specific to your needs.
Enriched attributes
Companies and people records have a set of system enriched attributes that auto-populate based on data sourced about your records. In addition, Attio populates communication intelligence attributes using data from email and calendar sync, as well as meetings added to records.
Enriched values have a purple background, and enriched attributes show a sparkle icon next to their name in table views. Learn more about enrichment.
Create a new attribute
You can create custom attributes on any object in Attio to capture information that isn't covered by the built-in system attributes.
Choose an object vs. list attribute
Before creating a new attribute, decide whether it should be an object attribute or a list attribute.
Object attributes
What are object attributes?: Object attributes apply to every record of a specific object type (e.g., all companies or all people) across your workspace. They can be displayed in any list or all records view for the object within your workspace. For example, a "Domains" attribute for the company object will be visible on all company records and can be used in any view of companies.
How are object attributes managed?: Only admins can create or modify object attributes, but all team members can assign values to them. They are managed in Workspace settings.
List attributes
What are list attributes?: List attributes are specific to a single list and cannot be used outside of it. Use list attributes for details that are only relevant to one list, such as "Owner," "Priority," or "Stage."
How are list attributes managed?: They are created and managed in the List settings of the specific list by any admin or workspace member with full access to the list.
Which one should you use?
Choose an object attribute if it applies to all records of a certain object type across your workspace or is relevant in multiple lists.
Choose a list attribute if it is specific to a single list or subset of records.
Navigate to settings
Once you’ve decided whether it will be an object or list attribute, navigate to the attribute settings:
From any table or kanban view, select the ⋮ icon in the top right corner and choose Manage attributes.
Or, select your workspace name in the top left and then Account settings. To create an object attribute, select Objects or Lists, the object or list, then the Attributes tab.
From attribute settings, click Create attribute. Alternatively, click + Create new attribute when adding an attribute to a table or kanban view to create the attribute without leaving the view.
Give the attribute a name, and optionally, a description.
For a video walkthrough of creating and customizing attributes, see Customizing Companies and People in Attio Academy.
Choose an attribute type
There are several different attribute types to choose from, depending on the type of data you want to track:
| Attribute type | Description |
|---|---|
| Status attribute | Track which status each record is currently in. This type is required for kanban views where each status is a column. |
| User attribute | Track which members of your workspace are owners or assignees. |
| Select and multi-select attribute | Pick from one or more color-coded options in a dropdown. |
| Text attribute | Fill out custom text fields with option of shift+return/enter to create line breaks. Text attributes can also be used for URLs. |
| Date and timestamp attribute | Track due dates, timestamps, or schedule follow-ups, displayed as absolute dates/times or relative values (i.e. "in 3 days"). |
| Number attribute | Track quantitative values such as percentages. |
| Currency attribute | Select your currency, preferred display option, and track monetary values. |
| Checkbox attribute | Record yes or no answers by checking or unchecking a box. |
| Rating attribute | Add custom ratings between 1 and 5 stars. |
| Record attribute | Reference another record, such as a specific person or company, as a value. Select the checkbox for "Multiple Values" if you want to be able to add more than one record as values for the attribute, and select the object(s) you want to be able to choose from when adding a value to the attribute under "Available object types". |
| Relationship attribute | Show the bidirectional relationship between records. Similar to the Record attribute type, except it writes to both sides of the relationship rather than only one side, and it can only be created at the object level (not as a list attribute). See the Relationship attributes article to learn more. |
| Location attribute | Includes fields for city, state, and country |
| Phone Number attribute | Add phone numbers, requiring valid format with country codes. |
AI attributes
Text, Select, and Multi-select attributes include an optional AI Autofill setting. This feature allows Attio to automatically generate attribute values using AI. Learn more in AI attributes.
Default values
You can set a default value for an attribute so that each new record or list entry is automatically pre-filled with that value.
Attribute value options
For attribute types like Select and Multi-select, you can define a set of options that appear in a dropdown. This lets users choose from preset values instead of typing them manually, similar to a multiple choice field in a form.
To manage options:
Click Options and then + Create option to add new values.
Drag the ::: icon to reorder them.
Click the color circle to change an option’s color.
Click the X to remove an option.
Note: Deleting an option will also remove any existing data that uses it. This cannot be undone.
Unique and required attributes
Custom objects support two advanced attribute settings: Required and Unique. The Unique setting is also available for the Deals, Users, and Workspaces standard objects.
Required: The attribute must be filled out when a new record is created.
Unique: No two records can share the same value for this attribute, which helps prevent duplicates.
Currently, you can't create required custom attributes or edit system-generated unique attributes for People and Company standard objects.
Note: Unique attributes treat letter casing as different values. For example, “Value” and “value” would be accepted as unique.
Currency and number attribute settings
When creating or editing Currency or Number attributes, you can configure how values appear in table views, kanban views, and record views:
Currency (Currency only): Choose the currency. Only one currency is supported per attribute.
Display (Currency only): Choose how the currency is shown: Code, Name, Narrow symbol, or Symbol. Note that Narrow symbol and Symbol may appear the same for some currencies.
Decimal places (Currency and Number): Show values with either two or zero decimal places.
Grouping (Currency and Number): Choose whether to use comma separators (e.g., 1,000 vs 1000).
Manage attributes
To manage attributes, navigate to attribute settings for the object or list. The permissions required to manage attributes depends on whether it is an object or list attribute:
Object attributes: Only workspace admins can manage object attributes
List attributes: Workspace admins and full access list members can manage list attributes
Edit, duplicate, archive, or restore an attribute
From attribute settings for the object or list, select the ⋮ icon to the right of an attribute to edit, duplicate, archive, or restore the attribute if it is archived.
Reorder attributes
From attribute settings for the object or list, reorder attributes by clicking and dragging the ::: icon.
The order of the attributes on this page will determine the order of attributes shown when you go to add a new record to your list (unless you are using a template). The order can also impact which attributes show on record pages. See Configure record pages for more information.
View an attribute's edit history
To view the history of updates made to an attribute including who or what updated it, right-click a cell and select View edit history.
Note: Edit history is only available on Pro and Enterprise plans. Learn more about plans and pricing.