Create and manage attributes
Learn to create, track, and manage attributes in Attio.
Available on all plans.
Admins can create and manage attributes.
Members can create and manage attributes with Full access to the relevant object or list.
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, and Categories.
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 and members with Full access to the object can create or modify object attributes, but all team members with write access to the object can assign values to them. Object attributes 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?: Only admins and members with Full access to the list can create or modify list attributes, but all team members with write access to the list can assign values to them. List attributes are managed in List settings.
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, 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.
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 |
|---|---|
Formula attribute | Calculate values automatically based on other attributes on the record. Available on Pro and Enterprise plans. Learn more about formula attributes. |
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 | Track bidirectional relationships between records across objects. Unlike record attributes, relationship attributes write to both sides of the connection. Available on Pro and Enterprise plans. Learn more about relationship attributes. |
Location attribute | Includes fields for Street address, City, Region/State, Postcode, 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. There is a limit of 5,000 options per attribute.
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
Some Attio objects support creating custom required and unique attributes. Standard objects also have system unique and required attributes, which you can learn about in Manage standard objects.
Required attributes
A required attribute must be filled out when a new record is created.
Custom required attributes can only be created on custom objects. They aren’t supported on lists or the standard Companies, People, Deals, Workspaces, or Users objects.
Unique attributes
A unique attribute ensures that no two records can share the same value, which helps prevent duplicate records.
Custom unique attributes can be created on custom objects, as well as the standard Deals, Users, and Workspaces objects. They aren’t supported on lists or the standard Companies or People 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 and members with Full access to an object can manage object attributes
List attributes: Workspace admins and members with Full access to a list 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. Note that enriched and system attributes cannot be archived, and most cannot be edited.
Change an attribute slug
Each custom attribute has a slug, which is used to identify the attribute in the API. By default, the slug is generated from the attribute name when you create it, but you can update it later if needed.
From attribute settings for the object or list, select the ⋮ icon to the right of an attribute and click Change slug. Update the slug, then enter the confirmation text and click Update.
Keep in mind:
You can only change the slugs of custom attributes. System attributes cannot have their slugs changed.
If the attribute is used in API integrations, updating its slug may require corresponding changes in your external applications or scripts.
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
On Pro and Enterprise plans, you can right-click an attribute value and click View edit history for a log of updates made to the attribute including who or what updated it.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, when you restore an attribute, its values will also be restored and can be utilized in reports, but the attribute will not automatically be re-added to be displayed in your views. You will need to add it again.
Archived attributes can be restored at any time, indefinitely.
Any manually entered data in enriched attributes will not be overwritten, so the attribute will not be enriched in the future unless the manually entered data is removed.
Currency is set individually per attribute, and each attribute can use a single currency. There is not currently a way to set a default currency.
To update an attribute's currency, if the attribute was created on an object (for example, Companies or People), workspace admins can update the currency by following these steps:
Click your workspace name in the upper-left, then Workspace settings.
Navigate to Objects in the sidebar, then click the object that contains the attribute.
Find the attribute you want to update, and click the ⋮ icon next to it, then Edit attribute.
Click Currency and select the desired currency from the drop-down menu that appears.
Click Save changes.
If the attribute was created in a list, workspace admins and full access list members can update the currency by following these steps:
Open the list that contains the attribute.
Click the ⋮ icon in the upper-right of the list, then Manage attributes.
Find the attribute you want to update, and click the ⋮ icon next to it, then Edit attribute.
Click Currency and select the desired currency from the drop-down menu that appears.
Click Save changes.
If there are additional currencies you'd like to see, or if you'd like to use more than one currency with the same attribute, let us know by emailing [email protected].
Yes, you can bulk update attributes with copy and paste in table views, or by using our importer to make bulk updates. See the linked articles for details.
When adding a phone number to Attio, it needs to follow a specific international format called E.164. This means the number should start with a +, followed by the country code, and then the rest of the number, including the area code: ([+][country code][subscriber number including area code])
Attio also checks to make sure the number is likely to be real. It verifies things like valid area codes and whether the number follows the rules for that country. So if you try to add a fake or incorrectly formatted number, it might return an error and fail to save or import.
If you just want to add an email address for a company in order to track that information, you can create an object attribute for "Email" and this will allow you to save email addresses for companies.
However, it's not possible currently to initiate sending an email to a company record. So you may want to create people record(s) for any email addresses associated with the company. They'll automatically be linked to the company if their email domain matches the company's domain, and then any email correspondence you have with them will show on the company "Emails" tab. This also allows you to send emails to those email addresses within Attio.
Status attributes are designed to track which stage each record is currently in within a process or pipeline. They're required for kanban views where each status becomes a column, allowing you to visualize records as cards moving through different stages.
Select attributes are general-purpose dropdown fields that let you pick from color-coded options to categorize your data. They're perfect for any type of classification that doesn't represent stages of a process or pipeline.
For example, you'd use a Status type attribute for tracking deal stages like "Prospecting," "Meeting," or "Proposal" in a pipeline. You'd use a Select attribute for categorizing companies by industry, size, or customer segment.
Both allow you to define custom options, but Status attributes are specifically optimized for pipeline or process management and kanban board functionality.