Create and manage activities and schemas

Activities let your team track events related to records, such as phone calls, demos, or site visits. Schemas group attributes that activities can inherit.

This article explains how activities and schemas work together, and how admins can create and manage them in workspace settings. To log an activity on a record instead, see Log activities on records.

Decide what to createCopy link

What you need to create depends on what you want to track:

In most cases, start by creating an activity. You only need a custom schema when multiple related activities should share the same additional attributes. Because you can’t change an activity’s parent schema after creating it, consider whether related activities should share a custom schema before you create them.

Understand schemas and inheritanceCopy link

Every activity inherits its starting attributes from a parent schema. Schemas can also inherit from other schemas, so attributes flow down through the hierarchy.

Attio includes three standard schemas:

Interaction inherits everything from Activity, and Call inherits everything from both Interaction and Activity. Activities built on Interaction also contribute to communication intelligence values such as Last interaction, when they're set to All interactions. Every activity also includes the system attributes Created at and Created by.

If several activities need another shared set of attributes, create a custom schema. For example, if Site visit and Conference should both capture a Location and Organizer, you could create an In-person event schema that inherits its attributes from the Activity schema. Site visit and Conference could then inherit from In-person event.

Activities and schemas that come with Attio are tagged Standard, and the ones you create are tagged Custom.

Standard activitiesCopy link

Attio includes standard activities that are ready for members to use. Phone call is currently the only standard activity. It inherits its attributes from the Call schema, which also inherits from Interaction and Activity. You can’t edit or delete the system attributes on standard activities, but admins can add custom attributes.

Create and manage custom activitiesCopy link

Create a custom activity for anything else your team wants to track, such as a product demo, a discovery call, or a site visit.

1. Click your workspace name, then select Workspace settings.

2. Under Data in the sidebar, click Activities.

3. On the Activities tab, click Create activity.

4. Enter a Plural noun and a Singular noun, such as "Site visits" and "Site visit."

5. Optionally, click the icon next to Plural noun to choose a different icon.

6. Optionally, edit the Slug. Attio fills it in from the plural noun, and it can only include lowercase letters, numbers, and underscores.

7. Under Schemas, select the parent schema that best matches the activity. The activity will inherit all attributes from this schema.

8. Click Create activity.

Your new activity appears on the Activities tab, tagged Custom, with the attributes inherited from its parent schema. Once members start logging the activity, it appears on the Activity tab of every record it’s linked to and can be used as a data source in reports.

Add attributes to an activityCopy link

Add attributes directly to any activity, standard or custom, for information that only applies to that activity. The activity already includes all attributes inherited from its parent schemas.

For example, a Demo activity that inherits from Interaction already includes Participants and Direction. You could add Demo outcome directly to the Demo activity if that information isn't needed by other activities.

To add an attribute:

1. Click your workspace name, then select Workspace settings.

2. Under Data in the sidebar, click Activities.

3. Select the activity, such as Phone calls.

4. Open the Attributes tab.

5. Click Create attribute.

6. Choose an attribute type and configure it.

The Attributes tab shows both attributes added directly to the activity and attributes inherited from its parent schemas. Inherited attributes are labeled with the schema they come from, such as from Interaction, and tagged Inherited. To change one, open the schema it comes from.

Attributes built into Attio are tagged System. The Constraints column indicates when an attribute is required, such as Timestamp or Linked records. For more about attribute types and settings, see Create and manage attributes.

Edit or delete an activityCopy link

To edit an activity, click its row on the Activities tab. The Configuration tab holds its nouns and slug, and the Attributes tab holds its attributes.

To change a custom activity's slug, open its Configuration tab and click the pencil icon next to Slug. You can't change the slug of a standard activity.

To copy an activity's ID or slug for use with the API, click the ⋮ icon on its row, then select Copy ID or Copy slug.

To delete a custom activity, open it, then open the Configuration tab. Under Danger zone, click Delete activity.

Create and manage schemasCopy link

Create a custom schema when multiple activities need to share attributes that aren’t already provided by the standard Activity, Interaction, or Call schemas.

To create a schema:

1. Click your workspace name, then select Workspace settings.

2. Under Data in the sidebar, click Activities.

3. Open the Schemas tab.

4. Click Create schema.

5. Enter a Plural noun and a Singular noun, such as “In-person events” and “In-person event.”

6. Optionally, edit the Slug. Attio fills it in from the plural noun, and it can only include lowercase letters, numbers, and underscores.

7. Under Schemas, select the parent schema whose attributes your new schema should inherit. Activity is selected by default because it provides the standard activity attributes, including Title, Timestamp, and Linked records.

8. Click Create schema.

Your new schema inherits all attributes from its parent schema. You can select this custom schema as the parent schema when creating an activity.

Add attributes to a schemaCopy link

Add attributes directly to a schema when you want every activity or child schema that inherits from it to receive those attributes.

To add an attribute, open the schema, select the Attributes tab, then click Create attribute. Attributes inherited from parent schemas are tagged Inherited.

For more about attribute types and settings, see Create and manage attributes.

Edit or delete a schemaCopy link

To edit a schema, click its row on the Schemas tab. Use the Configuration tab to edit its nouns and slug, and the Attributes tab to manage its attributes. You can't change the slug of a standard schema.

To copy a schema’s ID or slug for use with the API, click the ⋮ icon on its row, then select Copy ID or Copy slug.

To delete a custom schema, open it, then open the Configuration tab. Under Danger zone, click Delete schema. Confirm by clicking Delete schema again.

Related resourcesCopy link

• Add an activity on a record with Log activities on records.

• Learn about attribute types and settings in Create and manage attributes.