Organization Attributes

Attributes are optional metadata that Organization administrators define and Projects explicitly enable. Use them for stable classifications such as Customer, Product Area, or Regulatory Category. They do not change status transitions, permissions, defaults, required fields, or workflow behavior. Labels and first-class Work Item properties remain separate.

Define and enable

Owners and administrators open Organization settings → Attributes to create a definition, add and order allowed options, rename display names or labels, disable or re-enable a definition, and retire it permanently. A key does not change when a display name changes. Definition keys and option keys are lowercase machine identities; labels can be edited without changing saved queries, API references, or imports.

Hamstik supports single-select, multi-select, and true/false definitions. An Organization can have 25 definitions, each select definition can have 50 options, and a multi-select assignment can contain up to 10 distinct options. Names and option labels can be up to 100 characters. Reserved Work Item names such as status, labels, and attributes cannot be definition keys.

In Project settings → Attributes, a Project manager enables the active Organization definitions that the Project uses. A Project cannot change an Organization definition’s type, key, or allowed options. Enabling a definition does not fill values on existing Work Items.

Assign values

Editors assign values while creating or updating a Work Item. When an Organization has no active Attribute definitions, the Organization Attributes section is not shown on the Work Item detail view at all; it appears once an administrator creates a definition. When the Organization has definitions but the current Project has not enabled any, the section shows that state instead of empty fields. Omitting an Attribute from an update leaves it unchanged. Choose Clear to remove one value. For booleans, unset, true, and false are distinct: false is a recorded value and is not the same as an empty value.

Disabled definitions and Project opt-out stop new assignments but keep values already recorded. Retirement is permanent. A retained retired option remains visible; a multi-select edit may keep an already-assigned retired choice while changing active choices. New assignment of that retired choice is rejected. An authorized editor can clear retained values.

Attributes are filterable in SqueakQL by their stable keys. See the Attribute query examples and SqueakQL field reference.

Integrations and portability

Public API v1 uses stable keys and keeps Attribute governance behind the separate attribute:write token scope and current administrator authorization. Project enablement also requires a grant for that Project; Project-restricted tokens see only enabled vocabulary for their granted Projects. See the Attribute API guide and Personal Access Token scopes.

CSV uses Attribute:<key> headers and carries current Work Item values only. It does not create definitions or options. A separate administrator-confirmed import choice can preserve exported retained inactive values. Native .hamstik archives preserve compatible Organization Attribute governance, Project enablement, and assignment relationships. See Import and export for formats, preflight behavior, and compatibility.

CSV cells use stable option keys. An empty cell means no assignment; !clear clears boolean and single-select values, and [] clears a multi-select value.

Attribute assignment activity is distinct from Hamstik reporting history. The existing attributes_changed reporting event continues to describe first-class Work Item properties such as status, priority, and assignee; it is not an Attribute history or analytics framework.