# Tagging best practices

> Tips & best practices for when working with tags

:::tip Knowledge Checkpoint
A grasp of these concepts will help you understand this documentation better:
- [Tags](/docs/find-organize/tags)
- [Content endorsement](/docs/find-organize/content-endorsement)
- [Content archiving](/docs/find-organize/archive)
:::

## Why use tags

As your BI platform grows, finding the right dashboards, datasets, or reports becomes harder. Tags create a shared language that helps your team quickly discover, trust, and collaborate around data. With tags, you can:
- **Search faster:** Use tags to search for related items.
- **Endorse trusted items:** Mark items as endorsed to signal that they’re trusted.
- **Archive outdated items:** Keep your workspace clean by hiding items that are no longer relevant.

<VideoPlayer src="https://media.holistics.io/bce238b5-docs-best-practice.mp4" autoplay loop muted />

## Tips to build tags

### Start small with a few tags

- **Start simple**: Don’t overthink when first creating your tag list. You don’t need to plan everything out beforehand; just start with a simple list of tags that can be applied to your current workspace.
- **Iterate along the way:** Tags can be refactored later to adapt to your organization's use cases. Remember, the tool should serve you, not the other way around.

:::tip
Use our [recommended tag list](/docs/find-organize/tags#2-how-to-set-up-your-tagging-system) to get a quick start.
:::

### Utilize built-in tags

Holistics supports some built-in tags with special mechanisms that you can start with:

- **`Endorsed` tag**: Mark content as trusted and reliable (See [setup guide](/docs/find-organize/content-endorsement#set-up)).
- **`Archive` tag**: Helps hide outdated objects without permanently deleting them (See [setup guide](/docs/find-organize/archive#set-up)).

### Organize tags into categories

With related tags, you can group them by categories, which helps users answer their questions when looking for items:

- **Topic tags:** What is this item about? For example: `topic/sales-ops`, `topic/customer-success`, `topic/call-center`, etc.
- **Status tags:** Is it ready to use? For example: `status/draft`, `status/review`, `status/active`, etc.
- **Owner tags:** Who is responsible for this? For example: `owner/finance-team`, `owner/sales`, `owner/data-team`, etc.
- **Issue tags:** Is there anything I should be aware of? For example: `issue/stale-data`, `issue/under-maintenance`, `issue/confidential`, etc.

:::tip
Use a prefix (e.g., `dept/finance`) to group related tags.
:::

### Combine with an automation workflow

Enhance your workflow by auto-adding or removing tags with the [Tagging System API](/api/v2/reference/tagging-system). Some of the example use cases that you can reference:

**Use case 1: Mark broken dashboards/datasets**

- When a pipeline fails, you can call the add tag API to mark affected dashboards/datasets (e.g., `issue/broken`).
- Once fixed, you can call the remove tag API to remove it.

**Use case 2: Schedule regular reviews**

In your workflow, you can set a schedule (e.g., monthly, quarterly) to call the add tag API to:

- Mark items that need to be reviewed (e.g., `action/need-review`)
- Assign the person in charge (e.g., `maintainer/James`)

# Your turn!
:::tip
Still don’t know what to do? Use our [recommended tag list](/docs/find-organize/tags#2-how-to-set-up-your-tagging-system) to get a quick start.
:::

Have a tagging pattern that works well for your team? **Share it with the community** to help others get started faster.