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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.siftstack.com/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

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Overview

This guide walks you through the process of managing Sift Families. Use the Family management page to update membership, refine alignments, review version history, and keep your Family current as new test data arrives.

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Open a Family

To open a Family:
  1. In the Sift navigation panel, click Families. On smaller screens, Families may not be immediately visible — scroll right within the navigation panel to find it.
  2. Click the name of a Family to open its overview page.
Click Explore to open the Family in Explore for visual comparison. You can also access Edit, Import, and view version history in the overview. Family Analysis shows the stats table with Create family statistic and Create rule buttons.

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Edit Family details

To edit a Family:
  1. Open the Family overview page.
  2. Click Edit to open the Family edit workflow.
You can update any of the following:
  • Name and description — change how the Family is identified in lists and reports.
  • Members — add or remove Runs, or change exclusion status.
  • Alignments — add, rename, or delete alignment configurations.
  • Statistics — add or modify Family statistics (see Configure Family statistics).
Click Save to create a new version of the Family. Every save creates a version history entry.

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Manage Run membership

To change membership after save, open the Family in edit mode. The Members step uses the same search, include, exclude, and bulk actions as during creation. Saving creates a new version-history entry, and any rationale you enter when excluding a Run is stored on that entry.

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Review candidate Runs

If the Family has a candidate query, the Candidates tab lists every Run that matches the query and is not already included in or excluded from the Family. This covers both newly ingested Runs and older Runs that were never explicitly added. The Family overview page shows a N Family candidates to review callout whenever candidates exist. Click it to open the Family edit flow on the Candidates tab, where you can bulk include or exclude the Runs. With well-scoped queries and deliberate inclusions and exclusions, this callout also serves as a signal that a newly ingested Run is a valid member for the Family.

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Edit the candidate query

To change or remove the candidate query, open the Family in edit mode, go to the Candidates tab, and click Edit or Delete Query on the query display. Saving the Family records the change as a new version. See Candidate Runs in Creating Families for editor mechanics and CEL syntax.

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Review version history

When you save changes to a Family, Sift records what changed and when. To view the version history:
  1. Open the Family overview page.
  2. Click the Version history tab.
Each entry shows the version ID, timestamp, author, and a description of what changed (for example, “Updated runs”, “Updated family statistics”, “Updated alignments”, or changes to the candidate query). You can use version history to audit when members were added or removed, and to understand how the Family configuration has evolved over time. You can also revert the Family to any previous version.

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Import and export

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Export to YAML

To export a Family’s configuration to YAML:
  1. Open the Family overview page.
  2. Click Export and save the YAML file.

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Edit a Family using YAML

You can import and export Families using YAML to use an external version control system or bulk edit using a text editor. You can also edit a Family in YAML directly from the Sift app. To import or export a Family YAML file:
  1. Open a created Family to see the overview details.
  2. In the upper right-hand corner, click the dropdown menu with options to Download YAML, Upload YAML, or Edit as YAML.
Sift validates the schema before creating or updating the Family. If validation fails, the error message identifies the specific field and line number.

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Archive a Family

Archiving a Family marks it as read-only and records the archive date in version history. The Family and its stats remain visible in lists and can be filtered by archive status — nothing is deleted. Archived Families cannot be edited until they are unarchived. To archive a Family:
  1. Open the Family overview page.
  2. Click More options.
  3. Select Archive.
  4. Confirm the action.
To unarchive a Family, repeat the steps above and select Unarchive.
Rules that reference statistics from an archived Family continue to evaluate normally. To modify the Family or its stats, you must unarchive it first.