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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 visually comparing Family members in Explore. Use Explore to plot Channels from all Family members on a shared, aligned time axis. This lets you quickly see how Runs cluster, identify outliers, and compare signal shapes across your historical dataset.

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Prerequisites

  • A Family with at least two included members. See Creating Families.
  • At least one alignment configured on the Family.
  • Explore enabled (currently in beta — contact your Sift administrator to enable it).

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Open a Family in Explore

To open a Family in Explore:
  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.
  3. Click Explore. Sift opens Explore with all included Family members preloaded as data sources.
Excluded Runs are not plotted and do not appear in the data selector. If you already have an Explore session open, add a Family directly by clicking Add data source in the data selector panel and select the Family. This loads all included Family members into the existing session without starting a new one.

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Plot Channels

In the data selector panel on the left:
  1. Expand a Family member to browse its Channels.
  2. Click a Channel name to plot it, or drag it onto an existing panel.
  3. To plot the same Channel from all data sources at once, right-click the Channel name and choose Plot matching Channels across all Runs.
Channels from different members that share the same name are plotted together so you can compare them side-by-side.

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Configure alignment

Alignment controls the T-0 reference point used to synchronize all Runs on the time axis.

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Channels plotted from a Family

For Channels plotted from a Family, alignment is controlled by the Family’s defined alignment configurations. Switch between them using the X-axis control at the bottom of the panel, or open the settings menu using the gear icon and navigate to the Time-Alignment tab. You can only select from alignments already defined on the Family. You cannot override them in Explore.

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For additional Runs

For any additional Runs you add for comparison (non-Family Runs), you can use the full range of alignment options available in Explore. See the Explore compare documentation for details on alignment settings for non-Family data sources. When you create a new panel, it inherits the alignment mode from the currently active panel. As you move through your analysis, switching to a different Family alignment immediately re-syncs all Family member Channels to the new T-0.

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Identify Channels by Family

When you have many overlapping Channels from different Runs, use the Channel display settings to distinguish them:
  • Show family name: Adds the Family name as a prefix to each Channel label in the legend. Enable this in Channel settings > Show family name.
  • Group by family: Groups Channels in the legend and data selector by Family rather than by Run. Enable this in Channel settings > Group by family.
To group the entire Family as a single legend entry, open the legend settings and choose Collapse to one. You can also assign the Family a single color so that any new Run you add for comparison stands out clearly against the Family baseline.

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Add a new Run for comparison

To compare a new Run against the Family, add it as an additional data source in the panel. When you plot a Channel from the new Run, it automatically inherits the panel’s active alignment — no manual setup required. The new Run’s Channel is plotted alongside the Family members using the same T-0 reference, so differences are immediately visible. To add a new Run to a panel that already has Family data loaded:
  1. Click Compare settings on the panel toolbar.
  2. In the data source dropdown, select the Run you want to compare.
  3. Plot the same Channel from the new Run to compare it directly against the Family baseline.

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Add candidate Runs from a Family

If a Family in your session has a candidate query, you can pull in matching Runs without leaving Explore.
  1. Hover over the Family in the data source panel to open its hover card. If new candidates exist, the Candidate Runs row shows the count.
  2. Click Review Run(s).
  3. Select the Runs you want to add in the review modal, and click Add to Explore. For a single match, the modal shows the Run details with a direct Add to Explore action.
Added Runs inherit the active panel’s alignment automatically, so they align with the Family baseline immediately. See Review candidate Runs for how candidates are generated.

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Save session Runs to a Family

Use the menu next to your data sources to turn session Runs into a new Family, or to update an existing one.

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Create Family from Session

Opens the Create Family flow in a new tab, starting on the Basic Info step. Session Runs auto-populate the Membership step. Membership behavior depends on the session:
  • If the session contains no Families, every Run is added as an included member.
  • If the session contains one or more Families, the new Family’s members are the union of standalone Runs and Runs included in any session Family. Runs marked excluded on a session Family carry over to the Excluded list.
  • When a Run is both included (via a data source or another Family) and excluded (via a different session Family), inclusion takes precedence.

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Update Family from Session

Available only when the session contains at least one Family. If the session contains multiple Families, Sift prompts you to pick which one to update. Opens the selected Family’s edit flow on the Candidates tab. Session Runs that are not already members of the selected Family are added as included Runs in the edit flow.

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Focus on a Channel

To reduce visual noise when comparing many Runs:
  • Hover over a Channel name in the legend to highlight it and dim all others.
  • Right-click a Channel in the legend to fully isolate it, hiding all other Channels. Right-click again to restore the full view.
This makes it easy to alternate between inspecting a single Channel in detail and reviewing the full Family context.