attribute-creation

Prerequisites

Before creating attributes, ensure you are on the correct workspace and branch. Use get_session_workspace_and_branch to check the current session context. For development work, create a branch with create_workspace_branch (the session switches automatically). See the workspace-branch skill for the full workspace/branch tool reference.

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Overview

A Honeydew calculated attribute is a virtual, per-row column defined on an entity — analogous to an expression in a SQL SELECT clause. It is evaluated once per row, not aggregated. In BI tools it surfaces as a dimension users can group, filter, and slice by.

Use a calculated attribute when:

• You need a reusable, governed column that doesn't exist verbatim in the source table (e.g. net_price, customer_tier, order_month)
• The value should be consistent everywhere it's consumed, not recalculated ad-hoc in each dashboard
• You want to expose a clean, business-friendly label for a raw or encoded column

Do not use a calculated attribute for aggregations across rows — use a metric instead.

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Building the SQL Expression

Core Rules

• Use simple expressions — easy to understand
• Use the SQL dialect of the connected data warehouse (Snowflake, Databricks, or BigQuery)
• Use entity.field format for all attribute/metric references
• No joins or subqueries — simple expressions only (window functions allowed)
• Use fully qualified column names — orders.amount, not just amount
• Prefer ILIKE over LIKE for case-insensitive matching

See reference.md for: SQL functions, JSON/semi-structured data, geography, data types, full YAML schema, attribute types, time grain, and format strings.

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Creation Methods

Primary: create_object with YAML

Call create_object with yaml_text:

type: calculated_attribute
entity: <entity_name>
name: <snake_case_name>
display_name: <Human Readable Name>
description: |-
  <business description>
owner: <owner_email_or_team>
datatype: string|number|float|bool|date|timestamp|time
sql: |-
  <SQL expression>
folder: <optional folder path>