It’s time to take control of your data and your processes. Puzzle’s Entities & Attributes feature gives you complete visibility into how information moves through your systems, so you can manage complexity, reduce risk, and make smarter decisions faster.
With this powerful tool, you can document every critical data point, track how information flows across your tools, and visually connect your entire automation landscape.
And now, with enhanced functionality, you can display attributes for multiple steps directly on your process canvas—perfect for showcasing how your systems work and proving the value behind your automations.
Feature Benefits
🔎 Search and Track Data Instantly: Visualize where data fields (attributes) are used without digging through every automation, saving time and reducing guesswork.
⚡ Confident System Changes: Make updates with clarity by understanding how data points interact across your processes, minimizing risk and downtime.
🎨 Visualize Data Flow Across Your Canvas: Display attributes for multiple steps directly on the process canvas—ideal for walkthroughs, client presentations, or understanding how information moves through your system.
📂 Simplified System Documentation: Document entities, attributes, and data relationships visually, giving your team a structured, organized view of your automation landscape.
What Are Entities & Attributes?
This feature is based on the Entity-Relationship (ER) model, which helps show how data is organized in a system. An Entity is a thing or object, like a contact, company, order, or product, that you want to track.
Definition: An Entity is a thing or object. For example, in a CRM there are likely Entities like Contact, Company, Order, or Product, that you want to track.
Each Attribute describes details about the Entity, like a contact's first name or a product's price. In system diagrams, entities and their attributes help map out how different parts of your system are connected.
Definition: An Attribute is a property of an Entity. For example, if the Entities are Student and Course, relates attributes would be Student_ID, and Course_ID.
Refer to the visual below to understand how Attributes are related to Entities.
Watch: Entities & Attributes in Action
🎥 See how to track data usage, organize attributes, and show how information flows across your workflows:
Step-by-Step Guide to use Entities & Attributes Feature
With these straightforward steps, you’ll be able to leverage the full potential of the Entities & Attributes feature. Follow the guide below to easily track where endpoints are used across your processes. If you prefer an interactive tour, visit this link to watch a step-by-step walkthrough of the Entities & Attributes feature.
1️⃣ Adding Entities to a Tool
1️⃣ Adding Entities to a Tool
🛠️ In your Workspace, go to the Tools section.
🔎 Select any of the tools that are current on your Tool Canvas, and find the database icon on the tool's sidebar.
🖱️ Click Add Entity to add a new Entity onto the specific tool.
📝 By default the Entity name will be set to 'Untitled' — to change the name click on the blue ✏️ icon to update the name.
2️⃣ Adding Attributes to an Entity
2️⃣ Adding Attributes to an Entity
✅ Next, you'll click on the blue arrow to expand the Entity and you'll see the Add Attribute button.
🖱️ Click Add Attribute to add a new line item within this Entity
📝 By default the Attribute named is 'Untitled' — to change the name of the attribute click the input field, erase the contents, and type in the new name of the attribute.
🔎 Select the Attribute 'Type' from the dropdown of options.
Single-Line Text
Multi-Line Text
Phone Number
Single Checkbox
Multiple Checkbox
Dropdown Select
Radio Select
Date Picker
Number
File
Tag
Formula
Email
ID
URL
User
Lookup
💡 Notice the indicator on the Attribute '0 Steps' — this value will show you how many steps this Attribute is associated with within the Workflows canvas.
3️⃣ Adding Attributes to an Entity in Bulk
3️⃣ Adding Attributes to an Entity in Bulk
🖱️ Click the '📝' icon on the Entity to open the bulk attribute modal
⚡ Copy a list of Attributes and paste the values in the modal's input.
🌟 We recommend using an export file from one of your systems to retrieve the list (typically in .xls or .csv format).
🖱️ Click 'Save Entity' to automatically add Attributes in bulk
🔎 Select each Attribute's 'Type' using the dropdown selector.
4️⃣ Tagging Attributes on Steps in the Workflows canvas
4️⃣ Tagging Attributes on Steps in the Workflows canvas
✅ Next, go to the Workflows tab and select a step.
In the step's sidebar there are two ways to associate Attributes to the step.
Tagging the Attribute in the Notes section — within the step's notes section you can '@' tag the attribute by typing the name of Attribute and selecting it from the dropdown that appears in the text editor. This is the fastest way to tag Attributes.
Manually associating Attributes — within the step's information sidebar, you can use the '+' on the Attributes divider found under the Notes divider — and searching to select the attributes in the modal.
🚨 Important: If you don’t see the Attributes section in the Step Sidebar, you may need to enable it first.
How to Enable Attributes in Step Sidebar Configuration:
Go to Workspace Settings in Puzzle.
Navigate to Step Sidebar Configuration.
Toggle ON the Attributes input.
Click Save, and your Step Sidebar will update automatically.
Now, when you open a step, the Attributes section will appear, allowing you to tag and track Attributes seamlessly.
5️⃣ Filtering Workflows by Attributes
5️⃣ Filtering Workflows by Attributes
✅ Once you've documented your Attributes across your Workflow canvas, you can use the Attribute as a filter in the List View.
Open the List View in the Workflows canvas to view all your steps in a table view.
Use the Attribute filter criteria to easily filter the step table to only show the steps that involve a specific Attribute. This level of depth in your documentation makes fixing automations a breeze!
6️⃣ Display Attributes Directly on the Canvas
6️⃣ Display Attributes Directly on the Canvas
Puzzle lets you visualize attributes for multiple steps at the same time—without needing to open each step individually.
Click to expand attributes for any step directly on the canvas
Expand multiple steps to show how data connects across the process
Perfect for process walkthroughs, system reviews, and presentations
💡 This makes it easy to demonstrate how information flows across your automation, giving technical and non-technical audiences clear, structured visibility into your systems.
Best Practices for Using Entities & Attributes
🔧 Standardize Entity Names Across Tools: Keep entity names clear and consistent across your workspace to avoid confusion and ensure accurate data tracking.
📝 Document Attributes with Purpose: Only add attributes that represent meaningful data points—this keeps your system organized and avoids unnecessary clutter.
🔗 Use Lookup and ID Fields for Cross-System Connections: Leverage Lookup, ID, or Reference fields to map how data moves between systems or processes, enhancing visibility into dependencies.
🎨 Visualize Data Flow During Presentations: Expand attributes directly on the canvas when presenting processes to show stakeholders how information moves across your workflow.
🔍 Filter Regularly to Validate Data Connections: Use List View filtering to double-check where attributes are applied, making it easier to troubleshoot and update processes confidently.
Conclusion
Clear, reliable processes start with understanding how your data connects across your systems. Puzzle’s Entities & Attributes feature gives you the structure and visibility to track critical information, simplify complex automations, and make smarter, more confident system changes.
When your team can see how data flows, you reduce risk, avoid costly errors, and keep your operations running smoothly. Take control of your data and your processes—start building with Entities & Attributes today!