Custom Attributes for your model

What are custom attributes

Verta's model catalog provides you with the ability to capture a vast amount of metadata for your models and model versions. Custom attributes allow you to include any custom metadata that you want to associate with a registered model or its version.

With Verta, you can easily templatize custom attributes, such as assigning a custom "risk level" for each model that can be modified through the user interface. Additionally, you can attach arbitrary key-value pairs to a registered model version via our Python client.

This article will specifically focus on the custom attributes that are catalog-wide and can be edited through the user interface.

When to use custom attributes

While writing documentation may not be the most exciting task, it can be made easier by having a set of questions that can be answered about each model or version in your catalog. Just like how you can configure custom fields in JIRA for a ticket, Verta allows you to configure custom fields for both registered models (RMs) and registered model versions (RMVs).

Custom attributes can be incredibly useful for a variety of use cases. For example, you can use them to define ownership across multiple teams by setting fields like "Product Owner," "ML Owner," "Engineer Owner," and more. Additionally, you can define which business unit is consuming the results of a model or endpoint from your custom list, such as "Android Application Team" or "Applied ML Team."

You can also score your models based on a custom risk hierarchy, which allows you to quickly assess the risk level of each model. Make your risk hierarchy 2, 3 or 5 tiers using a custom list object.

Overall, using custom attributes can make it easier to manage and track models within your catalog, allowing you to quickly answer important questions about each model or version.

How can I use custom attributes

Using custom attributes requires two steps. First, an organization admin within the Verta platform will need to name and configure the attribute. Secondly, the attribute can be populated on your objects.

Creating Attributes

To access the attribute configuration page, see the “Custom Attributes” tab of the organization admin page.

You can configure custom attributes on two objects currently - Registered Models (which tend to capture a business problem and ML task that is being performed) and Registered Model Version (which are the releasable increments of a model).

Existing Attributes will be listed on the page. You may add new attributes or edit and delete existing ones.

To add an attribute, select the “Add Custom Attribute” button and fill in the form. Here is where you will decide if the attribute should apply to Registered Models or Versions. Each attribute must have a unique name and we provide a menu of icons to select from to easily find the attribute on the relevant page.

You will also select the attribute type from 6 current options

• Custom List

  • You can create a selectable list of values (Minimum two, maximum 10) that can be set on the attribute

• List of users

  • A individual user can be selected

• List of groups

  • A single group configured in your organization can be selected

• Short text input

  • Allows your team to enter a short text value with upto 250 characters

• Long text input

  • Allows your team to enter a long text value with upto 2500 characters

• Numeric

  • You can enter a numeric value

Here’s an example of the completed set up form:

Editing and deleting attributes is a sensitive operation and should be done with care.

If you change any names or values the change will be immediately reflected on all versions and models. Deleting a custom attribute will require a 10 second long press. Neither of these actions is reversible, please contact support if you need help making lower risk changes.

Using Attributes

All custom attributes, whether filled in or not, are visible on the summary pages of a registered model or version under the Model Attributes section:

All custom attributes can be edited inline on hover and only users with update access can modify an attribute value:

Custom attribute categories

Custom attributes can also be grouped into specific categories to help easily manage and access them. 'Category' is an optional parameter, and if custom attributes are not mapped to a category, they are all viewed under a default section.

Create custom attribute categories

A default set of attribute categories is created as a baseline and can be optionally mapped to an attribute. The default categories include business metrics, model metadata, governance metrics, governance metadata, operational metrics, and performance metrics. Admins can add new categories and/or update existing ones.

Map custom attributes to categories

Admins can then map custom attributes to available categories.

Custom attribute source

Attributes can also be configured to track the ingest source, last updated user-ID, and timestamp information. Admins can configure the source as a required field for an attribute. If the source is a required field, attributes will not be allowed to be updated or saved unless the source field is populated. The source can be either text or a URL.