Metrics & sources
The metric catalog, source-backed vs calculated values, periods, and lineage.
A card becomes measurable when it carries values over time. Canvasm keeps those values in a shared catalog so the same metric reads the same everywhere.
Tracked metrics and the catalog
When a Data/Metric card matters enough to follow, you promote it to a tracked metric. A tracked metric is catalogued at the workspace level and owns a value series — a list of values by period.
Because the series lives in the catalog (not on a single card), the same metric can appear on several canvases and read identically. Update MRR once and every canvas and dashboard referencing it updates.
Periods
Values are recorded per period — usually a month like 2026-06. A series is
just those period/value pairs:
MRR
2026-04 118000
2026-05 121500
2026-06 124000Source-backed vs calculated values
Values arrive two ways:
- Source-backed — brought in from a data source: a native connector, or pushed from your own pipeline via the API or an agent over MCP. These reflect real system-of-record numbers.
- Calculated — derived on the canvas from other cards through a Deterministic or Compositional relationship. For example, MRR can be calculated as New + Expansion − Churned.
Keep one source of truth
Prefer source-backed values for base metrics and calculated values for roll-ups. That way the map's math is explicit and the inputs stay honest.
Lineage
Every source-backed value keeps its lineage — where it came from and when it was observed. Lineage is what lets you trust a number and trace it back to its origin instead of guessing who typed it.