Tags
Table of contents
Overview
A tag marks the result rows whose values match its rules: an address you are tracking, a CIDR range, a customer id, a date range. Every result grid in every tab shows the rows a tag matches, with a coloured bar at the row’s leading edge and a tint on the matched cells. Tags are app-wide: they belong to no connection, so one tag finds its values in any database.
A tag has a name, a colour, an optional note, and any number of rules.
Rules and conditions
A rule is one or more conditions. A row matches a rule when every condition is satisfied by some cell in the row — not necessarily the same cell. A tag matches a row when any of its rules does.
A condition has a type and an operator, and it is compared only with cells of a column of the same type, in any column of the result:
| Type | Operators |
|---|---|
| Text | is, matches (a pattern with * and ?) |
| Address | is, in range (a CIDR range such as 10.0.0.0/8) |
| Number | is, >, ≥, <, ≤, between |
| Date & time | is, after, on or after, before, on or before, between |
| UUID | is |
Text compares without regard to case. A CIDR range also matches addresses held in text columns.
In the grid, a row that fully satisfies a rule shows a solid bar; a row that satisfies only some conditions of a rule shows a dashed one.
The Tag Manager
Open it with the Tag Manager button in the window toolbar (the tag, at the right of the toolbar), Window > Tag Manager, Edit > Manage Tags…, Manage Tags… in a result grid’s right-click menu, or the Edit button beside a tag in the Inspector. It is one window for the whole app, and it opens even when there are no tags yet and no results on screen.
The window has a Liquid Glass sidebar on the left and the selected tag’s form on the right. Cmd+W or Escape closes it.
- The sidebar has one row for each tag: its colour swatch, its name (Untitled Tag while the name is empty), and the number of its rules (“3 rules”). A dot at the end of the row marks a tag with unsaved changes.
- + in the toolbar (New Tag) adds a tag. The Filter field at the right of the toolbar narrows the sidebar to the tags whose name or rule count contains the text. When there are no tags, the form says No Tags and has its own New Tag button.
- To delete a tag, select its row and press the Delete key, choose Edit > Delete, or right-click the row and choose Delete. The tag is only marked: the line above the buttons says what Save will delete (“Saving deletes 1 tag and every rule in it.”), and Revert brings it back.
The form has two boxes:
- Tag — the Name, the Colour (a row of round swatches; the selected one has a ring), and the Note.
- Rules — the tag’s rules. Add Rule adds a rule with one empty condition; pick its type and operator and type the value. Add Condition adds another condition to a rule. Add Values… is at the foot of the box.
Under the boxes is the Test a value field. At the bottom of the form, outside the scrolling area:
- When results are loaded in the front tab, a count of the loaded rows that the tag matches.
- A line that says what Save will do.
- Revert, which discards every unsaved change in the window, and Save (Return), which writes the changes to every tag and keeps the window open.
Changes are kept until you press Save, also when you select another tag. Closing the window with unsaved changes asks first: Discard or Cancel.
Add Values…
Add Values…, beside Add Rule, makes many rules at once: paste or type values, one per line, and each line becomes a rule with one condition. The type is detected from the value:
| Value | Becomes |
|---|---|
10.0.0.0/8, 2001:db8::/32 | Address · in range |
10.0.0.1, ::1 | Address · is |
42, -3.5 | Number · is |
2026-10-22, 2026-10-22T16:02:00Z | Date & time · is |
550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000 | UUID · is |
*.example.com, user_? | Text · matches |
| anything else | Text · is |
A preview shows each line’s type before anything is added. Blank lines are left out, and so are lines repeated in the list and values the tag already has. A value shaped like an address that does not parse, such as 10.0.0.300, is refused rather than made a text rule. The new rules are changes like any other: Save writes them.
Test a value
Under the rules, Test a value checks a value you type against the selected tag’s rules as they are now, unsaved changes included: “Matches rule 1 and rule 2. Rule 4: 1 of 2 conditions.” The value is tested as a cell of each rule’s own type, so you can try a tag before any results exist. A rule with several conditions usually needs several cells, so the test says how many of its conditions the value satisfies.
Tagging rows from results
Select rows in a result grid and choose Add Tag… (Cmd+L, in the Edit menu and the grid’s right-click menu). A sheet lists the selected rows’ columns: tick the columns whose values the tag should take. Each selected row becomes one rule, with a condition for each ticked value, its type taken from the column’s type. Add the rules to an existing tag, or make a new one.
Remove From Tag… in the grid’s right-click menu removes the rules the selected rows complete, from the tags that hold them; untick any you want to keep.
The Inspector lists the tags that match the selected row, with Edit and Delete for each.
Appearance
Settings > Tags sets how many colour bands a row shows and how strongly a matched cell is tinted. See Settings.