Docs/Analytics/Filters

Filters

Add filters to a Mosaic to slice every tile at once — dimension, date, and number filters with per-tile targeting and warehouse-loaded values.

TracerWeaverLuminaryUpdated June 2026 · 8 min read

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In this section

Part of Celiq's semantic layer platform. Connect your warehouse, model your data once, query it everywhere.

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Tip

What it is — The Mosaic filter system: a chip bar above your dashboard that slices the data on every tile at once.
When to use it — When viewers need to narrow a whole dashboard by date, country, status, category, or any other field without editing each chart.
Where to find it — Open any Mosaic; the filter bar with the + Add filter button sits at the top of the canvas.
Who can use it — Weavers and Luminaries add and configure filters; Tracers and anyone with view access change the runtime value on each chip.

A Mosaic filter is defined once and mapped onto the tiles it should affect. Each filter shows up as a chip in the bar. Click the chip to change its value, and every targeted tile re-queries with that selection applied. Filters are never configured on individual tiles — you build them in one place (the filter bar) and choose which tiles each one updates.

Overview

The filter bar renders each configured filter as a chip showing its label and current value, for example Country: united states or Order date: last 30 days. Editors see a + Add filter button to create new filters and per-chip controls (the gear and the ✕) to configure or remove them.

When you add a filter, Celiq draws the available fields from the real reveals behind this Mosaic's tiles, grouped by their source reveal. You pick a field, choose how it behaves, and decide which tiles it targets. From then on, anyone viewing the Mosaic can change the value on the chip and the dashboard updates.

Filters come in three flavours — date, dimension, and number — and Celiq picks the right one automatically from the field's type. Dimension and date values load straight from your warehouse with zero configuration, so a Country filter offers the actual countries in your data and a Status filter offers the real statuses.

When to use it

A viewer needs to look at one country, channel, category, or status across the whole dashboard.
You want a single date range to drive every time-series and KPI on the page.
You want to compare a period against the previous one (week over week, year over year) consistently across tiles.
You want some tiles to respond to a filter and others to stay fixed — per-tile targeting lets you choose.

If instead you want a click on one chart to filter the others, that is Cross-filtering, not the filter bar.

Concepts

Term	What it means
Filter chip	The pill in the filter bar for one filter. Shows `label: value`. Click it to change the runtime value; editors get a gear (configure) and ✕ (remove).
Filter type	`date`, `dimension`, or `number`, derived from the field's data type. Determines the operators and the value control.
Operator	How the value is matched — e.g. `In` / `Not in` / `Contains` for dimensions, `=` / `>` / `Between` for numbers.
Default value	What the dashboard loads with.
Current value	The runtime selection on the chip. Changing it never redefines the filter — it just re-runs the query.
Tiles to update (`appliesTo`)	The list of tiles this filter affects, plus the field it maps to on each.
Value source	Where the dropdown's values come from. In Automatic mode they load from your warehouse.
Frame	The time grain applied to date-based tiles — Day, Week, Month, Quarter, or Year.
Comparison	A period-over-period overlay — Previous period, Week over week, Month over month, or Year over year.

Getting started

You need a Mosaic that already has at least one tile, because the list of filterable fields is drawn from the fields those tiles select. Adding and configuring filters requires the Weaver or Luminary role; Tracers and Lens can change chip values but not the filter definitions.

To open the filter controls:

Open the Mosaic you want to filter.
Find the filter bar at the top of the canvas.
Click + Add filter.

Step-by-step

Open the add-filter panel

Click + Add filter in the filter bar. A panel opens headed "Add a filter on a field from this mosaic". If any common fields exist in your tiles, a Quick add row offers one-click starters such as Date range, Country, Region, Category, Status, or Channel.

Pick a field

Either click a Quick add chip, or use the Search fields… box and the grouped list below it. Fields are grouped by their source reveal, with a count next to each group and a 📅 icon for date fields and a ⛁ icon for dimensions. Click a field to select it. (Use Custom filter… at the bottom only if you want to define a filter without picking a listed field.)

Set the operator and control

The configuration dialog opens on the Settings tab. For a dimension filter, choose an Operator (In, Not in, Equals, Contains, Starts with, …), a Control type (Dropdown, Buttons, or Checklist), Selection (Single or Multiple), and whether to allow Search inside values. For a date filter, choose Relative or Absolute mode and a preset or range. For a number filter, choose an operator such as =, >, or Between.

Set a default value

Still on Settings, pick the Default value the dashboard loads with. For dimension filters the value picker loads real values from your warehouse automatically. For date filters you pick a preset (e.g. Last 30 days) or an absolute range. The Preview in the filter bar shows exactly how the chip will read.

Choose which tiles it updates

Switch to the Tiles to update tab. Every tile is listed with a checkbox, its title and chart type, the mapped field, and a live status badge. Celiq auto-maps the filter's field onto each tile — Auto-mapped when the exact field is present, Custom field when you point it at a different field, Needs mapping / Field unavailable when no compatible field exists. Use All / None to toggle every tile at once, and the per-tile dropdown to change the mapped field.

Save

Click Add filter (or Save when editing). The Save button stays disabled until you've selected a field and enabled at least one tile. The new chip appears in the filter bar.

Change the value at runtime

Click any chip to open its value popover. Dimension chips show the warehouse values (with a search box if enabled); date chips show the relative presets plus an Absolute range toggle. Pick a value and the targeted tiles re-query. Use Remove in the popover, or Configure… to reopen the dialog.

Examples

A revenue dashboard built on an orders reveal has a KPI card, a revenue-by-day line chart, and an orders-by-country bar chart. You add two filters:

Order date — a date filter on order_date, default Last 30 days, mapped to all three tiles.
Country — a dimension filter on country, control Dropdown, Multiple selection, search enabled.

When you add the Country filter, Celiq auto-maps it across the tiles. The bar chart already selects country, so it shows Auto-mapped. The KPI card has no country in its selected attributes, but because country exists in the same reveal, the semantic matcher still maps it — so the KPI also narrows when you pick a country. A tile built on an unrelated reveal with no compatible field shows Field unavailable and is left out.

The underlying filter object looks like this:

json

{
  "label": "Country",
  "type": "dimension",
  "field": "country",
  "operator": "in",
  "defaultValue": null,
  "control": { "display": "dropdown", "selection": "multiple", "allowSearch": true, "required": false },
  "valueSource": { "mode": "automatic", "domain": "sales", "reveal": "orders", "field": "country" },
  "appliesTo": [
    { "tileId": "1", "enabled": true, "field": "country", "status": "auto" },
    { "tileId": "2", "enabled": true, "field": "country", "status": "auto" }
  ]
}

Because the date filter is active, two extra controls appear after the chips: a Frame picker (Day / Week / Month / Quarter / Year) and a Compare picker (Previous period / Week over week / Month over month / Year over year). Choosing Month and Year over year reframes the time-series tiles by month with a prior-year overlay.

Best practices

Map deliberately. Use the Tiles to update tab to leave fixed reference tiles (e.g. a target line or a static benchmark) out of a filter rather than filtering everything by default.
Pick the right control. Use Dropdown with search for high-cardinality dimensions like country or SKU; use Buttons or Checklist for short value sets like status.
Set sensible defaults. A default of Last 30 days on the date filter loads a useful view immediately instead of an empty or all-time one.
Use Required sparingly. Mark a filter Required before dashboard loads only when an unfiltered query would be too large or meaningless — required filters without a value block the load and show a red REQ badge.
Lean on auto-mapping. Let the semantic matcher map a filter across tiles, then only override the per-tile field where the status badge tells you it needs attention.

Tips

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Tip

Dimension filters narrow each other. When you set one dimension filter's value, the other dimension dropdowns re-load with only the values that remain — so picking a country narrows the city list. This cascading happens automatically; date and number filters don't participate because they don't translate to a simple value list.

Common mistakes

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Warning

Looking for a tile-level filter setting. Filters are configured only in the filter bar via + Add filter and the Tiles to update tab — there's no filter control on the individual tile.
Expecting a filter on a metric. Only dimensions and dates appear in the field picker; metric fields like total_revenue are excluded so they can't be chosen as a filter.
Assuming every tile responds. A filter only affects tiles you enabled on the Tiles to update tab and that have a compatible field. Check the status badges if a tile isn't reacting.
Confusing the default and current value. Changing the chip's value at runtime sets the current value; it does not change the saved default. Reopen the dialog to change the default.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Value popover says "Loading values…" and stays	The field-values query to the warehouse is still in flight	Wait for it to finish; if it never resolves, check the warehouse connection.
"No values found — enter manually"	The warehouse returned no values for that field	Type the value(s) into the box that appears (comma-separated for multiple).
"Could not load values — enter manually"	The value query failed (no resolvable value source, or a warehouse error)	Confirm the filter is mapped to at least one tile that exposes the field, then enter values manually as a fallback.
A tile doesn't change when you set the filter	The tile isn't enabled for this filter, or has no compatible field	Open Configure… → Tiles to update; enable the tile and pick a field, or note `Field unavailable`.
The Add filter / Save button is greyed out	No field selected, or no tile enabled	Select a field and enable at least one tile on the Tiles to update tab.
A red `REQ` chip blocks the dashboard	The filter is marked Required and has no value	Set a value on the chip, or open Configure… and turn off Required before dashboard loads.
The Frame / Compare controls aren't visible	They only appear when a date filter is active	Add a date filter to the bar.

Mosaics — the dashboards filters live on
Cross-filtering — click a chart to filter the others
Discover — explore and build the tiles you pin into a Mosaic
Workbooks — group Mosaics into multi-page books
Reveals — the modeled fields filters draw their values from