Configure Drill Paths
Define a named, ordered drill hierarchy on a node so everyone explores from summary to detail in the same governed sequence
Time: About 5 minutes.
You'll need: A node with a natural hierarchy and the field names you want to drill through.
Role: Weaver or Luminary (everyone in the workspace can read drill paths).
A drill path is a named, ordered list of fields you attach to a node — for example country → region → city — that guides hierarchical exploration. In this tutorial you'll create a drill path so people drill the same node in one consistent order instead of choosing for themselves each time.
Before you start
- You have a Weaver or Luminary role. Reading paths is open to everyone, but creating, editing, and deleting requires Weaver and above.
- The node you want to describe already exists, so you can select it and reference its field names. See Dimensions.
- The node has a natural hierarchy — geography, org structure, or time-like categories. Background: Drill Paths.
Steps
Open Drill Paths
In Context Studio, open the Semantic Layer navigation group and click Drill Paths. You'll see the existing drill paths in your workspace, or an empty state if none exist yet.
Start a new path
Click + Add drill path. An inline form appears.
Name the path
In the Path name field, give the path a descriptive name, for example Revenue by Region → Store. The name is required.
Pick the node
From the Select node… dropdown, choose the node this path applies to. The dropdown lists the nodes in your workspace; object type is fixed to node here.
Enter the fields in order
In the Fields field, type the field names as a comma-separated list in the order you want users to drill, for example country, region, city. Order from coarsest to finest. Spacing around commas doesn't matter — each entry is trimmed and blank entries are dropped.
Save
Click Save. The new path appears at the top of the list, showing its name and its fields joined by arrows. To stop without saving, click Cancel.
Result
The drill path appears in the list rendered as its ordered fields joined by arrows (for example country → region → city), most recently updated first. Users now follow that one canonical sequence when they drill the node. If a path shows no arrows, it has zero or one field — edit it and add the remaining fields in order.
A drill path is governance metadata layered over a node. It doesn't change your CML, your data, or the node itself — it only records the intended exploration order. The field names you list should match real dimension fields on the chosen node.
Next steps
- Bundle the same node's metrics and dimensions into a governed group with Create Topics.
- See how the node connects to reveals and mosaics with Use the Knowledge Graph.
- Review which attributes are drillable in Dimensions.