---
title: "Annotations (Help Center / Settings / Organisation settings)"
ai_context: "Use this article for questions about RUMvision annotations, deployment markers, timeline events and linking website changes to real-user performance impact. It covers organisation-level and domain-level annotations, viewing annotations in Technical dashboard timelines, creating annotations manually or through the RUMvision API, deployment workflows, impact date and time, descriptions, affected domains, categories, URL scope and template-specific URL categories. Relevant for questions about deploy annotations, release markers, API-created annotations, automated deployment integrations, comparing performance before and after changes, Hypernode Deploy, production rollouts and using custom dimensions for gradual or partial deployments."
canonical: "https://www.rumvision.com/help-center/settings/organisation/annotations/"
---

Breadcrumbs: [Home](https://www.rumvision.com/?format=md) > [Help Center](https://www.rumvision.com/help-center/?format=md) > [Settings](https://www.rumvision.com/help-center/settings/?format=md) > [Organisation settings](https://www.rumvision.com/help-center/settings/organisation/?format=md) > Annotations

# Annotations

> Annotations can be managed at both organisation and domain level. At organisation level, you can view annotations across all domains in your organisation, while domain level only shows annotations applying to at least that specific domain.

One of the benefits of real user monitoring is that you can see how changes to your website affect real users. RUMvision annotations help you mark these changes and indicate which templates are expected to be affected.

## Viewing annotations

### Organization Annotations

To view annotations across your organization, select **Organization Annotations** from your profile dropdown. This overview shows your annotations and the domains they apply to.

### Domain annotations

When viewing a domain, go to **Workflow → Annotations** in the left sidebar. Here, you can view all annotations associated with that domain.

[![workflow-annotation-listing.png](https://www.rumvision.com/file/upload/img/help-center/other/workflow-annotation-listing.png)](https://www.rumvision.com/file/upload/img/help-center/other/workflow-annotation-listing.png)

### Timeline chart annotations

Annotations are shown by default in the timeline chart on the **Technical dashboard**. An example of such a chart containing the above annotations can be found in the screenshot below:

[![workflow-annotation-timeline-chart-2.png](https://www.rumvision.com/file/upload/img/help-center/other/workflow-annotation-timeline-chart-2.png)](https://www.rumvision.com/file/upload/img/help-center/other/workflow-annotation-timeline-chart-2.png)

In this screenshot, the **Deploy date** [dimension is used as "**Group by**"](https://www.rumvision.com/help-center/monitoring/dashboard/introduction/?format=md#filters-and-dimensions), which is tracked by default for some platforms. In this example, the changes between deploy dates align closely with the submitted annotations.

## Creating an annotation

You can create annotations manually or automatically through the RUMvision API, for example as part of your deployment process. In most cases, annotations are most useful for changes deployed to production, where enough real-user data is available to evaluate their impact.

Manually created annotations are shown with **Source: ui** in annotation listings while annotations created through the RUMvision API are shown with **Source: api**.

### Manual annotation

Click the "Create annotation" button in either the Domain or Organisation listing. A form will appear, similar to the one below:

[![workflow-annotation-create.png](https://www.rumvision.com/file/upload/img/help-center/other/workflow-annotation-create.png)](https://www.rumvision.com/file/upload/img/help-center/other/workflow-annotation-create.png)

When creating an annotation from a domain’s annotation overview, the current domain is pre-selected. You can then specify other details, such as:

- **Title**  
     A short, descriptive name for the change or deployment.
- **Impact at**  
     The date and time when the change took effect.
- **Description**  
     Additional context about what changed, optionally including a link to an internal ticket. This description is shown in the timeline chart tooltip.
- **Domains**  
     Select the domains affected by this annotation.
- **Category**  
     Select the type of change, such as hosting, images, or JavaScript. This helps users understand which performance metrics may be affected.
- **URL scope**  
     Choose whether the annotation applies to **All URLs** or only specific URL categories (**Restricted to categories**).
- **URL categories**  
     When using Restricted to categories, select the templates affected by the change. This helps users understand where an impact may be expected.
 
### API annotations

You can also create annotations automatically through the RUMvision API. This is useful for adding annotations as part of your deployment workflow.

When logged in, you can access the [Annotations API documentation](http://insights.rumvision.com/docs/api#/operations/v1.annotations.store) directly, or navigate to **API keys** from your profile dropdown and click the **API documentation** button.

> Using Hypernode? Hypernode Deploy supports RUMvision annotations as an after-deploy task, allowing annotations to be created automatically after a successful deployment. See the [Hypernode documentation for setup instructions](https://changelog.hypernode.com/hypernode-deploy-4-10-0-php-8-5-support-and-support-for-tideways-rumvision-annotations/).

Our Dutch [RUMvision partner](https://www.rumvision.com/customers/?format=md) Elgentos has also [published an article explaining](http://elgentos.nl/blog/elgentos-rumvision-v2-integratie-met-annotations) how they integrated the RUMvision Annotations API into their deployment workflow ([English version here](https://elgentos-nl.translate.goog/blog/elgentos-rumvision-v2-integratie-met-annotations?_x_tr_sl=nl&_x_tr_tl=en)).

## Gradual deploys

If you're gradually rolling out an update that does not apply to all visitors at once, we recommend using [Custom dimensions](https://www.rumvision.com/help-center/monitoring/settings/custom-performance-timing/?format=md#custom-dimension) to distinguish between traffic groups and compare the impact of the rollout across them.