What are attributes?
Attributes are the building blocks of your product catalog in Layers. Every piece of product data — from titles and descriptions to metafields and calculated values — is represented as an attribute. By configuring how each attribute behaves, you control the entire discovery experience for your customers. Each attribute has three core properties that determine where and how it can be used across the platform:How attributes power the platform
Attributes sit at the foundation of every feature in Layers. When you mark an attribute as searchable, it becomes part of your text and image search indexes — customers can find products by matching against that attribute’s values. When you mark an attribute as filterable, it becomes available as a facet so customers can narrow results by that value. When you mark an attribute as sortable, it can be used in sort orders and merchandising rules to control product ranking. This means the attributes you configure directly shape the quality of your search results, the filters available to your customers, and the sort orders you can create.Types of attributes
Catalog attributes come directly from your Shopify product data. They reference fields in your product schema, including standard fields, product options, taxonomy metafields, and custom metafields. Catalog attributes are automatically created during syncs. Calculated attributes are dynamic values derived from formulas you define in the dashboard. These let you create new data points from existing product data without modifying your Shopify catalog — for example, calculating a discount percentage from price and compare-at price.Key capabilities
- Keyword search weight — Control how much influence each searchable attribute has on keyword-based ranking. For example, prioritize title matches over description matches.
- Attribute classes — Classify attributes as categorical, feature, or price to help the search engine apply specialized handling and improve relevance.
- Groupable attributes — Group results by a shared value (like a style code) instead of individual products, so product families are ranked and reported together.
- API visibility — Control whether an attribute appears in storefront responses or remains internal-only for merchandising and analytics.
- Storefront facet sync — Choose whether filterable attributes are synced to Shopify as metaobjects for native storefront filtering.
Next steps
- Managing catalog attributes — Full guide to configuring searchable, filterable, and sortable attributes
- Calculated attributes — Creating dynamic attribute values with formulas
- Filtering language — How attributes power the filtering language
- Sorting — How sortable attributes feed into sort orders