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Experimental features

These features work today, but may change between releases. Most of them are switched off unless your administrator turns them on. If you do not see one on your instance, that is expected.

Automatic capture with Beholder

Beholder sends files from instrument computers to datalab by itself. It is in pre-release. See Syncing data from instruments.

Tags

Tags are short, coloured labels you can add to items, such as "needs remeasuring" or "for paper". When tags are switched on, items have a Tags field. Its label links to a page that lists and manages all tags.

Custom item types

Your instance may define its own item types with extra fields. For now these fields can only be seen and changed through the API. See Custom item types.

AI assistant block

Some instances offer a chat block. It lets you ask questions about an item and its data in plain language, using an AI model from an external provider.

Know where your data goes

The chat block sends the item's details and data to an external AI provider. Check with your administrator before using it for unpublished or confidential work.

Background processing

Some instances process large data files in the background. A block then shows a loading message while it works, instead of making you wait with the page frozen. You do not need to do anything differently.

Each instance has its own identifier prefix. The aim is for prefixes to be unique worldwide, so that a refcode identifies one item wherever it is cited. A shared link service already lets QR codes keep working if an instance moves. See Barcodes and QR codes.