> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.elementary-data.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Critical Assets

### **What is a Critical Asset?**

A critical asset is any data asset (such as a model, exposure, or report) that plays a crucial role in your company's data ecosystem. Issues affecting these assets can have a significant impact on business operations, dashboards, and decision-making.

Marking an asset as **critical** ensures it receives higher priority in monitoring and alerting, helping you quickly identify and respond to issues that may impact it.

<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/do5hrgokq/image/upload/v1740054762/u2rcaavqxmaa2ctg09wz.png" />

<Note>Critical assets work best when ownership and tagging are already in place. See [Governance best practices](/cloud/best-practices/governance-for-observability) for how to set that foundation.</Note>

## What Should Be Set as a Critical Asset?

You should mark an asset as **critical** if:

* It directly impacts key **business reports, dashboards, or decision-making tools**.
* It serves as an essential **upstream dependency** for other important data models.
* It is frequently used by **multiple teams or stakeholders**.
* Its failure or inaccuracy could cause **significant business or operational risks**

## Why Should I Define My Critical Assets?

Defining your **critical assets** helps you:

* **Quickly identify and respond to issues**– Get notified when upstream problems may impact your critical assets, ensuring faster resolution and minimal disruption.
* **Prioritize issue resolution**– Focus on addressing incidents that have the greatest impact on business operations, dashboards, and decision-making.
* **Improve data reliability**– Ensure key stakeholders have access to accurate and up-to-date data by monitoring critical assets more effectively.
* **Enhance observability**– Gain better visibility into the health of your most important assets through prioritized monitoring and alerting.

## How to Set a Critical Asset?

You can mark an asset as **critical** directly in the UI:

* **From the Catalog Page** – Navigate to the asset in the catalog and click the **diamond icon** to **"Set as Critical Asset."**
* **From the Lineage View** – Right-click on the node representing the asset and select **"Set as Critical Asset"** from the list.

Once an asset is marked as critical, **alerts will now highlight any issues that may impact this asset or its upstream dependencies, ensuring prioritization.**

<video autoPlay muted loop playsInline className="w-full aspect-video" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/do5hrgokq/video/upload/v1740054626/ytn1zs2r0c0r5btqqnfy.mp4" />

## Where Can You See Critical Assets?

Once an asset is marked as **critical**, you will be able to:

* **Identify it in the UI**, where it will be visually highlighted.
* **Receive alerts** when upstream issues may impact the critical asset.
* **Filter incidents** by their impact on critical assets.
* **Track health scores of critical data assets** over time through dashboard monitoring.

<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/do5hrgokq/image/upload/v1744804630/critical-asset-filter.gif" />

By carefully selecting which assets to mark as critical, you can quickly detect and prioritize issues that impact your most important data, reducing disruptions, improving reliability, and keeping key stakeholders informed.