Attributes vs Fields

Attributes and fields serve fundamentally different purposes. Mixing them up is the single most common setup mistake, and it causes silent issues — wrong segmentation, broken personalization, or missing data in copy.

Attributes = User Data

Attributes describe who the user is. They’re used for segmentation and decisioning — JustAI uses them to decide which variant to serve a given user.

Examples: locale, gender, plan_type, lifecycle_stage

Attributes are configured at the org level and auto-populate across all templates. They support four types:

String — e.g. locale: "en-US"
List — e.g. interests: ["fitness", "nutrition"]
Numeric — e.g. days_since_signup: 14
Date — e.g. created_at: "2025-06-01"

Fields = Content Data

Fields are content-specific variables that get pulled directly into copy via Liquid syntax. They represent data about the product, listing, or offer — not the user.

Examples: shop_name, price, discount, product_name

Fields map to connected content variables in your CRM. They show up in variant copy as {{ product_name }} or {{ price }}.

Side-by-Side Comparison

	Attributes	Fields
What they represent	User characteristics	Content/listing data
Used for	Segmentation, decisioning	Dynamic copy insertion
Configured at	Org level	Template level
Example	`locale`, `plan_type`	`product_name`, `price`
How they appear in copy	They don’t (used behind the scenes)	As Liquid variables: `{{ field_name }}`
Auto-populate?	Yes, across all templates	No, set per template

CRM Mapping

How your CRM’s terminology maps to JustAI:

CRM	CRM Concept	JustAI Equivalent
Braze	Custom attributes (`{{custom_attribute.${attr_name}}}`)	Attributes
Braze	Connected content variables	Fields
Customer.io	Customer attributes (`{{customer.attr_name}}`)	Attributes
Customer.io	Event/trigger data	Fields
Iterable	User profile fields (`{{attr_name}}`)	Attributes
Iterable	Event/catalog data	Fields

Common Mistakes

Setting product_name as an attribute. Product data changes per message, not per user. It belongs as a field. If you set it as an attribute, JustAI will try to use it for segmentation, which produces nonsensical results.

Setting locale as a field. Locale describes the user, not the content. If you set it as a field, JustAI can’t use it to personalize variant selection — it’ll just appear as a Liquid variable in copy.

Forgetting to map CRM accessor syntax. Each ESP formats attribute references differently. Make sure your CRM’s attribute syntax is correctly mapped during integration setup so JustAI can resolve values at send time.