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Device Cohorts

A Cohort is a named group of devices. Grouping devices this way lets you manage and share access to several of them at once, instead of one at a time.

What Is a Cohort​

Unlike a Site, which groups devices by physical location, a Cohort groups devices by your own organizational needs. For example, you might create cohorts for:

  • "School Project 2026"
  • "Low-Cost Sensors"
  • "Devices requiring maintenance"

Cohort Ownership​

Organizations own Cohorts, and Cohorts contain Devices. A single Organization can have multiple Cohorts, and a device can belong to more than one Cohort at a time. Devices themselves are attached to the Organization directly — the Cohort is a secondary layer for organizing them into manageable clusters.

Why Use Cohorts​

Grouping devices into cohorts lets you perform bulk actions instead of updating devices one at a time. For example, instead of changing the visibility settings of 50 individual devices, you can apply the setting to the entire cohort at once. Cohorts also make it easier to share a defined slice of your data with external partners.

Create a Cohort​

  1. In the left sidebar under Data Access & Visibility, click Cohorts.
  2. Click Create Cohort.
  3. Select a Sensor Manufacturer — this determines which of your devices are available to add.
  4. (Optional) Add Tags to describe the cohort, e.g. Organizational, Individual, Hardware. Selecting the Organizational tag replaces the name field with City, Project Name, and an optional Funder, which Vertex combines into the cohort's name automatically.
  5. If you didn't select the Organizational tag, enter a Cohort Name directly.
  6. Select the devices to include, or paste in a list of device names to match them automatically.
  7. Click Review & Create, check the summary, then Confirm & Create.

[!TIP] You can add a single device to multiple cohorts at the same time.

Edit a Cohort​

  1. Navigate to the Cohorts page from the left sidebar.
  2. Locate the cohort you wish to modify in the list and click on it.
  3. On the Cohort Details page, click Edit.
  4. Update the tags or name. If you rename a cohort tagged Organizational, you'll also need to enter an Update Reason before saving.
  5. Click Save to apply your changes.

What's Next​