# What are entities?

### Definition:

An entity is a chain of events connected using a common primary key.

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1689978495027/f7cebbf1-a2ab-4678-bf6b-45a732031c35.png align="center")

### Why Entities?

Entities help stitch together all critical events associated with a specific business object, in the above-mentioned case, a payment transaction.

* The presence/absence of these events helps identify failure points in the transaction.
    
* The attribute values within each event help drill-down and identify variable values within the transactions.
    

### How do entities differ from transactions & events?

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1689978515206/57563c8b-e0ad-46ed-b044-e2c91d4dbb8c.png align="center")

### Features and capabilities of Entities

1. **Grouping in List View:** You can group all events associated with a single instance of an entity.
    
    ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1689978526102/cd27fd8f-5e5a-4a67-bd84-1cf409892692.png align="center")
    
2. **Alerting:** Identifying anomalies in transactions at an aggregate or individual level basis entity events.
    
    ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1689978532740/71c35a08-c687-4d28-8f91-923edf382d86.png align="center")
    
3. **Filtering:** You can filter out entities basis.
    
    ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1689978543724/d46d8d8a-6629-4f0c-bd64-641964f869ef.png align="center")
    
4. **Flow views:** Track the state of different instances started within a certain duration
    
    ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1689978551620/c050c76c-f22b-4e7f-a4ad-8a479f1d6279.png align="center")
    
5. **Mapping external metrics to nodes:** Every node in an entity can be considered to be equivalent
    
    ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1689978558342/e1a3f2f8-4cc6-4a02-9307-c444a390933e.png align="center")
    

To get started with creating your entities, click [here](https://app.drdroid.io/signup).