The asset library
Provenance
Every asset can say what made it, in one line, on three surfaces, and the chain holds through the tools you ran afterwards.
Six weeks after a project ships, somebody asks which of the four directions the final frame came from. On most setups that is a question about somebody's memory. Here you can point it at the file. ## The line Every asset carries a **Made with** line in one shape: ```text title="Made with" Variations · GPT Image 2 ``` The tool on the left, the model on the right. Where only one of the two resolves, you get that one; where neither does, an uploaded asset says so plainly rather than guessing. The line reads the same on all three places you meet an asset, and the three cannot disagree with each other: - The **i** that appears when you hover an asset on the canvas - **Properties**, from right-clicking it - The **detail view** in the library ## What sits behind the line Open Properties for the full record: the exact prompt, the settings the run used, the model, the tool, the board it was made on, who made it and when. The prompt is the resolved one. On a batch run of twenty variations, each asset carries **its own** substituted sentence rather than the instruction that generated the list, so the twenty are individually identifiable rather than twenty copies of the same line. ## The chain holds An asset made from another asset knows its parent. Run an upscale on a generation, then a background removal on the upscale, and the last file can still walk back to the first. The interesting question is rarely "what made this file" and usually "where did this direction come from", and the answer to the second one is a chain. :::note[Provenance is only ever added] If a live lookup cannot resolve something, the asset keeps the detail it already had rather than falling back to "Uploaded". A missing permission or a slow read can otherwise make an asset look anonymous, which would be a lie about a file that knows exactly what it is. ::: ## Why a team wants this Three things stop being conversations: - **Which settings produced the one that worked.** They are on the asset - **Which model made this.** Also on the asset, even when the tool offers several models behind one pill - **Can we use this commercially.** The model is named, so the licence is knowable rather than assumed :::tip[It survives the handover] Provenance travels with the asset, so it is still there when the person who made it has moved on, gone on holiday, or left. ::: ## It survives leaving, too A file that gets downloaded, sent around and brought back is recognised on the way in, and everything above reattaches to it. Nothing is written into the file itself; the bytes act as the identifier, so the match holds only while they stay untouched. [When a file comes back](/docs/using-plnty/the-asset-library/when-a-file-comes-back/) covers what survives that round trip and what does not. For compliance-shaped versions of the same question, the team chapter has [provenance for compliance](/docs/team-spaces/provenance-for-compliance/).Six weeks after a project ships, somebody asks which of the four directions the final frame came from. On most setups that is a question about somebody’s memory. Here you can point it at the file.
The line
Section titled “The line”Every asset carries a Made with line in one shape:
Variations · GPT Image 2The tool on the left, the model on the right. Where only one of the two resolves, you get that one; where neither does, an uploaded asset says so plainly rather than guessing.
The line reads the same on all three places you meet an asset, and the three cannot disagree with each other:
- The i that appears when you hover an asset on the canvas
- Properties, from right-clicking it
- The detail view in the library
What sits behind the line
Section titled “What sits behind the line”Open Properties for the full record: the exact prompt, the settings the run used, the model, the tool, the board it was made on, who made it and when.
The prompt is the resolved one. On a batch run of twenty variations, each asset carries its own substituted sentence rather than the instruction that generated the list, so the twenty are individually identifiable rather than twenty copies of the same line.
The chain holds
Section titled “The chain holds”An asset made from another asset knows its parent. Run an upscale on a generation, then a background removal on the upscale, and the last file can still walk back to the first. The interesting question is rarely “what made this file” and usually “where did this direction come from”, and the answer to the second one is a chain.
Why a team wants this
Section titled “Why a team wants this”Three things stop being conversations:
- Which settings produced the one that worked. They are on the asset
- Which model made this. Also on the asset, even when the tool offers several models behind one pill
- Can we use this commercially. The model is named, so the licence is knowable rather than assumed
It survives leaving, too
Section titled “It survives leaving, too”A file that gets downloaded, sent around and brought back is recognised on the way in, and everything above reattaches to it. Nothing is written into the file itself; the bytes act as the identifier, so the match holds only while they stay untouched.
When a file comes back covers what survives that round trip and what does not.
For compliance-shaped versions of the same question, the team chapter has provenance for compliance.