Assets

Assets are abstract entities in ThingsBoard that represent physical objects, spaces, or organizational units — buildings, rooms, production areas, fields, streetlights, substations, or vehicles. Unlike devices, assets don’t generate telemetry on their own but can aggregate data from related devices and participate in rule chains, alarms, and dashboards.

Use a Device for anything that connects to ThingsBoard and sends its own telemetry — a sensor, a controller, a gateway. Use an Asset for something that doesn’t connect directly but still needs to exist as an entity — a building, a room, a vehicle, a production line — so it can group related devices into a hierarchy or aggregate their data.

A common pattern: model the physical structure with assets (Building → Floor → Room), then relate each room to the devices physically inside it via Relations. Telemetry rolls up to the asset through Calculated Fields or is queried across the whole hierarchy on a dashboard.

1. Navigate to Entities ⇾ Assets.
2. Click + Add asset and select Add new asset — or Import assets to create many at once from a CSV file (see Bulk Provisioning).
3. Enter a Name (must be unique within the tenant).
4. Optionally select an Asset profile (defaults to default), Label, or Description.
5. Click Add.

1. Click the asset in the list to open its details.
2. Click the pencil icon.
3. Update the name, label, profile, or description.
4. Click Apply changes.

Click the trash icon next to the asset and confirm, or open the asset details page and click Delete asset.

1. Locate the asset in the list.
2. Click the Assign to customer icon.
3. Select the target customer and click Assign.

Only users associated with that customer can access the asset and its data. You can later unassign or reassign the asset to another customer. See also Manage Customer Resources for the customer-facing side of this assignment.

Click the Make asset public icon next to the asset to expose its data publicly, or Make asset private to revoke public access.

Clicking an asset opens its details panel. The header exposes the following actions:

Action	Description
Open details page	Opens the asset on its own full page instead of a side panel.
Manage owner and groups	Change the asset’s owner and group membership (PE/Cloud only).
Delete asset	Deletes the asset — see Delete an Asset.
Copy asset Id	Copies the asset’s unique identifier, e.g. for use with the REST API.

Below the actions, a set of tabs provides access to the asset’s data and configuration:

Tab	Contents
Attributes	Client, server, and shared key-value pairs (location, category, configuration parameters)
Latest Telemetry	Telemetry propagated from related devices, aggregated via calculated fields, or added manually; supports manual entry and deletion
Calculated Fields	Values computed from telemetry or attributes using formulas
Alarm Rules	Conditions, thresholds, and triggers configured for alarm generation
Alarms	Active and historical alarms for this asset
Relations	Directed connections to other entities (devices, dashboards, rule chains)
Audit Logs	History of user actions: creation, updates, deletions
Version Control	Git-based export and restore for backup and collaboration

You can create, view, edit, and delete relations between an asset and other entities from the Relations tab of the asset details page.

Add a relation:

1. Open the asset details → Relations tab.
2. Select the direction: From (outbound) or To (inbound).
3. Click +.
4. Set the Relation type and choose the target entity — see Relation Types for the full list (Contains, Manages, Uses, Supports).
5. Click Add.

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Dashboard widget shows no data for an asset	The widget’s entity alias doesn’t resolve to the asset, or the asset has no related device sending data	Check the alias in Entity Aliases, and confirm the asset has a relation to a device that’s actively sending telemetry
Calculated field on an asset never produces a value	The source device isn’t related to the asset yet, or the calculated field was defined at the wrong level	Check the asset’s Relations tab, and confirm whether the calculated field belongs on the asset or on its Asset Profile
Can’t find a way to share a single asset	Individual assets are made public or assigned to one customer, not “shared”	Assign it to a customer, or make it public — see Assign to Customer
Dashboard still references a deleted asset	Deleting an asset breaks its relations but not the dashboard widgets built on them	Update the affected entity aliases or widgets to point at a different asset

• Dashboards — visualize aggregated data, attributes, and alarms via widgets
• Maps — plot asset locations (buildings, vehicles, fields) and show related device data directly on the map
• Rule Engine — process attribute updates, trigger alarms, route messages
• Calculated Fields — compute derived values by aggregating data from related devices
• Relations — model hierarchies (e.g., Building → Contains → Room → Contains → Sensor)
• Entity Views — expose a subset of an asset’s telemetry and attributes to a Customer without granting full access
• REST API — query, create, and manage assets programmatically