# Stamps: Live, Data as of, Not yet refreshed, Snapshot

Source: https://docs.tightly.io/help/ask/stamps
Reviewed: 2026-09-07

## What it is

A stamp is the one claim an answer makes about when its figures were read. Every charted answer and every kept answer carries one. The stamp is how you tell a number Tightly just read from a number it read last week, and a number that can be read again from words that cannot.

## How Tightly decides it

A read that happened in your browser is stamped with its time: the same question was run again against your records, and the figure on screen is the result. Before that, a kept answer is dated by the day the server last ran its question and stored the result; that date is printed only when the server wrote one, never composed on the page. Not yet refreshed means the answer has been kept but its question has never been run since. Snapshot is the stamp of a written answer, which has no question behind it to run again, so it is dated by the day it was saved. While a read is in flight the stamp says Re-running…, and where a date cannot be read at all it says Not dated.

Two words sit beside the stamps and are not stamps. A live read runs the answer's own question again, exactly as it was, with nothing reworded; the Board and the workspace do it on open. Refresh asks the server to run it and store the result: an answer that carries its question is run again as it was, while an older saved chart without a stored question may be asked again from its words. Saved table snapshots are excluded: they keep the selected answer rather than asking again.

A saved table answer retains the original answer date, columns and rows. That date records when the answer was produced, not when you later opened or saved it. Saved tables show a Snapshot stamp and are excluded from automatic refresh, Refresh all and individual Refresh controls. Ask again for an updated answer and save it separately if needed.

## The words on the face

| Word | Where it prints | What it claims |
|---|---|---|
| Read {day} · {time} | An answer in a conversation, and the workspace head | The figures on screen were read at that moment |
| Dated {day} | The workspace head before its live read lands; the Board's table | The server last read the figures that day |
| Live | The Board's table, whose head carries the one as-of | A live read landed in this browser |
| Data as of {day} | The Board's cards, before a live read | The server last read the figures that day; today it reads Data as of today at with the time |
| Not yet refreshed | The Board, both views | Kept, never run since |
| Snapshot · saved {day} | The workspace, for a written answer | A written answer, dated by its saving |
| Saved with the answer | The Board's table, for a written answer | Its date is the Asked date beside it |
| Re-running… | Any of them | A read is in flight |
| Not dated | Any of them | The date could not be read |

The Board's cards spell two of these their own way, for a live read and for a written answer:

> Live — read at {time}

> Snapshot — saved {day}

On the cards a kept answer last read more than two hours ago carries an amber mark and the words not re-run since after its date, and a failed refresh adds Latest refresh failed. Try again. The table says Refresh failed under the stamp instead. Movement travels with a stamp on the Board: the change since the figures were saved, Unchanged, Restated, Not comparable where the shape changed, and First read where nothing was saved to compare against. Direction is a glyph in ink, never a colour.

The knowledge base's own stamp is a word on a different kind of thing: an article printed as an answer carries Reviewed with the day a person approved it, and Being updated beside it while its sources have moved and the text is the last approved. It stamps the article, not a figure.

## What you can do about it

Open the Board: every answer that carries its question is read live, and one never refreshed or older than two hours is refreshed once by itself. Refresh all refreshes the rest. On the workspace the stamp turns from Dated to Read as the live read lands. A Snapshot cannot be read again; ask the question again to get a live answer. Where a stamp reads Not dated, the record carries no readable date and nothing on the page will invent one.

## Glossary line

A stamp is the one claim an answer makes about when its figures were read: Read, Live, Dated or Data as of, Not yet refreshed, or Snapshot.

Prepared reference snapshots may also include a chart. Their chart and saved rows remain readable without a last-refreshed date; the saved date and preparation note provide context, without claiming a live reading.