# Gold layer

> The gold layer holds business-ready tables: metrics, aggregates and dimensional models at a declared grain, built for dashboards and reports.

The gold layer holds business-ready tables: metrics, aggregates and dimensional models at a declared [grain](https://emolysis.com/glossary/grain), built for dashboards, semantic models and reports. Gold tables apply business definitions once, so every report uses the same numbers. They are usually smaller than [silver](https://emolysis.com/glossary/silver-layer) and shaped around questions rather than sources.

For example, a gold table `gold.monthly_sales` might hold one row per month and region with revenue, order count and average basket size, computed from the [silver](https://emolysis.com/glossary/silver-layer) orders and stores tables. The definition of revenue, for instance whether returns and tax are excluded, is written once in the SQL that builds this table. A finance dashboard, a sales report and an analyst's notebook that all read `gold.monthly_sales` show the same revenue, which is the main reason the layer exists.

Gold tables come in two broad kinds: dimensional models, with [fact tables](https://emolysis.com/glossary/fact-table) and [dimensions](https://emolysis.com/glossary/dimension) that tools can slice in many ways, and aggregated tables built for one use, such as a dashboard that must load fast. Both need a stated grain, and both are usually rebuilt or merged on a schedule after their inputs are refreshed.

Because many people read gold tables, they are where changes hurt most. Renaming a column or changing a definition can break reports that the team building the table never sees, so gold tables are good candidates for a [data contract](https://emolysis.com/glossary/data-contract) and for tests that check totals against known values. See also [semantic model](https://emolysis.com/glossary/semantic-model) and the [sample dashboard](https://emolysis.com/d/sample), which reads gold tables of synthetic data.

On Databricks and Microsoft Fabric, gold tables are usually Delta tables in a schema that BI tools can read; on Snowflake, they are often tables or dynamic tables refreshed after their inputs. Wherever they live, they are the tables a dashboard should read, so a dashboard never repeats the business logic itself. See also [grain](https://emolysis.com/glossary/grain) and [fact table](https://emolysis.com/glossary/fact-table).

Emolysis's [Aggregation / gold](https://emolysis.com/shapes/aggregation-gold) shape builds gold tables, and a gold table is what the agent builds when you ask a business question. See [Dashboards from a question](https://emolysis.com/docs/dashboards). Because a gold table answers a question at a stated grain, its totals can be checked against known values.

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Page: https://emolysis.com/glossary/gold-layer. Emolysis is a product of Bandpey GmbH, Munich, Germany. It is in private development, and nothing is released yet.