Glossary · grain
GLOSSARY
Grain
What one row of a file actually represents: an order, a line item, a day, a store week. Grain is the question to answer before any sum, because an export that repeats the order total on every line item will inflate revenue by the average number of lines per order.
Principle 10 · A metric without its definition is not a number
Where does Grain come from?
Principle 10 of the Kymira doctrine, A metric without its definition is not a number. Grain is the name the doctrine gives to what that principle requires in practice.
What failure is Grain named after?
The total that repeats on every line. CRM and invoice exports carry the deal total on each line item. Sum the obvious column and revenue lands at a multiple of the truth; we measured one real export summing 9x high.
What does it look like on a real file?
One row per line item, not per order, so summing the order total column inflates revenue by the average lines per order.
Not for
Not for deciding which rows belong in the period. Grain answers what a row is, not whether it is in scope.
Nearest terms
Last updated 2026-09-02 · Dylan, founder · one of 40 terms in the Kymira glossary, each one named after something we watched go wrong in a real build or in our own audits.