Groups
Groups collect animals that are managed together, such as a pasture, lambing group, purchase lot, or breeding group.
Create a group
- Open Groups.
- Choose New Group.
- Enter a name and optional description.
- Save the group.
You can also describe a new group in a Ranch.Bot Conversation. The assistant proposes the write and waits for confirmation.
Add animals
Describe the membership change in a Conversation, using identifiers that make each animal clear. For example:
Add tags 301 through 315 to the replacement group.
Review the proposed animals and group before confirming. Membership updates are additive: existing members stay in the group, and the assistant says it ensured the animals belong to the group rather than claiming they were all newly added. Every requested animal must be an active animal on that farm; if any is unknown, archived, or from another farm, the whole update is rejected and nothing is saved.
A group update that adds animals cannot be undone. The confirmation shows this warning before Save, and it covers any name or description change made in the same update. Retrying the same membership request is safe (already-connected animals are not duplicated), but a retry of a name or description change can overwrite an edit made in between.
The same additive update is available outside chat: PUT /v1/farm/{farm_id}/groups/{group_id}
with an optional animal_ids array, and ranchbot groups update <group_id> --animal <uuid>
(repeatable). Read membership back from the group detail or the animal's detail page: group
detail lists every member, and an animal's page lists its groups. Removing an animal is not part
of this update and does not delete the animal or its existing records.
Record work for a group
A record can target a group when the same event applies to the animals managed together. Check the proposal carefully before confirming:
- the correct group;
- the event date;
- the record type and details; and
- whether every current member should be included.
Animals added to the group later do not inherit old group records.
Active and archived groups
Owners can archive a group from its detail page. Archiving hides it from the active list without changing member animals. Open the Archived view to restore it later.
A group detail page shows current live members, head counts, recent changes, and the recorded group details.
Common questions
Can an animal be in more than one group?
Yes. Groups can represent different management purposes.
Does archiving a group archive its animals?
No. Member animals are unchanged.
Can a Reader change a group?
No. Reader access is view-only. See Team Collaboration.
For record behavior, see Records.