Attaching a dictionary to a profile
A dictionary on its own does nothing during anonymization. It takes effect when it’s attached to a profile. The manager is for curating dictionaries; the profile editor is where you put one to work.
Attaching
Section titled “Attaching”In the profile editor, the Synthetic settings have a Dictionary control:
- A dropdown to pick which dictionary this profile uses.
- A button to open the manager if you need to create or edit one first.
A dictionary can be attached to zero, one, or many profiles. One profile uses one dictionary at a time.
Two switches that shape behavior
Section titled “Two switches that shape behavior”Alongside the dropdown:
- Replace with existing synthetic data — before generating, reuse values already in the dictionary. Known originals get their established fake; the document stays consistent with everything you’ve processed before.
- Add new entries to dictionary — after the run, write any newly generated pairs back into the dictionary so they’re known next time.
Their combinations:
| Replace existing | Add new | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Off | Off | Dictionary ignored; pure fresh synthesis each run |
| On | Off | Reuse known fakes; don’t grow the dictionary |
| Off | On | Always fresh fakes, but record them for later |
| On | On | The learning loop — reuse what’s known, remember what’s new |
The last row is the usual choice for ongoing work; see building a dictionary from a run.
Timing: before and after the model
Section titled “Timing: before and after the model”Dictionary pairs are applied as part of the pipeline — known originals can be swapped consistently, and newly synthesized values recorded — wrapping around the model’s detection so the document stays coherent. This is the same mechanism profiles use for mechanical replacements, which run before (scrub a value the model should never even see) or after (normalize the output).
Profiles carry their dictionary into history
Section titled “Profiles carry their dictionary into history”Every run stores a snapshot of its profile, so a history entry stays interpretable even if you later detach or change the dictionary. You can always see which dictionary shaped a given output.
Picking a dictionary per context
Section titled “Picking a dictionary per context”Because attachment is per profile, a clean pattern is one profile + one dictionary per context:
- Cliente Mediterrània profile → Mediterrània dictionary
- Test fixtures profile → Fixtures dictionary
- Default profile → Default dictionary
Switch profiles in the main window and the right mapping set comes along automatically.