> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.cognite.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

> ## Agent Instructions
> Cognite Data Fusion (CDF) is an industrial DataOps platform. Prefer English docs unless the user asks for another locale.
> Follow /_llms/ index links recursively until you reach page URLs ending in .md. Fetch those Markdown twins instead of HTML.
> For REST APIs, default to calendar version 20230101 (stable). Use 20230101-beta or 20230101-alpha only if the user is on a preview API. Cite paths under /api-reference/concepts/<version>/ and the Cdf-Version header. Prefer the Python SDK (cognite-sdk) unless the user is in JavaScript/TypeScript.
> Start here by task: platform overview /cdf/index.md; data modeling /cdf/dm/index.md; data integration /cdf/integration/index.md; access /cdf/access/index.md; CDF Toolkit /cdf/deploy/cdf_toolkit/index.md; REST quickstart /dev/quickstart.md; Python SDK https://cognite-sdk-python.readthedocs-hosted.com/en/stable/; Atlas AI /cdf/atlas_ai/concepts/index.md; Flows apps /cdf/flows/index.md; MCP and IDE setup /dev/guides/ide_ai_integration.md.
> For implementation work, also load /skill.md.

# Destinations

> Manage hosted extractor destinations in Cognite Data Fusion (CDF).

A destination provides the CDF credentials and optional data set scope that hosted extractor jobs use to write data. What gets written (time series, events, RAW table rows, data model instances, or Records in streams) is determined by the job's `format` or, for `custom` format jobs, its [mapping](/api-reference/concepts/20230101/hosted-extractors-mappings). See [Message formats](/cdf/integration/guides/extraction/hosted_extractors/hosted_extractors_mappings) for built-in format options.
You configure destinations to control how extracted data is stored, organized, and governed within CDF.

## What destinations are

A destination contains a CDF session (credentials) and an optional `targetDataSetId` that scopes all data written through it to a specific data set. Multiple jobs can share one destination; when they do, their requests are combined, reducing the number of calls made to CDF APIs while metrics are still reported per job.

## Creating and managing destinations

You create a destination by providing an `externalId` and CDF credentials. Once created, you reference the destination by its `externalId` when creating a job. You can update the credentials or data set ID, and delete a destination when it is no longer associated with any jobs.

<Warning>
  A destination [session](/api-reference/concepts/20230101/sessions) stores the capabilities of the user or client credentials at creation. Changing those capabilities later does not update the destination. Updating credentials on the destination is not enough. Create a new destination, point jobs at it, then delete the old destination.
</Warning>

<Note>
  Grant destination credentials access only to the CDF resources the extractor needs to write. See [Hosted extractors overview](/cdf/integration/guides/extraction/hosted_extractors#destinations) for the required capabilities per output type.
</Note>