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The migration plugin is an experimental feature. Updates to the Cognite Toolkit are likely to introduce changes to the described commands and processes.
In an asset-centric Cognite Data Fusion (CDF) project, assets, events, time series, and file metadata use fixed schemas. Data modeling lets you define a custom data model that reflects your organizational structure and data relationships. This guide walks data engineers through creating that data model and mappings from asset-centric resources.
1

Create a target data model that extends CDM

The data model must extend the CogniteCore model. See Create a data model.
2

Create resource view mappings

Map asset-centric properties to the target views. See Create resource view mappings.
3

Deploy the model and mappings

Deploy them to your CDF project so the migration plugin can use them. See Governance.

Create a data model

Consider using Neat to create your data model. Neat checks your data model for consistency and provides insights on how to improve it.
The migration plugin requires a target data model for your migration, but it does not prescribe how you create it. The data model must extend the CogniteCore model (CDM). That extension connects time series and files to their underlying CDF resources and lets you organize assets into hierarchies. A typical approach is to start from the CDM schema for assets, time series, files, and events and model unstructured data that lives in metadata fields. For example, the asset-centric Asset resource schema looks like this:
asset_schema.yaml
In the Kelmarsh example, structured values from metadata become explicit properties on a WindTurbine view:
windturbine.View.yaml
In the same way, create custom views for time series, files, and events as migration targets.

Create resource view mappings

Create a resource view mapping alongside the data model. The mapping defines how asset-centric properties map to properties in your target views. The Cognite Toolkit uses these mappings during migration to move data from asset-centric resources into the correct places in your data model, including data type conversion where needed. These mappings are YAML resources that the Cognite Toolkit can deploy to your CDF project:
windturbine.ResourceViewMapping.yaml
After you create the data model and resource view mapping, deploy them to your CDF project. The migration plugin can then use the deployed model and mappings.

Governance

See the Data models and Resource view mapping sections of the Cognite Toolkit resource library for how to deploy and govern these resources.

Further reading

Last modified on August 21, 2026