Your First Tracked Item

This walkthrough takes one RFID tag from nothing to an automatic move. You create a place for the item to start, describe the item, connect a reader, tag one inventory instance, tell Tagnet where the reader stands, and build a workflow. Then you present the tag to the reader and watch Tagnet move the item and record the transaction, with nobody typing anything.

Do it once with a single tag before you plan a full deployment. Every pattern in the Use-Case Playbooks is this same path with more items, more readers, and more workflows.

flowchart LR
    A[Tag read by reader] --> B[Scan event]
    B --> C[Workflow]
    C --> D[Move Inventory action]
    D --> E[Item at new location + transaction recorded]

What you need

• A running Tagnet installation that has finished first-run setup (administrator account, license, and your first site). See the Installation Guide and Setting Up Tagnet.
• An administrator account, or a role that can manage locations, items, inventory, devices, and workflows.
• One UHF RFID tag (EPC Gen2) that you can hold in your hand.
• One RFID reader that can reach your Tagnet server, such as a Zebra FX or an Impinj R700.

The example uses a tag that starts in a location called Storage and a reader at a location called Packing Bench. When the reader sees the tag, the item moves from Storage to Packing Bench. Use your own names if you like.

Step 1: Create the locations

Items need somewhere to be, and a reader needs a place to point at. Create one container and two places inside it.

1. Open Locations, open the Add menu, and choose Location.
2. Name it Warehouse, pick a location type (for example Warehouse), and set Inventory to Not Allowed. A container groups other locations and does not hold items itself.
3. Save, open the new location, and choose Add child from its Actions menu.
4. Create Storage and then Packing Bench as children. Pick any location type, for example Storage Area, and leave Inventory set to Allowed on both.

Locations are always created in a site. If your organization has more than one site, the form asks which site owns the location in an Availability section; choose the site where your reader will be.

You are done when the Locations tree shows Warehouse with Storage and Packing Bench under it. See Locations for codes, floor plans, and the full hierarchy model.

Step 2: Choose an item type and create an item

An item is a catalog entry: the "what" you track. An inventory instance, which you create in step 4, is one physical unit of it.

1. Open Items and open its Item Types tab. Tagnet ships with starter types such as Asset and Product. Open one and check three things: Tracks Quantity is off, Instance ID Strategy is Auto GUID, and Tag ID Strategy is Supplied. Supplied means you bring the EPC, which is right here because your tag already has one. You can also add your own type from the Add menu.
2. Go back to the Items tab, open the Add menu, and choose Item.
3. Enter an Item ID such as FIRST-ITEM, a Description, and the Item Type you just checked. Save.

See Types for how an item type decides how instances are identified, and Items for the catalog.

Step 3: Connect a reader

Tagnet only knows a tag exists once a reader reports it, so the reader comes before the inventory instance. Open Devices, open the Add menu, and choose Device. Tagnet asks how the reader connects:

• Local network: Tagnet can reach the reader directly, discovers it or takes its address, and deploys the reader configuration for you. See Impinj R700 Local Management and Devices. If discovery does not find the reader, see Reader Discovery.
• Cloud managed: Tagnet cannot reach the reader, so you copy an ingest URL and credentials into the reader's own web interface. See Cloud Reader Setup for Zebra FX and ATR readers, and Impinj R700 Reader Setup for the R700.

For read settings on a Zebra FX, see Zebra FX Configuration. For a bench like this one, the Workstation recipe in Reader Setup Recipes is the right starting point.

You are done when the reader's Last seen on the Devices page keeps updating. To prove tag reads arrive, open the Live Reads tab of Devices, select your reader with the Devices button, and present your tag. The tag's EPC appears as an Unmapped tag row. Leave Live Reads open, since you use it again in a moment. The Setup step Connect a reader also completes once the reader has reported.

Step 4: Tag an inventory instance

Now attach that tag to a tracked thing.

1. Open Inventory, open the Add menu, and choose Inventory Item.
2. Pick your item (FIRST-ITEM) and set Location to Storage.
3. In the RFID Tag ID field, open Recent reads and click your tag. It lists tags your readers reported in the last 24 hours that no inventory item carries yet, newest first. Click Create.

You can also start from the tag: on Live Reads, click the unmapped row, then New to create the inventory item without leaving the page. See Inventory and Live Reads.

You are done when the Inventory grid shows your instance with its tag, Storage as its location, and a green Active state. The Setup step Tag some inventory completes.

Step 5: Create a device group and set its read point

A read point says where a reader stands. It does not move anything by itself; a workflow decides what a read means. You put the read point on a device group because the group is also the unit that carries scan event processing settings, so a second reader added to the bench later shares both.

1. Open Devices, open the Add menu, and choose Device Group. If you have more than one site, choose the site first under Availability.
2. Name the group Packing Bench.
3. Under Scan event processing, set Processing mode to Immediate. Every batch of reads then becomes a scan event right away, which is what you want for a bench where each scan is deliberate. Set Cooldown duration to 5 seconds and Cooldown scope to Per device so a tag resting on the bench is not processed over and over.
4. Under Read point location, set Location to Packing Bench. Only locations that allow inventory make sense as a destination.
5. Save. On the group's Devices tab, find your reader and click Add.

See Device Groups, Read Point Location, and Scan Events for what each processing mode does.

Step 6: Build the workflow

A workflow is the rule that turns a scan event into an action. This one says: when a read arrives from the Packing Bench group, move the item to the read point's location.

1. Open Workflows, open the Add menu, and choose Workflow.
2. Under Basics, name it Move to read point.
3. Under Conditions, leave WHEN on a scan event arriving. Set FROM to a device where and add one row: Device group is Packing Bench. Leave FOR on every tag in the event.
4. Under Actions, click Add Action and choose Move Inventory. Set Target to Read point's location and Transaction type to Move. Save the action.
5. Save the workflow. When Tagnet asks Enable workflow?, choose Enable now.

See Move Inventory for the other targets (a location by code, a specific location, a sibling location, or removing the item from inventory) and Workflows for conditions and actions.

You are done when the workflow shows as enabled on the Workflows list. The Setup step Automate with a workflow completes, and with it all six core steps.

Step 7: Read the tag and watch it move

1. Present the tag to the reader at the bench.
2. Open the inventory item. Its Location card now shows Packing Bench, and its Location history tab lists the move out of Storage.
3. Open the Transactions tab of Inventory. A Move transaction from Storage to Packing Bench sits at the top, with a workflow as its source. See Transactions.
4. Open Workflows and its Runs tab to see the execution: the scan event that triggered it, the matching tag, and the Move Inventory action with a Success result. See Workflow Executions.

Present the tag again and nothing changes. The item is already at the target, so the action leaves it alone and records no second transaction. Move the item back to Storage from its Move action to repeat the test.

If the item did not move

Work down this list; each check narrows it to one stage.

What you see	What it means	Where to look
No row in Live Reads	The reader is not reporting reads	Reader Last seen, the reader's Ingest data tab, and your reader setup guide
A scan event exists but no workflow run	The workflow's FROM did not match, or the workflow is disabled. A miss on FROM records nothing by design	The device must be in the Packing Bench group; check the workflow is enabled
A run with status NoMatchingTags	FROM matched but no tag passed FOR	Open the run's Tags tab; the tag may not be mapped to an inventory item yet
Move Inventory shows a skipped tag	The device and its group have no read point location, or the location does not allow inventory	The group's Read point location; the location's Inventory setting
NoEffect	The item was already at Packing Bench	Move it back to Storage and read it again

What you just built

Concept	What you made	Where it lives
Location	Warehouse, Storage, Packing Bench	Locations
Item and item type	FIRST-ITEM and its type	Items
Reader	One reporting reader	Devices
Inventory instance	One unit carrying your tag	Inventory
Read point	Packing Bench group's location	Devices, group page
Workflow	Move to read point	Workflows

Where to go next

• Plan a real deployment with the Use-Case Playbooks: manufacturing WIP, IT and capital assets, vendor-managed inventory, and utility infrastructure.
• Tune the reader and scan event settings for your installation with Reader Setup Recipes.
• Add a second action to the same workflow, such as a Notification or an HTTP Integration (durable) call to your ERP, using the "update, then tell" recipe in Workflows.
• Load many items and tags at once with Quick Import, or from your own systems with the integration guide.
• Read How Tagnet Works for the concepts behind each step.