Control winner re-election after origin contributor detachment
Learn how Reltio reassigns the winner when the origin contributor is unmerged, and how to enable this behavior in your tenant configuration.
- The unmerge method (manual or automatic)
- The status of the
NEW_WINNER_ELECTED_ON_ORIGIN_DETACHMENTfeature flag
For new tenants, Reltio enables this feature by default and selects a new winner from the remaining contributors instead of creating a shell composite. Existing tenants retain their current setting.
Manual unmerge
When you manually detach the origin contributor, the outcome depends on the feature status:
- Feature enabled (default for new tenants): A new winner is elected from the remaining contributors.
- Feature disabled: A shell composite is created for the remaining contributors. This shell doesn't represent a real source record and can't exist outside the merge context.
Automatic unmerge
For new tenants, Reltio allows automatic detachment of the origin contributor by default and elects a new winner from the remaining contributors. Automatic detachment of the origin contributor requires winner re-election to be enabled. Existing tenants where winner re-election was never enabled, and any tenant that later disables it, cannot use automatic detachment..
Outcomes by unmerge method and flag status
| Feature | Operation | Resulting Objects | Winner after Unmerge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enabled (default for new tenants) | Manual Unmerge of E1 | Standalone E1 Composite (E2, E3, ...) | E2 is the new winner |
| Automatic Unmerge of E1 | Standalone E1 Composite (E2, E3, ...) | ||
| Disabled
(default for existing tenants) | Manual Unmerge of E1 (always allowed) | Standalone E1 E_shell (E2, E3, ...) | E_shell is the winner (contains only former losers) |
| Automatic Unmerge of E1 | Not allowed |
— |
Winner selection logic
enabled:- Only the origin is detached.
- The remaining contributors stay merged.
- The new winner is the one with the oldest
reltioLoadDate. - If there's a tie, the contributor with the lexicographically smallest ID wins.
- All others are marked as losers under the new winner.
By electing a real contributor as the new winner — instead of creating a shell — Reltio improves survivorship consistency, ensures data continuity, and increases reliability when unmerging profiles with complex contributor histories.
Tenant configuration
New tenants can disable winner re-election, overriding the enabled default. Existing tenants keep the value already configured for them and can change it at any time. For information about checking or changing this setting for your tenant, see Enable automatic unmerge on the tenant configuration.