> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.kinwall.family/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.kinwall.family/using-kinwall/categories.md).

# Categories & auto-categorising

Categories (🎂 Birthdays, 🏥 Appointments, ⚽ Sports…) give events an emoji and a colour. **A category's colour overrides the member colour**, and member avatars still show on the event.

## Managing categories

Go to **Settings → Family → Categories**. Both admin and display devices can do this.

* **Add category** offers presets with starter keywords, or **Custom**:

| Preset          | Keywords                                           |
| --------------- | -------------------------------------------------- |
| 🎂 Birthdays    | birthday, bday, b-day                              |
| 🏥 Appointments | dentist, doctor, appt, appointment, orthodontist   |
| ⚽ Sports        | practice, game, soccer, baseball, basketball, swim |
| 🏫 School       | school, pta, conference, field trip                |
| ✈️ Travel       | flight, trip, hotel, vacation                      |

* Each category has a **Name**, an **Emoji** (a single emoji), a **Color** and **Keywords** (comma-separated).
* Use **↑ / ↓** to reorder. The order is used in pickers and in the calendar filter.
* Deleting a category clears it from every event. Those events fall back to the next source below.

## How an event gets its category

Kinwall checks these in order and uses the first match:

| Source           | Set by                                                                                        | Label in the sheet |
| ---------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------ |
| This occurrence  | the event's **Category** field, **This event**                                                | "🎂 Birthdays"     |
| The whole series | **Category** field, **All events** (recurring)                                                | "🎂 Birthdays"     |
| Keyword match    | a keyword appears in the title                                                                | "Automatic" + hint |
| Calendar default | **Default category** on the calendar ([Calendars settings](/settings-reference/calendars.md)) | "Automatic" + hint |
| None             |                                                                                               |                    |

Keyword matching:

* is case-insensitive,
* matches **whole words or phrases** ("game" matches "Soccer game" but not "Gamestop"),
* runs when events are read, so new keywords apply to existing events right away and nothing is stored per event.

Picking **Automatic** in the edit sheet removes an explicit category, so the keyword or calendar default applies again.

## Synced events

Categories on Google, Outlook, CalDAV and ICS events live only in Kinwall. They're stored per occurrence or per series so they survive every re-sync. Both are included in [export](/your-data/export-import.md).

## Filtering

The calendar's category filter shows only the categories you pick. See [Calendar → Filters](/using-kinwall/calendar.md#by-category).

## API and MCP

* REST: `GET/POST /api/categories`, `PATCH/DELETE /api/categories/{id}`, `POST /api/categories/reorder`. Set an event's category with `PATCH /api/events/{id}` `{categoryId, scope}`.
* MCP: `list_categories`, `update_category`, `set_event_category` (accepts a category by name).


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