# Whats the difference between history and visibility record? **URL:** \ **Category:** Community Support\ **Tags:** archival\ **Created:** [July 27, 2020, 10:49am UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/whats-the-difference-between-history-and-visibility-record/286 "2020-07-27T10:49:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![madhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a8b319/32.png) [@madhu](https://community.temporal.io/u/madhu)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 10:49am UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/whats-the-difference-between-history-and-visibility-record/286/1 "2020-07-27T10:49:09Z")
I was going through this document [https://docs.temporal.io/docs/learn-archival](https://docs.temporal.io/docs/learn-archival) and was struck a bit as i could not understand what visibility record means. can some one please clarify. Did not find details in glossary too [https://docs.temporal.io/docs/learn-glossary](https://docs.temporal.io/docs/learn-glossary) ---
**Author:** ![ryland](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.temporal.io/ryland/32/11_2.png) [@ryland](https://community.temporal.io/u/ryland)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 4:58pm UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/whats-the-difference-between-history-and-visibility-record/286/2 "2020-07-27T16:58:44Z")
History records actually represent the stateful transitions made by your workflow. This is basically the core unit of Temporal and is what allows the system to provide high levels of reliability and replayability. Visibility records on the other hand do not represent the history of state mutations but rather metadata about the execution of the workflow itself. There are default attributes that are available to query from the visibility layer such as number of running workflow executions, number of stopped workflows etc. You can also add custom “searchable attributes” by taking advantage of ElasticSearch which enable you to query against custom properties inside running workflows. The docs definitely are lacking in that department. I’ll make sure we improve that area. ---
**Author:** ![madhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a8b319/32.png) [@madhu](https://community.temporal.io/u/madhu)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 6:35pm UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/whats-the-difference-between-history-and-visibility-record/286/3 "2020-07-27T18:35:47Z")
thanks @ryland for clarifying. 😄 ---
**Author:** ![usaexpress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3da27b/32.png) [@usaexpress](https://community.temporal.io/u/usaexpress)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2022, 8:38pm UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/whats-the-difference-between-history-and-visibility-record/286/4 "2022-05-26T20:38:25Z")
So what is a visiblity record? ---
**Author:** ![usaexpress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3da27b/32.png) [@usaexpress](https://community.temporal.io/u/usaexpress)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2022, 8:39pm UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/whats-the-difference-between-history-and-visibility-record/286/5 "2022-05-26T20:39:46Z")
can someone tell me what that is? ---
**Author:** ![maxim](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.temporal.io/maxim/32/8_2.png) [@maxim](https://community.temporal.io/u/maxim)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2022, 8:41pm UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/whats-the-difference-between-history-and-visibility-record/286/6 "2022-05-26T20:41:57Z")
This is a record returned by the list API: [WorkflowExecutionInfo](https://github.com/temporalio/api/blob/88c9f08c45e113140ecf174888d3122befc92c70/temporal/api/workflowservice/v1/request_response.proto#L656). It represents a single workflow view in the list view in the UI. ---
**Author:** ![usaexpress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3da27b/32.png) [@usaexpress](https://community.temporal.io/u/usaexpress)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2022, 8:42pm UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/whats-the-difference-between-history-and-visibility-record/286/7 "2022-05-26T20:42:57Z")
our company needs to request visibility records. Can this be done? ---
**Author:** ![maxim](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.temporal.io/maxim/32/8_2.png) [@maxim](https://community.temporal.io/u/maxim)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2022, 5:32pm UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/whats-the-difference-between-history-and-visibility-record/286/8 "2022-05-27T17:32:02Z")
Yes, using the [ListWorkflowExecutions](https://github.com/temporalio/api/blob/88c9f08c45e113140ecf174888d3122befc92c70/temporal/api/workflowservice/v1/service.proto#L268) API.