> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.skillsdb.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Certifications

> The company certification library — what a certification is, grouped into families

<Info>
  **Quick Summary:** A certification is a **library entry**: a name, a description, the type it groups under, and the authority that issues it. What a person *holds* — their record, its approval workflow, evidence and expiry — is a [person certification](/api-docs/resources/person-certification) in [Team Data](/api-docs/concepts/team-data).
</Info>

## The resources

| Resource                                                     | What it is                                                                                   |
| ------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| [Certification type](/api-docs/resources/certification-type) | The families certifications group under, such as *Regulatory* and *Vendor*, in display order |
| [Certification](/api-docs/resources/certification)           | The library entry: name, description, type and issuing authority                             |

## The distinction that matters

Two resources sound alike and are not:

|          | Certification                   | Person certification                                 |
| -------- | ------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- |
| Answers  | "What certifications exist?"    | "Who holds what, and until when?"                    |
| Lives in | System Objects — this group     | [Team Data](/api-docs/concepts/team-data)            |
| Carries  | Name, description, type, issuer | Workflow state, dates, identifier, evidence, history |

An integration building a picker reads this group. An integration syncing compliance evidence writes person certifications.

## Deleting is guarded

A certification type still in use cannot be deleted without confirming. Each type carries how many certifications reference it, so you can check before you try.