diff --git a/damnit/ctxsupport/ctxrunner.py b/damnit/ctxsupport/ctxrunner.py
index e6c404ec..5c69ca05 100644
--- a/damnit/ctxsupport/ctxrunner.py
+++ b/damnit/ctxsupport/ctxrunner.py
@@ -233,8 +233,12 @@ def from_str(cls, code: str, path='<string>'):
         log.debug("Loaded %d variables", len(vars))
         return cls(vars, code)
 
-    def vars_to_dict(self):
-        """Get a plain dict of variable metadata to store in the database"""
+    def vars_to_dict(self, inc_transient=False):
+        """Get a plain dict of variable metadata to store in the database
+        
+        args:
+            inc_transient (bool): include transient Variables in the dict
+        """
         return {
             name: {
                 'title': v.title,
@@ -244,6 +248,7 @@ def vars_to_dict(self):
                 'type': None,
             }
             for (name, v) in self.vars.items()
+            if not v.transient or inc_transient
         }
 
     def filter(self, run_data=RunData.ALL, cluster=True, name_matches=(), variables=()):
@@ -349,6 +354,12 @@ def execute(self, run_data, run_number, proposal, input_vars) -> 'Results':
                 t1 = time.perf_counter()
                 log.info("Computed %s in %.03f s", name, t1 - t0)
                 res[name] = data
+
+        # remove transient results
+        for name, var in self.vars.items():
+            if var.transient and (name in res):
+                res.pop(name)
+
         return Results(res, self)
 
 
diff --git a/damnit/ctxsupport/damnit_ctx.py b/damnit/ctxsupport/damnit_ctx.py
index 35464261..451cb797 100644
--- a/damnit/ctxsupport/damnit_ctx.py
+++ b/damnit/ctxsupport/damnit_ctx.py
@@ -41,13 +41,15 @@ class Variable:
     _name = None
 
     def __init__(
-            self, title=None, description=None, summary=None, data=None, cluster=False, tags=None,
+            self, title=None, description=None, summary=None, data=None,
+            cluster=False, tags=None, transient=False
     ):
         self.title = title
         self.tags = (tags,) if isinstance(tags, str) else tags
         self.description = description
         self.summary = summary
         self.cluster = cluster
+        self.transient = transient
         self._data = data
 
     # @Variable() is used as a decorator on a function that computes a value
diff --git a/docs/backend.md b/docs/backend.md
index 163743a0..85918ed8 100644
--- a/docs/backend.md
+++ b/docs/backend.md
@@ -71,6 +71,9 @@ these arguments:
   ```
 - `cluster` (bool): whether or not to execute this variable in a Slurm job. This
   should always be used if the variable does any heavy processing.
+- `transient` (bool): whether or not to save the variable's result to the
+  database. This is useful for e.g. intermediate results. By default variables
+  save their results (transient=False).
 
 Variable functions can return any of:
 
diff --git a/docs/changelog.md b/docs/changelog.md
index a567d928..64333881 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.md
+++ b/docs/changelog.md
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ Added:
 - Add a `tags` attribute allowing cathegorizing `Variable`s (!354).
 - Add support for `complex` numbers (!374)
 - GUI: Add a Dark theme (!376)
+- add a`transient` attribute for variables we don't want to save data (!xxx)
 
 Changed:
 
diff --git a/tests/test_backend.py b/tests/test_backend.py
index dc447a94..04fdc8fb 100644
--- a/tests/test_backend.py
+++ b/tests/test_backend.py
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@
 
 from damnit.backend import backend_is_running, initialize_and_start_backend
 from damnit.backend.db import DamnitDB
-from damnit.backend.extract_data import Extractor, RunExtractor, add_to_db
+from damnit.backend.extract_data import Extractor, RunExtractor, add_to_db, load_reduced_data
 from damnit.backend.extraction_control import ExtractionJobTracker
 from damnit.backend.listener import (MAX_CONCURRENT_THREADS, EventProcessor,
                                      local_extraction_threads)
@@ -1002,3 +1002,47 @@ def test_job_tracker():
 
     fake_squeue.assert_called()
     assert set(tracker.jobs) == set()
+
+def test_transient_variables(mock_run, mock_db, tmp_path):
+    db_dir, db = mock_db
+
+    ctx_code = """
+    from damnit_ctx import Variable, Cell
+    import numpy as np
+
+    @Variable()
+    def var1(run):
+        return 7
+
+    @Variable(transient=True)
+    def var2(run, data: 'var#var1'):
+        return np.arange(data)
+
+    @Variable(summary='max')
+    def var3(run, data: 'var#var2'):
+        return data.size * data
+    """
+    ctx = mkcontext(ctx_code)
+    results = ctx.execute(mock_run, 1000, 123, {})
+    results_hdf5_path = tmp_path / 'results.h5'
+    results.save_hdf5(results_hdf5_path)
+
+    with h5py.File(results_hdf5_path) as f:
+        assert '.reduced/var1' in f
+        assert 'var1' in f
+        # transient variables are not saved
+        assert '.reduced/var2' not in f
+        assert 'var2' not in f
+        assert '.reduced/var3' in f
+        assert 'var3' in f
+
+        assert f['.reduced/var3'][()] == 42
+        assert np.allclose(f['var3/data'][()], np.arange(7) * 7)
+
+    reduced_data = load_reduced_data(results_hdf5_path)
+    add_to_db(reduced_data, db, 1000, 123)
+    vars = db.conn.execute('SELECT value FROM run_variables WHERE name="var3"').fetchall()
+    assert vars[0]['value'] == 42
+    # also not saved in the db
+    vars = db.conn.execute('SELECT * FROM run_variables WHERE name="var2"').fetchall()
+    assert vars == []