Setting up and using custom fields

Setting up and using custom fields · Help

When a customer says "I'm in Manchester" and nobody writes it down, you end up asking the same question two weeks later. A custom field writes that answer onto the person permanently; after that you can drop it into your messages and split your flows by it. This guide covers how you create a field for the first time, how you fill it, and where you can see its value.

💡 What a field is, how it differs from a tag and how to name one is covered in its own article: Contact field (custom field). This one is about which screen to use and what to do there.

In this article you will find:

How a field is "created"
Where the field picker appears
The field name rule
The seven ways to fill a field
Where you can see a field's value
Using a field in automations
Limits and known issues
Common mistakes

How a field is "created"

There is no "create field" screen, button or setting in the panel. A field exists the moment you type its name in a flow step. You do not define it in advance, add it to a list, or grant anyone access to it.

That has two consequences. The good news: creating a field takes five seconds. The news that needs care: a typo creates a new field. Type citi instead of city and you have two separate fields, with no data ever collecting in the second one.

So type the name slowly the first time you use a field, and agree on a spelling convention with your team.

Where the field picker appears

The field picker looks the same everywhere a step needs a field: one dropdown, with a text box beside it when needed.

The dropdown lists the three built-in fields first — Name, Email, Phone — followed by the Custom field option. Choose Custom field and a text box opens beside it; its hint reads field_name and the note below it restates the rule.

The picker appears in these places:

Collect data step — Field to save.
Action step — Write to field, Increase/decrease field, Clear field.
Condition step — the key of the Field rule.
Message step — the field a written reply is saved into.
External request step — the fields that values from the response are written to.
AI step — the fields of the information to collect and the field the output is saved into.
Scheduled trigger — the contact field that carries a date.
The placeholder menu in message text — when inserting {{field.…}} into your copy.

Picking one of the built-in three writes the value into the contact card's own field; a step that writes to Name changes the Name you see on the card.

The field name rule

A field name follows this rule:

It starts with a lowercase letter.
It contains only lowercase letters (a-z), digits and underscores.
It is at most 40 characters long.

The text box helps you: it lowercases what you type and turns characters outside the rule into underscores. So trying to type "City Name" produces something like city_name — which is why typing plainly from the start is better.

If a value outside the rule remains, the box is marked as invalid and you cannot publish the flow; the validation step warns you.

The seven ways to fill a field

The Collect data step. Asks the question, validates the answer against a format, and writes it to the field. The formats are free text, e-mail, phone, number, date and link. A wrong format is asked again. Its settings are Retries allowed (0-5, default 2), Wait for an answer (1-168 hours, default 24) and Skip if the field is already filled (on by default). It has three outputs: saved, invalid, no answer.
The Write to field action. Writes a fixed text or a text containing placeholders. At most 500 characters.
The Increase/decrease field action. Changes the number in the field. A value that cannot be read as a number counts as 0, so the first increase on an empty field gives 1. A negative amount decreases.
The Clear field action. Empties the field.
A reply to a Message step. When a message step waits for a written reply, the incoming answer is saved straight into a field.
The External request step. Maps values from another system's response into fields; at most 10 mappings per step.
The AI step. In conversation mode it asks for the information you listed itself and writes what it learns into fields; it can also save its own output into a field.

Format validation carries these details: e-mail is lowercased; phone expects 7 to 15 digits; numbers accept both 1,250.50 and 1250.5; dates accept 21.09.2026, 21/09/2026 and 2026-09-21, and day-month consistency is checked (31.02.2026 is refused).

Where you can see a field's value

This is the point that surprises people most: custom field values are not listed on the contact card. The card's Details section holds only name, e-mail, phone, tags and language. Custom fields sit behind the scenes and are read by flows.

There are three ways to see a field's value:

The records in the AI profile. Under the AI profile section on the contact card there is a Conversation records list; whatever the AI conversation step gathered in that run appears in the Collected row as key: value. This list shows only what the AI step gathered.
The automation session log. On the contact card, Conversation history → Automation sessions → the Session log link opens the step-by-step log; values written to fields appear in the "data saved" entries. See Conversation history on the contact card.
The card itself, for built-in fields. If the field is Name, Email or Phone, you see the value on the card directly.

If you want to see the value across many people, the practical route is a rule that attaches a tag based on the field: on the "field changed" event, a condition reads the value and adds the matching tag. A tag is visible on the card and usable in the filter.

Using a field in automations

In a condition. The Field rule works with eight operators: equals, does not equal, contains, does not contain, empty, not empty, greater than, less than. The "is it empty" question is the foundation of flows that fill in missing information.
In message text. You write {{field.city}} and it is replaced by the value at send time. If the value is empty you can supply a default: {{field.city|your city}}. You can insert it from the placeholder menu. See Variables and placeholders.
In a field-to-field comparison. The condition's value box also accepts placeholders, which lets you compare two fields with each other.
In a scheduled trigger. A flow can start from a field carrying a date: a reminder before an appointment, a greeting on the same day every year. If the field has no time, the trigger's own hour is used.
In a rule. The field changed event starts a rule; write the field name in the rule's filter and it runs for that field only.
In an external request. Used as a placeholder in the path, the query or the body of the address.

Limits and known issues

There is no filter by field on the Contacts screen. The filters are search, channel, tag, last message, quiet for and reply state. To list people by a field, turn the field into a tag (the method above).
Field values are not included in the CSV export. The export carries nine columns and custom fields are not among them. See Exporting contacts to CSV.
There is no bulk field filling. The selection bar only adds and removes tags. To fill a field for a hundred people you need a flow or a rule.
A field cannot be edited by hand on the card. Only the built-in three (name, e-mail, phone) can be typed in.
A field name is at most 40 characters, a Write to field value at most 500 characters, and an external request maps at most 10 fields.
Values are stored as text; there is no separate number or date field type. Format is the job of the step that fills the field.
Fields belong to the account; with two accounts, fields accumulate separately.

A worked example

A hair salon builds its appointment reminder on a single field:

A Collect data step is added to the flow: the question is "Which day is your appointment?", Field to save is appointment_date, Answer format is Date, and Skip if the field is already filled is on.
The person writes "12.10.2026"; the step validates it and writes it to the field.
In a separate automation a Scheduled trigger is set: 1 day before the appointment_date field, at 10:00.
The flow's message step reads "Hi {{contact.first_name}}, your appointment is tomorrow, {{field.appointment_date}}."
After the appointment passes, a Clear field action empties appointment_date, so the question is asked again for the next booking.

One field decides both when the reminder goes out and what the message says.

Common mistakes

Typing the field name slightly differently in each step. order_no and orderno are two different fields.
Looking for a field value on the card. Only built-in fields are shown there.
Trying to filter by a field. There is no field among the filters; turn it into a tag.
Skipping the format in a Collect data step. Left on Free text, a sentence like "I'll call tomorrow" is saved as a phone number.
Turning off "Skip if the field is already filled". With it off you ask the customer for something you already know.
Using Write to field to count. Counting needs Increase/decrease field.
Misspelling the field name in a placeholder. An unrecognised placeholder stays empty and the message reads as an unfinished sentence. Supply a default value to prevent it.

If a field is not being filled, first confirm the name is spelled identically in every step, then get in touch with our Support team.