Custom fields

The Custom fields section of the admin dashboard holds the custom data your community keeps about its people: a cohort, a department, a join date, a stage from your CRM. Open Admin Dashboard from the sidebar, then Custom fields in the Member profiles group. The section is a table: each column is a field and each row a person on your roster.

Adding a field

Click Add field, type a New field name (any language or script; it needs at least one letter or digit), pick a Type and click Add column. The types are:

A name already used by another field is refused, archived fields included: "A field named "…" was archived. Show the archived fields to restore it."

Fields are also created from new columns when you import a file or set up a CRM sync.

Editing a field

Click a column's name to open its menu, then Edit field. The dialog sets:

• Name — rename it to any name no other field uses, archived fields included. The field's key, shown at the top of the dialog, never changes, so imports and saved values keep pointing at the field.
• Description — a note for other admins.
• Type — before you save a new type, the dialog checks the values already saved: it says how many will be rewritten in the new form (for example a number written with a decimal comma) and how many do not fit and will be kept as written, with a note.
• Choices (for Choice from a list and Several choices from a list) — values saved under a choice you rename take its new name; values of a removed choice are kept as they are, with a note. To merge two choices, rename one to the other's name and click Merge into: its values move to the other choice, and its old name still reads as that choice in later imports.
• Ask in the profile interview — see below.
• Holds a sensitive kind of data — turn it on for a field about health, religion, ethnic origin, political opinions, sexual orientation and the like. Search never filters by such a field, the profile interview never asks for it, and other members never see its values: the switch turns Use in search filters, Show in analytics and Ask in the profile interview off and keeps them off, and a field all members could see is narrowed to Admins and the member, so each member still sees only their own value. Its column carries a Sensitive badge. Turning the mark off later leaves those switches off until you turn them on.
• Who can see the values — Admins only (the default), Admins and the member or All members. Before a change that shows the values to more people is saved, the dialog says how many members already have a value and asks you to confirm with Share the values.
• Use in search filters — see Fields and search.
• Show in analytics (for Choice from a list and Several choices from a list) — whether the analytics page charts the field in its Community fields section, which the API's and MCP's community analytics return too. A new field starts with it on; turn it off for a field you would rather not chart. Admins see the chart of every field with it on, other members only of the fields whose values all members can see, and the dialog says which applies. A field marked as holding a sensitive kind of data is never charted: its switch is off and locked.

The interview switch

Ask in the profile interview marks a field for members to fill themselves: a profile interview held in your community asks a member for each such field whose value is still empty, names the field by its name, and fills it from their answer. It never overwrites a value that is already there, and the answer is seen by whoever the field's Who can see the values allows. The interview takes answers in the member's own words, so the switch is offered for Short text and Long text fields only; for other types, and for a field marked as holding a sensitive kind of data, it is off and locked. Columns with the switch on carry an Interview badge.

Filling in values

• In the table — click a cell to fill or change a value; click a name to open that person's profile card. Search by name, organization or email; the table shows 50 people at a time. A person with a pending invitation is listed but cannot be filled in until they join.
• On a member's profile card (opened from the table or from the People section) and in the Community info tab of their profile page (pick your community there) — both list the fields that member has a value in, and Add a value fills another live field. The tab tags each field not shared with all members (Admins only, Admins and the member) and each sensitive one (Sensitive).
• From an import or a CRM sync — see below.

A field of Several choices from a list is filled by ticking its choices; its value is the ticked choices, separated by commas. A value that does not fit its field's type (a date that is not a date, a choice not in the list) is kept as written and marked with a warning in the table, and a value of several choices with an answer that is not one of them is edited as text.

Imports and CRM syncs

In the column-mapping step of a CSV import or a CRM sync, the Community fields group of each column's menu lists your live fields. Add a new field, below the columns, creates a new one, and a column marked Not imported offers Import as a new field, which creates a field named after the column when no field has that name yet. Under each column that becomes a new field, Name of the new field starts with that name: change it there, to shorten a long question for example, and the field is created under the new name. A new field is added to the Custom fields section when you confirm the mapping. For a new field, the step proposes a Type of the new field from the column's values, which you can change; a field created from an Airtable column takes Airtable's own field type where one matches. A column of months and years written with a separator, such as 2.2022, or a column of numbers whose header names a date, a month or a year (but not a count or an amount, such as "Number of months"), such as 12023 under "Month of arrival", is proposed as Short text rather than a number, which would keep only the digits, and the step says why. So is a column of months and years written like 02/2022 or 2022-02, which a date field would not read without a day. A column of years alone stays a number. A column whose values are nearly all web links is proposed as Web link: the few that are not links are counted under it and saved as written. A column whose cells list several answers separated by commas, semicolons or line breaks, as form tools such as Tally or Google Forms export a multiple-choice question, is proposed as Several choices from a list, with each answer of the file as a choice (an answer over 200 characters is not made a choice). In a CSV import, when such a column goes into a profile field that holds one value (a place such as Region, City or Country, an Organization or a Headline), the step says under it how many rows list several answers, since each of those rows would keep its whole list in that one value, in the member's public location for a town, a region or a country. Import as a field with several choices sends the column into a new field of several choices named after it, or into the community's own field of that name when it already has several choices, every answer of the rows you import among them. When neither can be (a field of that name has another type, is archived, already takes another column or lacks some of the answers as choices, or two of the community's fields have that name), the step says why in place of the button. The review step's warning about such a column offers the same button, which takes you back to the columns and switches that one, or says under it why it could not. Two spellings that differ only by an apostrophe (l'économie, l’économie) are one choice, and a piece with no letter or digit, such as the ) of a ;), is none, there as in the import, so a cell that ends in ;) is saved as its choices. An answer a comma splits before a linking word its first part also uses (de, du, des, d', à, au, aux or of), as Analyse d'un secteur, d'une pratique, is one choice, not two, while En présentiel, à distance stays two. Edit the choices lists each answer with how many rows give it: click one to leave it out, or leave out at once every answer only one row gives, such as typed-in "Other" answers. A cell that names a choice you left out is saved as written. When the import starts, the choices no row names, for example one that only came from a row you removed in the review step, are taken out of the new field. When you limit the import to its first profiles, the rows left for later count too, so they keep their choices. Beside the type, Who can see the values starts at All members: the community's admins and all its members see the new field's values. Pick Admins only or Admins and the member to keep them from other members. Members can filter search only by a field whose values they can see.

Values are stored in their field's form when they read only one way: for example 3,5 as 3.5, 13/04/2024 as 2024-04-13, paris as the choice Paris, or coach; Facilitator as the choices Coach, Facilitator. A Yes or no field reads oui, yes, true, vrai, 1 and the x of a ticked box as a yes, and non, no, false, faux and 0 as a no, in any case, so a column of OUI is saved as yes; the step proposes it for a column that holds only such words. A date field keeps only the date of a date followed by a time, such as a form's submission time: 2026-05-09 12:29:01 is saved as 2026-05-09. A time with a time zone, such as 2026-05-09T22:00:00Z, can fall on another day where you are, so it is saved as written. In a CSV import, when a column's dates or decimals could be read two ways, the step asks you to pick. Values that do not fit are saved as written and shown with a note. An import or sync writes only the fields it maps; a member's values in other fields stay as they are.

Archiving, restoring and deleting

• Archive (from a column's menu) hides a field from the editors, the import, the profile interview and search filters. Its values are kept: a member's profile card and, for admins, the Community info tab still show a value they have, marked as archived, but other members no longer see it there. A CRM sync that fills it keeps doing so until you save that sync's mapping again.
• Show archived fields adds archived fields to the table as read-only columns; Restore in such a column's menu brings the field back.
• Delete for good, on an archived field, deletes the field and erases every value saved in it, after you type the field's name to confirm. Import templates and CRM mappings that fill it stop doing so. This cannot be undone. Fields that every CRM sync writes back cannot be deleted, and a delete is refused while an import or CRM sync is running in the community.

Fields and search

Field values are left out of the profile text that search compares queries with, and search results never carry them. A field can still narrow a search of your community, as a filter, when Use in search filters is on in its settings. A new field starts with it on, whether you add it here or an import or CRM sync adds it, except a few that only hold record ids, a Yes or no field, and the Personal address field an import makes for a column of home addresses (named Adresse personnelle for a French header such as "Adresse" or "Rue"): that one is a text field seen by admins only, marked sensitive, and kept out of search, filters, analytics, matching and profile cards, and an import stops putting addresses in it once any of that is changed. Turn the switch off in a field's settings to stop search filtering by it. Admins can filter by every such field; other members only by the fields whose values all members can see. Search never filters by a field marked as holding a sensitive kind of data (see Editing a field), so when you add a field for data of that kind, mark it so in its settings. Nor does it filter by the fields a CRM sync keeps to match its records: their switch is off and locked. Search does not filter by a Yes or no field yet either, so its switch is off and locked too, and the AI step below is not given it. Columns with the switch on carry a Filter badge.

• Choice from a list and Several choices from a list: the query names one of the field's choices next to the field's name (a member of several choices matches when the choice is among theirs), such as "cohort 2024", "the 2025 cohort" or "cohorts 2024 or 2025". A choice after "not", "without" or a similar word is not used as a filter, and neither is a name that two of your list fields share, unless the query gives one field's full name ("program cohort 2024" when you also have a "Cohort" field). Several choices of a Several choices from a list field keep the members who gave any of them, unless the query asks for every one: "both", "à la fois" or "tous les deux" next to the choices, or "and" or "et" right between two of them ("both coach and mentor", "coach et facilitateur·ice"). Then only the members who gave all of them are kept. An "or" among the choices always keeps any of them. With "both", "à la fois" or "tous les deux", the query does not need to name the field: "members who are both coach and mentor" or "à la fois coach et facilitateur·ice" keeps the members who gave every one, when the query writes each choice as the field lists it (or as one of its aliases), in one list joined by "and" or "et", the list says what the members are (it starts the sentence, or comes after "are", "who is", "sont", "est" or a word such as "members", "someone", "membres" or "quelqu'un"; not "investors who work with both a coach and a mentor"), nothing in its sentence says "not", "or", "except" or "preferably" (or a word like them), and the sentence is not about the person searching ("I am both coach and mentor", but "I'm looking for members who are both coach and mentor" is read). A plural or another form ("coachs", "facilitatrice") is not read this way, and without one of those words nothing is read from the choices alone. When two of your list fields list those choices, the AI step below is asked to pick the one the query means.
• Other types: in an admin's search only, the query names, word for word, a value that an import or CRM sync recorded for the field (up to 20 sample values per field, of at least three characters each). A value after "not", "except" or a similar word is not used as a filter. When the query names several of a field's recorded values, the longest one is used, a leading "the", "la" or "les" not counted ("Shifters" rather than "The Shifters"). On a text or long text field, the filter keeps the members whose answer mentions that value as whole words, whatever else they wrote: "Shifters" keeps "The Shifters" and "Shifters Lyon". Its last word is also found with an "e" after it, so "Ingénieur" keeps "Ingénieure agronome". A member whose answer only holds it inside a word ("Art" in "Cartography" or "Arts") is not kept. A value that is also a choice of one of your list fields is not read this way, unless the query writes it right next to its own field's name ("networks Mentor"): the word is read as that list field's choice.
• Any type, in every search mode: the AI step that reads the query is given the fields the person searching can filter by (up to 30), each with its name, its type and, for a list, its choices (up to 60, fewer when they are long; it can still name one it was not shown). In an admin's search, a text field whose recorded values are a short set (up to 15 values that an import or CRM sync recorded, such as "F" and "M") is also given with the ones at least three members hold each, so "women" can be read as "F", while a value fewer members hold is never given; in any other search it is never given a member's value. It can read requests such as "members of the 2024 or 2025 cohort", "who joined after 2020" for a number or date field, or "people who have a mentor" for any field with a value. It is asked not to filter by a word that only says what kind of person or which topic the query looks for ("coaches specialised in leadership" gives no filter on a role or expertise field), since the search already reads those words in members' profiles, unless the query asks for "both" of two or more choices of one list field, as above; then it is asked to give the one field the query means. Its answer is checked before it filters: the field must be one it was given, a list value must name one of the field's choices, a value of a text field it was given with values must be one of them or a whole value the query writes (a value it should only contain must be one of them), a one-word choice the query only writes in another form ("coachs" or "coaches" for "Coach", "facilitators" for "Facilitateur·ice") is not used unless the query names the field, two fields or two choices it was shown under the same name are not used, and a field or value named after "not", "without" or a similar word, or followed by "excluded" ("2024 excluded"), is left out, as is a request for members who have a value in a field when "not", "empty", "missing" or a similar word stands next to the field's name ("missing a mentor", "mentor is not set"); a word past a comma is about something else ("people with a mentor, not based in Paris" keeps the mentor), and on a number or date field "no more than 10" or "not before 2020" is a limit, not an exclusion. A value of a list or text field that the AI step read from other words than the value itself ("women" as "F") is left out whenever the query holds a negation or a preference anywhere ("not women doctors", "ideally women doctors"), since nothing tells which words it is about. The same applies next to the field's name ("genre: not women"), unless that part of the question writes one of the value's own words ("the Normandie track" for "Normandie V1"), and to a request for several values when one of them is read from other words ("genre F, not men"). A request for members with a value in a field whose name the query does not write is left out in the same way. A limit the query words to keep its own value ("at least 10", "no more than 10", "since 2020", "2020 or later", "10 or more points") keeps the members at that value, also when the AI step writes it as "after" or "before", which leave it out ("not since 2020" leaves it out). A text value that a member's value should contain is not used when it has fewer than three letters or digits, since it would also be found inside other words ("AI" in "chair"). A field the query asks for only as a preference ("ideally with a mentor", "a mentor if possible") is not used either, since its filter would keep only the members who match it. A list choice it picks also brings in the field's other choices that start with all its words, in order, as written or with an "s", "x", "e" or "es" after a word, and add no "not", "no", "pas" or similar word after them (up to 20 choices in all), so "Constellations" also keeps the members who chose "Constellations familiales" or "Constellation familiale", "Certified" never brings in "Not certified" or "Certified: no", and "Théorie U" brings in nothing else. The same goes for a choice the query writes beside the field's name, and a choice the query rules out ("Certified, not ICF") is never brought in. When the query does not give the list field's whole name, such a filter also keeps the members who wrote one of its choices in one of your text or long text fields, as whole words, since members often write the same answer in a free-text field ("Autres formations") rather than ticking it: "permaculture" keeps the members who ticked Permaculture and those whose other trainings mention it. A mention with "not", "never", "pas", "jamais", "sans" or a similar word up to three words before it ("never trained in permaculture") does not count. A choice with fewer than four letters ("2024", "F") is not looked for in free text, and a query that gives the field's whole name keeps only the members who ticked the choice. Two choices of one list field, or two whole values of one text field, keep a member who has either, unless the query asks for both on a Several choices from a list field, as above; a number or date field asked for either of two values ("joined in 2020 or 2022") is not used, since one filter cannot hold that, and neither is a field whose conditions the query joins with "or" ("joined after 2010 or before 2020", also when the AI step writes them as one range; the "or" of "2020 or later" is part of one limit) or that no value meets together ("a score below 10 and above 90", also as one range), nor a number or date condition the query words the other way round ("over 10" read as exactly 10), nor two fields the query joins with "or" ("with a mentor or a sponsor", "mentor is set or sponsor is set"; a list choice named with its field, as in "a mentor or in the biotech track", is still read as described above); "started in 2021 or 2022" on a date field is used when the AI step writes it as one range. When the search adds the searcher's own profile to the query (for a request about their own work, such as "people who could help with my project"), a request for members who have a value in a field is used only when the query's own words name the field (a word two of the fields' names end with, such as "mentor" for "Primary mentor" and "Secondary mentor", names neither), and any other only when they hold each of its values ("people with a mentor" is not enough for a mentor's name; a value of one or two characters, such as a team "A", counts only right after the field's name ("team A"), a short number also where its limit is written after the name ("a score above 10") or right before the name after a limit word on that number ("more than 5 years at the lab" for a "Years at the lab" field, not "more people with 5 years at the lab"), a range written as one word ("2020-2022") gives both of its ends, and a year stands for a date only as the whole year). When the query's words already give a field's filter as described above, that filter is used for the field and the AI step's is not, except that the AI step's "after", "before" or range is used in place of a sample value the query holds when that value is its limit ("joined after 2020" when 2020 is a recorded value; "a score of 100 and below 200" keeps the recorded 100).

Values are compared ignoring case, accents and extra spaces. When the filters all come from list choices the query names next to their field (the first case above), or from the AI step on fields the query names in full ("start date before 2020" for a "Start date" field, not "the Paris area" for a "Service area" field), the search keeps the members who match every filter, even if only one or two do. Otherwise, when fewer than three members match and some of the filters come from the AI step, those are dropped first and the search runs again with the others: first only the ones that match fewer than three members on their own (with the other choices of a field the query asks for every one of), and all of them when none does. Otherwise, or when nobody matches, fewer than three matches make it search the whole community without the field's filter. When a filter from the AI step holds the place the query asks for, and the query names that place only once (a "Service area" field containing "Paris" for "people who serve Paris"), the search does not also require members to live there: their location only ranks them. If that filter is dropped, the place filters the search again.

In the app, most Fast and Auto searches can stop before they run and show Filters to check before searching instead: when an Only filter is not plain from the question (the card says why under each one), such as a field's value that matched without the field being named, or when the filters would leave fewer than three people (filters on fields the query names in full, as above, that one or two members match do not stop it). Drop a filter with ×, or switch one that is not on a field between Only and Prefer, then choose Search with these filters or Search without filters. The filters you search with are applied as you set them: a field's filter, which always stays Only, keeps exactly the members who match, however few, while a Prefer filter leaves out no one for not matching but moves the members who match up the ranking, without making sure they come first. A Deep Search, a search of an event's participants, a search for someone by name and a follow-up question never stop for this, nor does a search from a chat bot, the API or an AI tool: those keep the rule above.

When members leave or are merged

• Removing a member who claimed their profile from their row in People keeps their field values in the community, on the internal profile that preserves their data. The bulk Remove action does not keep them (see Member management).
• Merging duplicate profiles combines their field values; where both hold a value in the same field, the profile the others are merged into keeps its own.