Forms

A form is a projection of your object's fields — not a second field list. You declare fields once on the object; forms choose which fields and where. Data semantics (types, validation, defaults, field-level security) never live on the form, so forms can't drift into lying about the data.

Form view types (simple, tabbed, wizard, modal, …) and the public-form REST contract are covered in Views. This page is about the layout questions: create vs edit, grouping, ordering.

Create form ≠ edit form

The new-record form should ask a handful of essentials; the edit form shows the full record in sections. Don't author two forms. The create-form subset is derivable from intent that already lives on each field:

So the sensible create form — editable, required-or-core fields, in declaration order — falls out of the object with zero authoring. Omission is correct: emit nothing extra and you still get a complete, correct form. The full edit form derives too, materializing each field.group into a section.

Hand-shape the create form only when layout or flow diverges

The escape hatch is a named form view bound to the create entry point. Author it as a sparse override — mostly a list of field names:

import { defineView } from '@objectstack/spec'

const data = { provider: 'object' as const, object: 'showcase_contact' }

export const ContactViews = defineView({
  list: {
    type: 'grid', data,
    columns: [{ field: 'name' }, { field: 'email' }, { field: 'company' }, { field: 'stage' }],
    // Bind the "+ Add record" entry point to the slim create form:
    addRecord: { enabled: true, mode: 'form', formView: 'create' },
  },

  // Full edit form — grouped by field.group; bare strings inherit field defs.
  form: {
    type: 'simple', data,
    sections: [
      { name: 'contact', label: 'Contact', columns: 2, fields: ['name', 'email', 'phone'] },
      { name: 'work',    label: 'Work',    columns: 2, fields: ['company', 'title'] },
      { name: 'status',  label: 'Status',  columns: 2, fields: ['stage', 'lead_score'] },
    ],
  },

  formViews: {
    // Sparse create override: only the core fields, one section.
    create: {
      type: 'simple', data, title: 'New contact',
      sections: [
        { label: 'Who is this?', columns: 1, fields: ['name', 'email', 'phone', 'company'] },
      ],
    },
  },
})

The binding is addRecord.mode: 'form' + addRecord.formView: 'create'. No formViews.create → the create entry derives a default. Present → it wins for create.

Rule of thumb: different field subset → derive. Different layout or flow → override. Writing a full create form just to drop fields walks straight into the two-artifact drift trap: add a required field, forget the create form, get a runtime "missing required field" on create.

Because the create fields are a subset of the edit fields in the same order and groups, "quick-create 4 fields → save → land on the full record" stays visually continuous. Derivation preserves that for free.

Field grouping and order

The model is a flat field set. A grid shows flat columns. A form needs sections. That's not a contradiction — it's one flat set seen through different lenses:

There are two grouping concepts. Keep them distinct:

1. Semantic grouping — field.group (on the object). A field's logical home. It travels with the model and seeds the default sectioning of auto-generated forms:

// Fields of an object; the object around them is omitted.
fields: {
  name:  Field.text({ label: 'Full name', group: 'contact' }),
  email: Field.email({ label: 'Email',    group: 'contact' }),
  stage: Field.select({
    label: 'Stage',
    group: 'status',
    options: [
      { label: 'Lead', value: 'lead' },
      { label: 'Customer', value: 'customer' },
    ],
  }),
}

2. Layout grouping — form sections (on a view). A specific form's explicit arrangement: which fields, which section, how many columns, collapsible. It inherits field.group as the default and overrides it per form when needed.

// Keys of a view container; `data` and its other keys are omitted.
form: {
  type: 'simple',
  sections: [
    { name: 'contact', label: 'Contact', columns: 2, fields: ['name', 'email', 'phone'] },
    { name: 'status',  label: 'Status',  columns: 2, fields: ['stage'] },
  ],
}

Order is the order you author in. There is no field.order — field declaration order on the object is the default display order everywhere, and sections (and the fields inside them) are ordered lists.

The "group" trap. A grid view's groupByField groups records (rows) by a field's value — all stage = qualified rows together. A form section groups fields (columns) visually. Same word, two unrelated axes. A grid group will never section your form.

What happens after submit

Add submitBehavior to a form view to control the post-submit experience:

// Keys of a form view; its other keys are omitted.
submitBehavior: {
  kind: 'thank-you',
  title: 'Thanks!',
  message: 'A specialist will reach out within 24 hours.',
}

Both public and internal forms also honor ?prefill_<field>=<value> URL params — seed forms from email links or campaign pages. Prefill is a UX shortcut, not a permissions bypass: values still go through validation and (for public forms) the server-side field whitelist.

/console/f/contact-us?prefill_company=Acme&prefill_email=ada@example.com
/console/forms/quick_create?prefill_lead_source=event_booth_2026

Record detail is driven by roles, not a form binding

There is no object-level key that pins a form view to the record-detail screen. Detail rendering derives from the object's cross-surface semantic roles: nameField (display name), highlightFields (the strip of most important fields), stageField (the lifecycle progress stepper), and fieldGroups + Field.group (sectioning shared by forms, modals, and detail pages). When a record page needs a bespoke layout beyond what the roles derive, assign the object a custom Page.

Anti-patterns

• Two full hand-authored field lists (contact_create_form + contact_edit_form). Guaranteed drift.
• Restating field type / validation / options on the form. Data semantics live on the object only.
• Re-typing the grouping in every form. Declare field.group once; override only on real divergence.
• Adding structural nesting to the data model to satisfy a form. The model stays flat; the form groups.

Where to go next