---
title: "Building and publishing a form"
description: "The field types Forms ships with, conditional show/hide logic, fine-tuning fields in the visual editor, and publishing a protected, branded public form."
---
# Building and publishing a form
This page covers designing a form's fields and getting it in front of respondents — through chat, the visual editor, or both. It's written for whoever is putting the form together, with a JSON reference partway through for anyone scripting form creation directly.
## Field types {#field-types}
Forms ships with 11 field types out of the box. Ask the agent for any of them by name, or describe the question and let it pick:
Each field is a JSON object under the hood, whether the agent writes it or you script `create-form` directly:
```json
{
"id": "team_size",
"type": "select",
"label": "Team size",
"placeholder": "Select...",
"description": "Roughly how many people are on your team?",
"required": true,
"options": ["1-5", "6-20", "21-100", "100+"],
"validation": {
"min": 1,
"max": 100,
"pattern": "^[0-9]+$",
"message": "Enter a number"
},
"width": "half"
}
```
`id`, `type`, `label`, and `required` are the only required properties. `options` is required for `select`, `multiselect`, and `radio`; `validation` (`min`/`max`/`pattern`/`message`) is optional and type-appropriate; `width` is `"full"` (default) or `"half"` for a side-by-side layout.
## Conditional fields
A field can stay hidden until an earlier answer matches a rule:
```json
{
"id": "other_use_case",
"type": "text",
"label": "Tell us more",
"required": false,
"conditional": {
"fieldId": "use_case",
"operator": "equals",
"value": "Other"
}
}
```
`fieldId` must reference a field that appears **earlier** in the form — a forward or missing reference is rejected before it can be saved. The supported operators are `equals`, `not_equals`, and `contains` (the last one matches against multi-select arrays too). When a field is hidden by its condition, its value is stripped before the response is stored or delivered to any integration — a hidden field never leaks a stale or default value into your data.
## Fine-tuning visually
Once a form exists, open its builder to edit labels, placeholders, required state, options, and field order directly — useful when you want pixel-level control rather than describing the change in chat. The builder has four tabs: Edit, Responses, Settings, and Integrations.
Beta signuppublished
EditResponses 187SettingsIntegrations
Beta signup
Reserve a spot in the upcoming private beta cohort.
Full name
Work email
Your role
Team size
"
}
/>
## Publishing
A form moves through three statuses:
| Status | Meaning | Public access |
| ----------- | ---------------------------------------- | ---------------------- |
| `draft` | Work in progress, not publicly available | No |
| `published` | Live and accepting responses | Yes |
| `closed` | No longer accepting responses | Shows a closed message |
A form can't be published if it has no fields, any field is missing a label, or a `select`/`multiselect`/`radio` field has no options — publishing is rejected with the specific reason so it's easy to fix.
The public URL is `/f/`, where the slug is generated from the title plus a short unique suffix (`beta-signup-a1b2c3`) and regenerates automatically whenever the title changes, unless you set a custom slug. For a form meant to be genuinely anonymous, create it with `status: "published"` from the start and use the exact public URL the create step returns, rather than assuming a later publish step.
## Protecting and branding a public form
**Captcha.** Public submissions can require [Cloudflare Turnstile](https://www.cloudflare.com/products/turnstile/) verification — opt-in by setting a site key and secret key in Settings. Turnstile is on top of two always-on defenses: a hidden honeypot field that silently discards bot submissions, and a minimum fill-time check that rejects anything submitted faster than a human plausibly could.
Both Turnstile keys need to be set together. The public form page only renders
the captcha widget (and produces a token) when the site key is configured, and
the server only verifies that token when it exists — so setting just the
secret key verifies nothing, and setting just the site key shows a widget the
server never checks.
**Branding.** Every standalone public form shows a small "Built with Agent Native" badge in the bottom corner. It isn't a per-form setting — it's hidden automatically only when the form is embedded inside another page, such as an embedded feedback popover, since that context already carries its host app's own branding.
**Anonymous mode.** Set `anonymous: true` on a form's settings for genuine anonymity: submissions on that form skip capturing the request IP, the submitter's session or claimed email, the page URL, the client surface, and any chat/run ids — none of it is ever written, not just hidden later. This is different from an ordinary published form, which is publicly reachable but still records who and where a response came from when that information is available.
Customer feedback
Tell us what is and isn't working.
Overall satisfaction★★★★☆
What could be better?
Verify you're humanCloudflare Turnstile widget
Built with Agent Native"
}
/>
One more setting worth knowing: `allowedOrigins` restricts which origins may submit to the form cross-origin — handy when embedding a form's submit endpoint in another site's widget. Leaving it unset allows any origin, matching how a plain public form link behaves today.
## What's next
- [**Forms**](/docs/template-forms) — the product overview
- [**Responses, insights, and destinations**](/docs/template-forms-responses) — what happens after a submission arrives
- [**Forms — data model and actions**](/docs/template-forms-developers) — the `FormField`/`FormSettings` schema and every action
- [**Messaging**](/docs/messaging) — connecting Slack for submission notifications