Help CenterUnits & fieldsExplains
Who can edit a field: locked and API-only fields
Some fields are filled in only by the system, and some are written only by the API. Any value sent by someone who isn’t allowed is silently ignored, and the rest of the record is saved.
API-only fields
Turn it on for a field that an outside system owns, such as “Client number in accounting”. Everyone sees the field, but only the API can change it.
Automations and the assistant can’t write to it either, even when the assistant works inside a request made with an API key.
Source is a partial exception
The API, and a “Source” column mapped in an import, can write the source. It’s also stamped automatically: “Manual” for a record a person creates, and “Import” for one imported without a source column.
In the automation editor these fields show as disabled, and automations don’t write to them.
At a glance
Lock
Fields
Who writes them
Calculated
The system only
API only
Any field where you turn on API only
API keys and connected apps only
Tracking fields
The system (and the API for Source). No one edits them by hand, and automations don’t write them
Ads
The system only
If something goes wrong
What you see
Why
What to do
You edited a value and it wasn’t kept, even though saving worked
The field is locked for you.
Change it in the system that owns it, or turn off API only.
A message that the field can’t be made API only
The field is calculated.
Turn off the option.
Good to know
API only can’t be turned on for a calculated field, because nothing writes to it in the first place.
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