# Field keys

The short names Zapier, Make, n8n, AI agents and your own code use for the fields of a form: where to find them, and how to keep them stable.

## What they are for

When Zapier, Make, n8n, an AI agent or your own code fills in a request or reads the answers, it names each field by its key. A question titled “Company name” gets the key `company_name`. You only need to care about keys if a workflow uses your form.

## Where to find them

![The Fields tab of the editor's side panel with three sections: Questions listing Company name, Company website and Work email with their type icons and keys, Hidden Fields with vendor\_id, and AI Validation with the two checks named by their sentences and their keys website\_check and email\_domain.](https://formstep.io/docs/images/requests/keys-table.png)

The Fields tab lists every key, and you can change each one in place.

In the editor, click **Fields** (the key icon) on the right edge. On a phone, it is in the top bar’s **⋯** menu. The tab lists every key: questions with their options, hidden fields, calculated fields and [AI Validations](https://formstep.io/docs/building-forms/ai-validation/). Click a field’s name to jump to it in the form.

You do not have to set anything: a key comes from the question’s title until you change it. To choose your own, type it in the Fields tab. Use letters, digits and underscores. Each key must be unique in the form. A title with no Latin letters, such as one in Arabic or Chinese, gets a key like `field_3`, so give it a readable one if a workflow reads it.

## Keys stay the same after publishing

From the first publish on, each field keeps its key:

- Rewording a question keeps the key. “Company name” renamed to “Legal entity name” is still `company_name`.

- Moving a question, or changing its type, keeps the key.

- Duplicating a question gives the copy a new key.

> **Changing a published key breaks workflows**
>
> If you type a new key on a published form, every workflow that uses the old one stops matching once you publish. Update the workflow at the same time.

## When a key is about to disappear

Deleting a question and adding a new one in its place gives the new question a new key, so workflows lose that answer. Publishing warns you first and names the field. To keep your workflows working, open the **Fields** tab and type the old key on the new field. If you removed the field on purpose, publish anyway and update the workflows.

## Option keys

Every choice of a choice question, and every row and column of a matrix, has a key of its own too, such as `pro` for the choice “Pro plan”. A workflow can check which choice was picked in any language the recipient used. Option keys come from the label, you can change them in the Fields tab, and they stay the same after publishing.

Developers: [Create requests from code](https://formstep.io/docs/developers/requests-api/) shows how keys appear in what a workflow sends and receives.

## Next steps

[Send a request](https://formstep.io/docs/requests/creating-requests/) — Prefill and lock fields for one person

[Troubleshooting requests](https://formstep.io/docs/requests/troubleshooting/) — When a workflow stops matching after an edit