How to connect a form field to live data with binding chips

When you build a form in Form Studio, you often want a field to automatically show information that came from an earlier step in your workflow — a customer name pulled from an intake form, an amount from an invoice, or a reference number generated upstream. Instead of retyping that value, you can bind the field directly to that data.

Once a field is bound, Form Studio shows a small chip right on the canvas so you always know, at a glance, exactly where a field's value is coming from.

What a binding chip looks like

Here's a form with two fields. The first one is bound correctly. The second one lost its source.

• "Vendor name" shows a blue chip reading 2 ▷ Notify Vendor Subject. This tells you the value comes from step 2 of your workflow ("Notify Vendor"), specifically its "Subject" field. As long as that step keeps producing a Subject value, this field will always show it — no manual re-entry needed.
• "Order reference" shows an amber chip with a warning icon: ⚠ Confirm Order Order Reference. The amber color and warning icon mean the binding is broken — usually because the step it pointed to ("Confirm Order") was renamed, removed, or no longer produces that field. Hovering over the icon explains this directly: "This binding is broken. Edit in the Properties Panel to re-bind."

This is the entire point of the chip: you never have to guess whether a field is live-connected or just holding static text, and you never have to discover a broken connection by testing the form — the canvas tells you immediately.

Where this shows up in the builder

Here's the same fields in context, inside the Form Studio canvas:

The chip appears directly under the field's label, right on the canvas — you don't need to open the field's settings panel just to check whether it's bound or to what.

How to fix a broken binding

If you see the amber warning chip:

1. Click the field to select it, then open its Properties panel.
2. Look at the data binding setting — it will show the same broken reference.
3. Re-pick the correct source step and field. If the original step was renamed, just re-select it under its new name. If it was removed, choose a different step that produces the value you need.
4. Save. The chip should immediately turn back to blue once the binding resolves.

Why this matters

Binding chips turn an invisible, easy-to-miss connection ("is this field wired up correctly?") into something you can literally see while you're building — so problems get caught while you're designing the form, not after a real customer submits it.