> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.replyful.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Data fields

> Name the facts your customers' cases depend on, like an order number or booking reference. The handover form can ask for them, the chat AI recognises and saves them, processes mention them with @, and your team sees them on the ticket.

A data field is a fact about a customer's case that matters to your business: an order number for a shop, a booking reference for a hotel, a house number for property management. Create them under **AI agent → Tools → Data fields**.

## A field

| Setting | What it does |
| - | - |
| Name | What your team and visitors see, for example "Order number". |
| Key | How processes mention it, for example `@order_number`. Set when you create the field and fixed after that. |
| What it is | How the AI recognises the value in the chat and asks for it in plain words. Say what it looks like and where the customer finds it. |
| Type | **Text**, or **Choice** for a fixed list of options. |
| Format | For text, an optional pattern: `#` is a digit, `*` is a letter or digit, everything else must match as written. `ORD-######` accepts `ORD-482913` (and `ord-482913`, saved as `ORD-482913`). |
| Saved on | **This ticket**: asked again on the customer's next case. **The contact**: remembered for their later chats. Fixed after you create the field. |

You can give the field a label in each chat language. A language without one shows the name.

Removing a field takes it out of the handover and the AI. Values already saved stay on their tickets and contacts.

## Where fields are used

* **Handover.** Under **Details we ask for** on a chat channel's **General** tab, switch a data field on to ask for it in the [handover form](https://docs.replyful.com/chat/handover.md). Data fields are optional for the visitor, and one that's already saved is skipped.
* **The chat AI.** When a visitor gives a value for one of your fields, the AI saves it and doesn't ask for it again. A value that doesn't match the format isn't saved; the AI asks the visitor to check it. What the visitor typed in the handover form is never overwritten by the AI.
* **Processes.** Type `@` in a process's steps and pick a field: "Ask for the @order\_number if you don't have it yet." The AI asks for it unless it's already saved.
* **The ticket.** The side panel lists the case's data fields, with where each value came from. The [API](https://docs.replyful.com/api-reference/tickets/list.md#the-ticket-object) returns them as `dataFields`.

Values are customer data: they're erased with the ticket, or with the contact when you delete a contact's data.


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