---
title: Improvements to data fields
date: 2026-09-21
slug: data-fields-rebuilt
---

Data fields now hold just a name, format and options. Everything about how an agent uses a field lives on that agent, and the Data fields page has a new design.

- **Email and Website are included by default**, ready for every agent to use. You still choose which fields each agent collects.
- **Work-email restriction extends to during-session fields.** **Only allow work emails** was previously available only on fields collected before a session; it now applies to fields collected during one as well. A visitor's known email is reused and not asked for again.
- **Written input is decided per agent.** **Require written input** moved from the shared field to each agent's configuration, so the same field can take spoken answers on one agent and typed answers on another. Email and Website, which always required typing, can now be configured too.
- **Field descriptions became agent instructions.** The shared description on a field is gone; existing descriptions moved into the custom instructions of the agents that use the field, which guide both what an agent asks during a session and how it infers values afterwards.
- **The Data fields page now matches the rest of Handhold.** It uses the same table layout as every other page: click a row to open the field, edit or delete it in one dialog, and manage select options as a simple list.