# Custom Fields on Incidents

Customize metadata fields for streamlined tracking and standardized information display.

The Custom Fields feature allows you to: 

- Enrich PagerDuty incidents with critical and helpful metadata throughout the incident lifecycle. 
- Flexibly define your preferred data.
- Standardize what information your incidents display. 
- Aggregate data from several existing systems and populate that information during incident response.

> **Availability:** This feature is available with PD Reliability Platform plans. It's also available with the Business, Enterprise for Incident Management, and Digital Operations (Legacy) pricing plans. [Contact Sales](https://www.pagerduty.com/contact-us/#contact-sales) to upgrade to a plan with this feature.

![An infographic displaying various objects related to incident response: Major Incident, Root Cause, Customers Impacted](/images/kb/dfe687fe5e0b254c2fbebfacd6ca6d39c7e695501456f3589b4734614a081edd-custom-fields-overview.webp)
*Custom Fields overview*

## Configure Custom Fields

### Create a Custom Field

After creating an [Incident Type](/incident-management/incidents/incident-types), you can add custom fields to that type. 

**Note**: Because Incident Types use inheritance, custom fields become available to that specific incident type and to its children.

> **Custom Fields Availability:** Custom field limits are determined by your plan and the incident type. Please note that disabled custom fields do count toward these limits.

| Plan | Base Incident Type Limit | Total Custom Fields Limit |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Business / PD Reliability Platform Essential | 15 Fields | 45 Fields |
| EIM / PD Reliability Platform Plus/Ultimate | 100 Fields | 130 Fields |

**How Limits Work**

Each plan has a set number of fields available for the Base Incident Type. You can then add additional custom fields to other Incident Types until you reach your account's total field limit. Each individual Incident Type has a maximum limit of 15 custom fields.

**Example:** If your plan allows for 15 fields on the Base Incident Type and 45 fields total:

You have 30 fields remaining to use across other types.

- You can add up to 15 fields per type (e.g., 15 for "Major Incident" and 15 for "Security Incident") until you hit that 45-field account total.

> **Required User Permissions:** Admins and the Account Owner can create, edit and delete fields.

To create a custom field:

1. Navigate to **Incidents**  →  **Incident Types**. 
2. Select an **Incident Type**, _or_ [create a new Incident Type](#create-an-incident-type).
3. With the **Fields** tab selected, click **New Field**.
4. Enter the following information:

| Field | Instructions |
| --- | --- |
| **Display Name** | Enter a logical name for the field that will display on incidents. |
| **Field Name** | Enter a name for use when referencing this field in the API. This field can only contain lowercase letters, numbers, and underscores. You cannot change this value after initial creation. |
| **Description** | Enter a description to help responders understand what this field is or how they should use it. |
| **Field Type** | Select a data type (for example, **Text**, **Single Select**, **Multi Select**). You cannot change this value after initial creation. |
| **Set a Default Value** _(Optional)_ | Pre-populate the field for new incidents to show a default value. This value does not apply to past incidents. |
| **Enable Field** | Select **Enable** or **Disable**. |

5. Click **Create Field**. Repeat these steps for as many fields as needed.

### Edit a Custom Field

1. Navigate to **Incidents**  →  **Incident Types**.
2. Select the Incident Type for which you want to edit the custom field.
3. To the right of your desired custom field, click   →  **Edit**.
4. Edit the details. 
5. Click **Update Field**.

### Disable a Custom Field

When you disable a field, it is no longer editable on new or existing incidents. However, this will not erase values from existing incidents (i.e., they will still be visible on the incident details page). You should disable fields when you want to maintain existing data but no longer need them.

1. Navigate to **Incidents**  →  **Incident Types**.
2. Select the **Incident Type** for which you want to disable a field.
3. To the right of your desired custom field, click   →  **Disable**.
4. In the confirmation modal, click **Disable**.

### Delete a Custom Field

> **Deletion Warning:** Deleting a field from an Incident Type permanently deletes the field for _all_ Incident Types. It also removes the field and values from existing incidents. This action cannot be undone.

1. Navigate to **Incidents**  →  **Incident Types**.
2. Select an Incident Type.
3. To the right of your desired field, select   →  **Delete**.
4. In the confirmation modal, click **Delete**.

## Field Types

You can specify the field data type when you add a Custom Field. Data types help standardize and validate field data, preventing users from entering incorrect data types into a field. The following field types are available:

- **Text**
- **Single Select**
- **Multiple Select**
- **Tag**
- **URL**
- **Checkbox**
- **Datetime**
- **Decimal**
- **Integer**
- **Paragraph**

> **Custom Field Limits by Type:** The following table shows the maximum character and quantity limits for each custom field type:

| Field Type | Max Characters | Max Quantity of Fields |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Text | 255 | 100 |
| Single Select | 100 | 100 |
| Multiple Select | 100 | 5 (100 selectable values) |
| Tag | 255 | 5 (55 selectable values) |
| URL | 500 | 10 |
| Checkbox | 2 | 100 |
| Datetime | 10 | 100 |
| Decimal | 10 | 100 |
| Integer | 5 | 100 |
| \*Paragraph | 2,000 | 5 |

\*indicates new field type

**Additional Requirements**

- **Single Select and Multiple Select:** Can have a maximum of 100 options each. Multiple Select fields support up to 200 option selections.
- **URL:** Only absolute URLs are allowed, and they must use one of the following schemes: http, https, tel.
- **Datetime:** Values must conform to either full-date or date-time [RFC3339, section 5.6.](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3339#section-5.6) Examples of supported values: `2022-03-14`, `2019-08-28T10:43:05Z`.

**Child Incident Types & Field Limits**

Field limits apply per **hierarchy branch**, not per **individual incident type.**

- Each top-level incident type (including children of the base incident) starts its own hierarchy with independent limits
- Fields on a parent type consume the limit for that entire branch (the parent + all its descendants)
- Sibling branches maintain separate limits and do not affect each other

> **Example:** If a base incident has 5 paragraph fields, the limit is maxed for that branch. However, if the base incident has 0 fields, a child type like "Major Incident" can use all 5 fields across itself and its children, while a sibling "Security Incident" branch gets its own separate 5-field allowance.

## View Custom Fields

> **Required User Permissions:** Users with permission to view and edit an incident can also view and edit that incident's Custom Fields.

There are two places to view Custom Fields on incidents:

**View Custom Fields in the Web App**

To view Custom Fields, navigate to an incident's details page and scroll to the **Custom Fields** section.

![A screenshot of the PagerDuty web app showing custom fields](/images/kb/29c5deefb8912d5990b204bb71f152b4d68355fd800f8fccd413d5d391d04b3a-custom-fields-incident-view.webp)
*Custom fields in the web app*

#### Edit Custom Field Values in the Web App

Custom Fields with default values are prefilled, but fields may also be left empty for the responder to fill in during incident response.

1. Navigate to an incident's details page. 
2. Click **Edit Fields** in the **Custom Fields** section.
3. In the right pane, enter your desired value(s) for each Custom Field.
4. Click **Save**.

When a responder updates a Custom Field's value, the action adds a log entry to the incident's timeline.

![A screenshot of the PagerDuty web app showing a custom field update in the incident timeline](/images/kb/430b0b4cb4d8ebd6f5739ed0801e775879df725ca8d9214646b191137a76eda4-Custom_field_in_the_incident_timeline.webp)
*Custom field update in the incident timeline*

**View Custom Fields in the Mobile App**

For incidents with Custom Fields defined, you can view them in the mobile app on the incident's details screen.

- On iOS, you can do this by selecting the **Triage** tab and scrolling to the **Custom Fields** section. 
- On Android, you can do this by selecting the **Triage** tab, scroll to the Incident Type (e.g., Security Incident, Major Incident) section to view the custom fields. An **i** icon indicates they are the custom fields.

If there are more than three Custom Fields defined, tap **Show More** to expand the section and view all Custom Fields.

![A screenshot of the PagerDuty mobile app showing custom fields on an incident](/images/kb/f456737c04dbdb51edae5b6f29da0bd9c86d5fc82dc1eb0b5c272d1ae45a080d-custom_fields_mobile.webp)
*Custom fields in the mobile app*

#### Edit Custom Field Values in the Mobile App

1. Navigate to an incident's details page by tapping the incident.
2. Under **Custom Fields** in iOS or under the Incident Type (e.g., Security Incident, Major Incident) section in Android, tap **Edit Custom Fields**. 
3. Enter your desired value(s) for each Custom Field.
4. Tap **Save**.

![Edit Custom Field values in the mobile app](/images/kb/425854f21cc64b54606c913a5699589c6161a60bfdc314b357a62c4cac323b8b-edit-custom-fields-mobile.png)

When a responder updates a Custom Field's value, the action adds a log entry to the incident's timeline.

![A screenshot of the PagerDuty mobile app showing a custom field update in the incident timeline](/images/kb/f0eb2c9cf4f3256a0d62ff0538be99fc24d4112e57b798e4a33dc6118e093559-edit-custom-fields-mobile-timeline.png)
*Custom field update in the mobile app incident timeline*

## FAQ

**What happens to active incidents if I add or remove a Custom Field?**

Custom Fields apply across all incidents on an account. This means that if you create a new Custom Field, it will appear on all incidents previously created in your account. Similarly, if you delete a Custom Field, it will no longer appear on incidents in your account.

When adding a new field, default values do not apply to previously created incidents — those incidents will have `null` values.

**How many Custom Fields can I create?**

Customers with a Business pricing plan can create up to 15 active Custom Fields on incidents. Customers with an Enterprise for Incident Management plan can create an additional 15 Custom Fields, for a total of 30. 

Contact the [Sales team](https://www.pagerduty.com/contact-us/#contact-sales) to upgrade to a plan with more Custom Fields.

**How can I analyze or run a report on Custom Fields data?**

Custom Fields are supported in the [Incident Activity](/incident-management/analytics/insights/incident-activity) report and can be added as additional columns to the report.

**How can I sync PagerDuty Custom Fields with ServiceNow incident record fields?**

Refer to the [Custom Field Mappings](/integrations/servicenow-integration-guide/advanced-servicenow-configuration#incident-types-and-custom-field-mappings) article for more information on bi-directionally syncing PagerDuty Custom Fields with ServiceNow Incident record fields.

**How can I set Custom Field values with Event Orchestration?**

Refer to the [Event Orchestration](/ai-automation/aiops/event-orchestration#custom-fields) article for more information.

**How can I update Custom Field values with Slack?**

Refer to the [Slack User Guide](/integrations/slack-integration-guide/slack-user-guide#dedicated-channel-commands) for more information.

**How can I update Custom Field values with Microsoft Teams?**

Refer to the [Microsoft Teams User Guide](/integrations/microsoft-teams/microsoft-teams-user-guide#update-custom-fields) for more information.