🆕 Set any field as the primary field

📢 Info & Announcements
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Every database app in Tape has a primary field. It is used as the title for every record across Tape.

Until now, this was always the first field in the app. You can now choose any field without moving it, making records easier to recognize.

:sparkles: Where the primary field appears

Here are a few examples:

  • In the record header
  • In Home under Recently visited
  • In Favorites
  • In Search
  • In relation fields, where it appears by default unless another field is selected
  • In the calendar and when syncing with an external calendar such as Google Calendar
  • In Focus
  • In automations, manual runs, and run exports
  • When selecting a preview record in Customize record layout
  • In Calculation fields

Change the primary field once, and Tape uses it as the default record title across Tape.

:books: How to get started

  1. Open any database app, click ••• in the top-right corner, then select Customize record layout.
  2. Click the field you want to use as the record title.
  3. Scroll down and select Set as primary.
  4. Confirm the change.

The new primary field applies to every record in the database app. That is why Tape asks you to confirm the change.

:bulb: Use multiple fields in the record title

If one field is not enough to identify a record, create a Calculation field and build the record title using values from other fields in the same record.

  • For an invoice, combine the date, amount, customer, and invoice type:
    2026-09-01 | 96.39 USD | Northstar Museum | Outgoing invoice

  • For a task, combine the due date, task, priority, and status:
    2026-09-12 | Prepare project proposal | High priority | In progress

When a date is part of the title, place it first in YYYY-MM-DD format. This keeps the titles in chronological order when sorted. Use | to separate each part and make the title easier to scan.
When one of the included values changes, the record title updates automatically.

Set the Calculation field as the primary field, then change its display option to Always hide.
The Calculation field stays hidden in the full record layout, where the individual values may already be visible. Its value continues to identify the record in Home, relations, the calendar, and everywhere else.

See Using a Calculation field as the primary field for a step-by-step example.

:link: Start with a template

See ready-made examples of primary fields and calculated record titles, then adapt them to your own workflow. Duplicate the template workspace âž”

We hope this removes a few workarounds and makes record titles easier to manage.
Happy building.

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This is a great new feature. As I understand it, the primary field is just the title of the record, right? That’s cool, but we should go further than that.

Next step would be to mark the primary field as a primary key, uniquely identifying a record. And when Tape would not allow multiple records to have the same value as primary key, it would prevent duplicate records. Also see my feature request on this: Pre-insert record validation (or primary key)

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Hi @Erik_Mathlener

Exactly. With the primary field, it’s about choosing which field represents the record’s title. For example in Global Search, the record header, or relation fields.

The feature you’re describing is already in the works as well. We call it Must be unique and plan to offer it for single-line text, email, phone, and number fields. This will make it possible to build a straightforward duplicate check for CRM systems directly when records are created or updated.

Thanks!
Leo

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That’s really useful :clap:

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Perfect, Leo! It will make Tape even more wonderful. :+1: :+1:

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