Record reference fields

Record reference fields link a form submission to an existing record in Attio (e.g. linking a deal to a company, or a contact to an organisation). There are five resolution modes, each suited to different use cases.

Choosing a resolution mode

Open the field settings for any record reference field and select one of the five modes:

1. Hidden (fixed value)

The field is not shown to the respondent. A hardcoded Attio record ID is submitted every time.

Use case: Every submission should link to the same record (e.g. all support tickets linked to a specific product).

Setup: Paste the Attio record ID into the hidden value field. You can find this in the Attio record URL.

2. Field mapping (auto-resolve)

The record is looked up automatically by matching another visible field's value against an attribute on the target object.

Use case: A form collects a company name and you want to automatically find or create the matching Company record in Attio.

Setup:

1. Select the source field — which visible field on the form contains the lookup value
2. Select the match attribute — which attribute on the target object to match against
3. Optionally enable Create if not found — if no match is found, a new record is created with the matched value

3. Linked section

The record reference is resolved to the record created by a related object section on the same form.

Use case: Your form has a related People section and a record reference field that should point to the person created by that section.

Setup: Select the related object section from the dropdown.

4. Searchable (typeahead)

The respondent sees a search input and can type to find matching records in Attio via live search.

Use case: The respondent needs to choose from existing records but there are too many to show in a dropdown.

Setup: No additional configuration needed. Results are fetched from the Attio API as the user types.

Note: This mode exposes record names from your CRM to the form respondent. Only use this on internal or trusted forms.

5. Dropdown

Up to 25 records from the target object are loaded and displayed as a select dropdown.

Use case: The respondent needs to pick from a small, fixed set of records.

Setup: No additional configuration needed. Records are loaded when the form loads.

Which mode should I use?

Scenario	Recommended mode
Always link to the same record	Hidden
Auto-match based on another field	Field mapping
Link to a record created on this form	Linked section
Let the user search existing records	Searchable
Small set of records to choose from	Dropdown