Custom Fields & Metadata

Contract custom fields come in two kinds. They are defined in the same place (Custom Fields in the sidebar) but behave very differently once a contract is signed.

	Display Custom Fields	Operational Metadata
Who sets the value	People (or Smart Ingestion)	Mostly workflows
Where it appears in the editor	Details tab	Settings tab, "Operational Metadata"
Can enter the document body	Yes - drag it in the Designer	Never
After the contract locks	Frozen	Still editable
Audit chain action	custom_field_changed	metadata_changed

Display custom fields

Display fields hold user-entered document data - a governing law clause, a negotiated tier, a renewal answer. They appear on the contract's Details tab, and you can drag them into the document body in the Designer.

Because they can be part of what the parties sign, their value at sign time is hashed into the signed document. Once the contract locks, display fields freeze with it - changing one afterwards would require reverting to Draft (which the audit chain records).

Display fields are also captured automatically by Smart Ingestion: when you import a document, the extractor looks for values matching your display field labels (a "Governing Law" field picks up "governed by the laws of..." clauses) and fills them in on the created contract, with a custom_field_changed audit row per captured value.

Operational metadata

Metadata fields hold machine-stamped operational state - flags and values your workflows read and write, like auto_renew_enabled to gate a renewal cron, a Premium Tier select to branch workflow paths, or an Internal Vendor tag to filter notifications.

They never enter the document body, so they stay editable after signing - workflows (and admins) can keep stamping operational state on locked contracts without touching what was signed. In the contract editor they live on the Settings tab under "Operational Metadata". Every change is captured in the audit chain as metadata_changed.

Choosing a kind

Ask: should this value be frozen with the signed document?

• Yes, it's part of the deal -> Display custom field
• No, it's process state about the contract -> Operational metadata

The kind can be changed later on the Custom Fields page, but only while no locked contract holds a value for the field - the page shows which records would block the change.

Workflows

Both kinds can be referenced by workflow conditions. Workflow actions are kind-scoped: set_custom_field only writes display fields (and respects the editing lock), set_metadata only writes metadata fields (and ignores the lock by design).

See also

• Audit Trail & Tamper Detection - how field changes are chained
• Workflow Conditions - using fields to gate transitions