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Introduction to Form Descriptors

Form Descriptor (.fd) is a text based syntax that allows creating forms easily using text editor. Instead of building forms by hand in HTML or a GUI editor, you just write text.

Why build forms this way​

While drag and drop makes a pleasant UI, it has a few drawbacks:

  • Accessibility - it's not easy for everyone to work with drag-and-drop, it's not mobile friendly, and it gets really hard with large forms where you have to drag while scrolling.
  • Forms-as-code - Drag-and-drop UIs can't easily be managed as code. With text-based form descriptors, developers can manage the forms in their own code base, keep revisions, and control the Publish flow.
  • AI flows - LLMs are excellent with text. Text-based Form Descriptors are AI-friendly, and can be easily integrated into AI flows.
  • Complexity - over time, as there are more and more features, it becomes harder to find where exactly in the UI you can use some feature. With text-based syntax, everything is right in front of your eyes - just edit the text

Editing .fd in the Form Studio​

The Form Studio provides an editor that helps you write Form Descriptors without any mistakes. It does so in multiple ways:

  1. Use the AI at the top of the studio to give instructions to the agent, and get a fully functioning form built for you. You can have the agent create a new form with every prompt (the default), or edit the existing form. To make it edit the existing form, click the settings icon at the toolbar, and toggle the switch from Start from scratch to Edit existing form
  2. To get a list of block templates, type / at the beginning of any line in the editor. Use the arrows to select the template, and hit tab or enter to choose. The selected block will be added with all of its properties, and you can just modify the values or remove unneeded properties.
  3. Errors will be marked in red, and will also appear at the bottom of the screen. You will not be able to publish a form as long as it has errors.

The following sections will provide more details about: