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An option filter narrows which of a picklist’s options a dropdown offers, for one taxonomy (or one workspace), without editing the picklist itself. The picklist stays whole; only the form is restricted.
You often want one shared picklist but a different slice of it per taxonomy. A UTM Mediums list might hold email, social, and cpc, while your Email Campaigns taxonomy should only offer email. Rather than cloning the picklist three ways, add the same dropdown to each taxonomy and apply an option filter on each. A filter is set on the field’s placement in a taxonomy, not on the field or picklist. The same control is also available per workspace, so one taxonomy can show different options in different workspaces.

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Include vs exclude

There are two filter modes, and the difference is what happens to options you add later:
  • Exclude (a denylist): show everything except the codes you hide. New options added to the picklist later appear automatically. In the editor this reads “Use all options, hide a few.”
  • Include (an allowlist): show only the codes you choose. New options added to the picklist later stay hidden until you add them to the filter. In the editor this reads “Only specific options I choose.”
A filter uses one mode or the other, never both. Pick include when the slice is fixed and you want new options vetted before they show. Pick exclude when the dropdown should track the picklist and you are just trimming a few.

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Filter options on a taxonomy

1

Build the shared picklist and field once

Create a UTM Mediums static picklist with the codes email, social, and cpc. Create a Dropdown field named utm_medium pointed at that picklist. The filter is not a setting on the field, so leave the field as-is.
2

Add the dropdown to a taxonomy

Open the Email Campaigns taxonomy and add utm_medium to its field list.
3

Open the filter for that field

On the utm_medium row in the taxonomy editor, open the option-filter control. Choose Only specific options I choose (include) and tick email. Save.
4

Repeat per taxonomy

On Social Campaigns, add utm_medium and include only social. On Ad Campaigns, include only cpc. Each taxonomy keeps its own filter, so the same field shows a different slice in each.
5

Confirm the picklist is untouched

Open the UTM Mediums picklist. All three codes are still there. The filter changed only what the form offers.
To check it: start a submission on Email Campaigns and the utm_medium dropdown offers only email; on Social Campaigns, only social.

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Filter options per workspace

The same control exists per workspace, on a taxonomy’s workspace connection. Use it when one team should see a narrower set than another while sharing the taxonomy. Both filters apply together: if a taxonomy-level filter and a workspace-level filter both restrict a field, an option must pass both to appear.

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Worked example

You ship one UTM Mediums picklist (email, social, cpc) and place utm_medium in three taxonomies:
  • Email Campaigns: include email. Later you add a newsletter code to the picklist; it stays hidden here until you add it to the filter.
  • Ad Campaigns: exclude email and social. The dropdown shows cpc today, and any new paid-channel code you add to the picklist (say display) shows up automatically.
  • Social Campaigns: include social.
Same picklist, three different forms, and the picklist remains the single place you maintain the codes.

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Gotchas

  • The picklist is unchanged. A filter narrows the form only. The full list is still readable through the API and still usable by other taxonomies. Use a filter to focus the form, not to control access.
  • Include hides new options; exclude reveals them. This is the decision that bites people. Choose include when new options must be vetted first, exclude when the dropdown should follow the picklist.
  • Previously chosen values survive a tighter filter. If you tighten a filter after records exist, a record that already selected a now-hidden code keeps that value when you re-save it. Brand-new submissions cannot pick the hidden code. Hiding an option this way is not the same as deleting it: deleting an option from the picklist invalidates the value even on existing rows. See validation and rules.
  • Filters do not cascade. On a cascading dropdown, the filter narrows the dropdown it is set on. Child dropdowns still offer every child of whatever the parent selected. The taxonomy and workspace filters are applied after the cascade narrowing.
  • Dropdown fields only. A filter is rejected on any other field type. Text, URL, date, and computed fields do not accept one.
  • An empty allowlist would empty the dropdown. An include filter with nothing ticked leaves the form with no options to choose. The editor flags this. To remove a field from a taxonomy entirely, take it out of the field list instead.