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What you’ll learn: how fields work: types, required and unique, default values, and text transforms.What you’ll build: three user-input fields on the Marketing governance model: Campaign Name (Text), Launch Date (Date), Destination URL (URL).Prerequisites: Part 2: Create your governance model.

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Why this matters

Fields are the atoms of Terminus Hub. Everything else (picklists, taxonomies, computed URLs) either produces a field, references a field, or wraps a field. Getting the first three right sets the shape of every campaign record you create: campaigns need a name, a launch date, and a destination URL. The settings you choose now (required, unique, lowercased, underscored) are what make later steps, like assembling the UTM Campaign field, reliable.

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Concepts first

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Fields are defined once, on the governance model

A field is a definition on the governance model. Any taxonomy in the same governance model can reference it. You will see this pay off in Part 8, when the same Campaign Name field appears on all three taxonomies without being redefined. This part only creates the definitions. Nothing is connected to a taxonomy yet.

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User-input versus computed fields

Field types split into two families. User-input fields (Text, URL, Date, Dropdown) accept a value a person types or picks. Computed fields (Concatenation, Tagged URL, QR Code, Auto-fill, Auto Number, Random, Constant, Terminus ID) are generated by the system from other fields, so a submitter never types their value directly. A Short URL is generated too, but depending on its slug mode a submitter may be able to edit the slug. This part adds three user-input fields. Part 7 adds the generated chain on top of them.
There is no generic “number” or “true/false” field type. A sequential counter is the Auto Number computed type, and a fixed value is the Constant computed type. See the field reference for the full catalog.

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Names and handles

A field’s Name is what people see on forms, so write it the way you would say it: Campaign Name, with spaces and capitals. When you save a new field, Terminus generates its Field handle from the name, so Campaign Name becomes campaign_name. You can see it under Additional options. Renaming the field later does not change its handle. You rarely need the handle; it shows up as a column header when you export a CSV in Part 8.

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Common field settings

A few settings show up on most user-input fields:
  • Required: a submission with this field blank cannot be approved.
  • Require unique values (Text fields): no two rows in the account can share the value. The check covers every record and every submission row, drafts included, in every taxonomy and workspace that uses the field.
  • Default value: the starting value when someone opens a new row.
  • Description: help text shown to the submitter with the field.

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Text transforms

Text fields can reshape whatever the user types before it is stored. Two transforms matter for this tutorial:
  • Transform case set to lowercase: “Black Friday 2026” becomes black friday 2026.
  • Transform spaces set to Replace with underscore (_): black friday 2026 becomes black_friday_2026.
Applied together, a Campaign Name of “Black Friday 2026” is stored as black_friday_2026. That is what makes it safe to drop into a URL in Part 7 without manual cleanup.

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Step by step

1

Open the new-field form

With the Marketing governance model open, click Fields in the sidebar, then Create new, and pick the field type from the list. For the first field, pick Text.
2

Create Campaign Name (Text)

Name: Campaign Name. Required is already on for a new field; leave it on, and turn on Require unique values. Set Transform case to lowercase and Transform spaces to Replace with underscore (_). Click Save to draft. The field appears in the governance model’s field list.Worked example: a user types Black Friday 2026. The transforms fire in order, case first (black friday 2026), then spaces (black_friday_2026). The stored value is black_friday_2026.
3

Create Launch Date (Date)

Click Create new again and pick Date. Name: Launch Date. Under Date format, use the + button (Add date part) to add Year, then Month, then Day. Set the month and day formats to padded (two digits), then type _ in the separator box (sep) so the parts are joined by underscores. New parts start as numeric, which would render March 5 as 2026_3_5 instead of 2026_03_05. With padded parts and the underscore, November 15 renders as 2026_11_15; the preview next to the separator box shows today’s date in the format. Set Default value to today and Minimum date to today. Click Save to draft. The new field appears below Campaign Name.
4

Create Destination URL (URL)

Click Create new once more and pick URL. Name: Destination URL. In Allowed protocols, keep https and remove http so only secure addresses are accepted. Leave Default value blank. Click Save to draft. The third field appears in the list.
Screenshot coming soon: Part 3 field list.

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Check your work

  • Three fields exist on the Marketing governance model: Campaign Name, Launch Date, Destination URL.
  • Campaign Name is Text with Required, Require unique values, lowercase, and replace-spaces-with-underscore set.
  • Launch Date is Date, formatted year, padded month, padded day joined by _ (so 2026_11_15), with today as both the default value and the minimum date.
  • Destination URL is URL and accepts only https addresses.
  • None of the fields are connected to a taxonomy yet. That happens in Part 8.

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What you just built

The governance model has its first three fields. None are computed and none are on a form yet. They are sitting in the shared field library, waiting to be referenced.

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Gotchas

  • Field type cannot change after the field is created. If you picked the wrong type, delete the field and create it again. There is no “change type” control.
  • Required with no default means the submission cannot be approved until a value is entered. Launch Date sidesteps this because its default is today. Campaign Name has no default, so the submitter must type something.
  • Unique means unique across the whole account. Because Campaign Name requires unique values, black_friday_2026 can exist in only one row: one record or one submission row, even a draft. In Part 8 you give every row, and every taxonomy’s submission, its own campaign name.
  • Lowercase applies to the stored value, not just the display. Once saved, the value really is lowercase, and computed fields downstream see the transformed version, not the original.
  • A URL field that allows only https rejects http:// input at validation time. This is deliberate: tagged URLs should not fall back to insecure destinations.

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Next up

Part 4: Static picklists. Create the Goals picklist and its Goal dropdown field. For everything a field type can do, see the field reference.