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Webinar Recap: Automating Work with Quickbase AI Features
5 MIN READ During the session, our product experts explored how customers can use the Quickbase Intelligence Pack to accelerate app building, automate repetitive work, and unlock insights while maintaining the security and governance you expect from Quickbase. We also shared a preview of upcoming capabilities. Read the recap and answers to questions asked live below. Quickbase Intelligence Package What is the Quickbase Intelligence Pack? The Quickbase Intelligence Pack adds AI-powered capabilities to Quickbase that help builders, end users, and administrators work more efficiently. Current capabilities include: AI Agent AI Actions Data Analyzer App Intelligence AI Control Center These features are designed to accelerate application development, automate repetitive work, surface operational insights, and provide enterprise-grade security and governance. Who can use the Intelligence Pack? The Intelligence Pack is available to customers who purchase the Intelligence Pack add-on. Current Quickbase customers can activate a free 60-day trial from the Realm Administration page. What AI capabilities are planned next? The product team previewed several upcoming enhancements: Knowledge Layer – enables the AI Agent to answer questions using company documentation such as SOPs, manuals, SharePoint content, compliance documents, and onboarding materials. Schema Management – allows the AI Agent to update reports, dashboards, forms, relationships, and other application components through conversation. Workflow Agent – generates, validates, simulates, and prepares complete Pipelines for review before activation. The first version of the Knowledge Layer is expected before the end of the year. AI Agent Can the AI Agent build Quickbase applications? Yes. Alex demonstrated an application that was built entirely using the AI Agent, including: Tables Relationships Fields Sample data The AI Agent can significantly accelerate initial app creation. Can the AI Agent analyze reports and explain unusual values or outliers? Yes—with some limitations. The AI Agent cannot currently analyze an existing report directly. However, it can: Query tables and apps the user has permission to access Join data from multiple tables Generate reports through conversation Explain unusual values or outliers in the returned data Can AI Agent manage reports or dashboards? The upcoming schema management capabilities will allow AI Agent to create and manage reports and dashboards through conversations. Note: these can be created in the conversation, but can't yet be saved as Quickbase reports. AI Actions What are AI Actions? AI Actions are Pipeline steps designed to automate repetitive manual work. They use AI to perform tasks such as: Extracting information from documents Classifying incoming requests Generating summaries Drafting resolutions Assigning work Creating structured outputs Can AI input data into Quickbase? Yes. AI-generated structured output can populate Quickbase fields through AI Actions. AI can generate values (such as assignments, summaries, classifications, or recommendations), and those outputs can be written directly into records as part of a Pipeline. How do AI Actions avoid hallucinations? Rather than relying solely on the language model, AI Actions can incorporate existing Quickbase data into prompts. For example, Alex's demo searched previous closed requests and used those historical resolutions to draft a suggested resolution for a new ticket. This grounds the AI's response in organizational knowledge instead of generating an answer from scratch. How are search results used during the Draft Resolution example? The Pipeline: Searches previously closed requests. Filters for similar requests. Passes those historical records into the AI prompt. Uses those prior resolutions to draft a suggested resolution. Writes the draft back into the new request record. This allows the AI to leverage previous organizational knowledge rather than inventing a solution. Can you share more about the Query step used in the demo? The query searched the Requests table and filtered records based on: Status = Closed Matching category Matching related products Only those filtered historical records were passed into the AI Action. How does AI classify request priority if users always write "URGENT" or "ASAP"? We recommend including business rules directly within the AI prompt. For example, prompts can instruct the AI to: Evaluate the severity of the request Avoid relying solely on words like "urgent" or "ASAP" Score urgency based on the overall context This allows organizations to prevent users from artificially inflating request priority. Are AI Actions limited by document size? The current supported file size limit is 3 MB. There are plans to increase this limit to 10 MB. Is example YAML available for AI Pipelines? Yes. The Quickbase Help documentation includes an example YAML definition for AI Actions pipelines. Security & Governance Does the Intelligence Package respect user permissions? Yes, it honors existing Quickbase security, roles, and permissions. Users can only access data they already have permission to view, and AI responses are grounded only in that accessible data. Are there safeguards to prevent accidental deletion of records? Yes. If a user asks the AI Agent to delete records: The AI first verifies that the user has permission. The AI displays what will be deleted. The user must explicitly confirm before deletion occurs. Can AI be enabled only for certain users or features? Yes. The AI Control Center allows Realm Administrators to: Enable or disable individual AI features Grant access by user or group Roll out AI capabilities gradually Maintain governance and audit controls Performance Will AI Agents slow down Quickbase? No significant performance impact should be seen. AI-generated queries are different from traditional in-memory formula queries and are not expected to introduce meaningful system slowdowns. Integrations Will Quickbase connect directly with Claude or ChatGPT? Currently, A ChatGPT Pipelines channel is available. A Claude integration is under consideration, but a decision will not be finalized for a few months. Licensing Can I use the Builder Program to build AI proofs of concept? No, the Builder Program does not currently include Intelligence Pack capabilities. Forward Deployed Engineers (FDE) What is a Forward Deployed Engineer? Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) work directly with customers to identify AI opportunities and implement production-ready AI workflows. Their work typically includes: Evaluating AI readiness Reviewing application schema Designing AI use cases Building AI pipelines Coaching customers on AI prompt design and implementation Customers interested in working with an FDE should contact their Account Executive or Customer Success team. Ready to dive deeper into the AI Discussion? Join our App Builder Qrew Meetup on Tuesday, August 18 for a virtual discussion on how others are using the Quickbase Intelligence Package. You’ll hear real-world examples and use cases from customers marking the most of AI Agent and AI Actions. Reserve Your Spot > Or, try the features for yourself. Start a free Intelligence Pack Trial >Inside Pipelines: June Improvements from the Engineering Team
2 MIN READ Most engineering teams spend a lot of time thinking about what's next. We do too. But over the past year we've also started protecting one day each month to improve what's already there. Around the team, we call it "Delightful Pipelines Day." It's a chance to focus on the smaller improvements that make building Pipelines just a little easier. The search that doesn't stick. The extra click. The workflow that slows you down just enough to notice. Most of the changes we make are small enough that you probably won't notice them in the release notes. But over time, they add up. We hope they make Pipelines a little easier to use every day. We'll keep sharing these updates each month so you can see what we've been working on behind the scenes. Naming Help Naming things is hard. We added a Suggest Name option that looks at your pipeline and proposes a name based on what it's doing. Use it if it’s helpful, or Dismiss if you already have a better name. Keeping your place when you're searching You search the dashboard and several similar pipelines appear. You open the most promising one. Wrong pipeline. You go back to try another. Previously, your search was gone. That meant entering it again and rebuilding your shortlist. Now, your search and results stay with you when you return, so you can move on to the next candidate without starting over. This works in both My Pipelines and Realm Admin. Filters should remember what you already told them We also noticed something while configuring filters. If you switched from one field to another with the same data type, your filter selections disappeared and had to be re-enetered. Now your filter selections stay with you when you switch between fields of the same data type. They'll only reset if you switch to a different type. It's a small change, but if you're building more complex pipelines, it removes one more repetitive step. A few other things we fixed This month we also: Improved the loading state while a pipeline opens so you no longer briefly see internal IDs. Added descriptions to Pipeline Tags, making it easier to understand what a tag is meant to represent. Sorted Pipeline Tags alphabetically in the Tags view. Improved canvas panning when working in larger pipelines. Updated documentation links for AI Actions. Made filter names more consistent with Quickbase reports. That’s June. That's what we spent this month's “Delightful Pipelines Day” working on. Some of these ideas came from customer feedback. Others came from things we noticed ourselves while building and testing Pipelines. We'll do it again next month. If there's something in Pipelines that makes you think, "There has to be a better way," let us know in the product Feedback, or add a comment below. Those are often the best kinds of improvements to work on. See you next month.4 Minutes with Qrew Legend Tammie King
1 MIN READ In this quick 4-minute video, Tammie shares what she loves about being part of a community of Quickbase users who learn from and support each other. Take a few minutes to watch Tammie’s story and get inspired by what’s possible when Quickbase builders connect. Watch the video: Want to meet more builders like Tammie? Connect with the Qrew on the community site and connect with your local Quickbase community. Want to connect with local Quickbase users in your area? We can help make introductions Join the online Qrew here Discover Qrew Groups Explore upcoming Qrew events Want to get a calendar reminder each month to upcoming virtual Qrew Meetups? Click here to sign upThank You, Qrew
3 MIN READ To The Qrew, My time at Quickbase is coming to an end. Wednesday, July 29 th will be my last day with the company. After 8 wonderful years working with Quickbase customers and partners, I’m logging off and starting a new challenge elsewhere. I’ll never forget Empower 2019 in Miami. During the keynote, Product Managers were on stage being treated like celebrities. Customers sat in the audience and gave raucous ovations to announcements to things like Dashboards and Formulas and Automations. Customers discussed tips and tricks while standing in line for breakfast, laptops were open everywhere and the only topic being discussed was Quickbase. The only complaint I heard all week was from customers who couldn’t fit into the most popular sessions. Fear not, those sessions would be offered again later in the week. It was Disneyland for no-code problem solvers. I couldn’t believe the level of enthusiasm radiating through the room. Prior to Quickbase, I worked at companies where it was rare to see any form of passion other than sheer anger coming from customers towards the vendor. Quickbase was different, the customers clearly loved the product. The main takeaway from Empower Miami was about this community. The talent, the passion, the creativity, there were so many individuals who had their careers catapulted into something new and awesome because of how well they gravitated towards using software Legos to build custom databases. It was infectious. In 2023, the opportunity to make a change in my career arrived, and I jumped on it. I became a Community Manager. But first we needed a name. Enter “The Qrew”. A collective of problem-solvers who just get it. Next we needed a way to celebrate the individuals who went above and beyond for this Community. We created The Qrew Legend Award, and I was so proud to see Mark Shnier, Sharon Faust, and Tammie King become the first three recipients. Legends indeed! Qrew Groups expanded from virtual-only to being held in-person. Online we met over Pipelines and Governance and whatever else you were willing to share. I’ll miss the meetups. At some point a Discord server was created and I started participating. I was there mostly to listen, but soon after joining it became one of my favorite ways to connect with Qrew members. And finally, yes. Empower came back. The conversations in the breakfast buffet were about Pipelines and Jinja now; while the energy of this community hasn’t changed, the product certainly has. It’s still incredible to me what you all can do with a Quickbase app. The Qrew has an amazing team here at HQ keeping this train moving. Esther LaVielle and Maria Peralta are Qrew diehards, committed to giving you the best community experience possible. Caroline Englert will oversee The Qrew as well as our Advocacy efforts. As someone who has worked closely with Caroline for so long, there’s no one I would rather have run this incredible community than her. Be good to her or you’ll hear from me! I want to thank you for this incredible experience. A great product is useless without great users. I loved seeing the infinite ways Qrew members were solving problems at their respective companies. Quickbase the product + The Qrew is a power duo that will thrive in the years ahead. You taught me about the value a strong community can bring to a business, and more importantly, to each other. I won’t forget it. Forever grateful, BenA New Product Feedback Experience Is Coming to Quickbase
6 MIN READ This August, we're moving to a new feedback experience in Quickbase. You'll still be able to share suggestions and feature requests with our Product team, and everything you've shared so far will move with you. Here's what's changing, why we're making the move, and what you can expect. Why we're making this change The technology behind our current feedback tool is being retired, so we're moving to a new experience that lets you keep sharing. The new experience also organizes feedback differently. Instead of a long list of individual requests, you’ll see Ideas that our Product Managers have grouped together based on related feedback. You can vote on the Ideas that matter most to you, follow their progress, and help our Product Managers better understand where customers see the biggest opportunities. Feedback and Ideas The new experience, is built around two concepts: Feedback and Ideas. Feedback is what you submit: a request, a pain point, or a suggestion. Your feedback goes straight to our Product team and stays private to your account or organization. Ideas are what our Product Managers publish. They bring together related feedback into a shared opportunity that customers can vote on and follow. An Idea might represent a specific feature many customers have requested, a broader problem we've identified across similar feedback, or an area we're actively exploring. Not every piece of feedback becomes a published Idea. But every feedback is reviewed, helps us understand what matters most to you, and informs the decisions we make about what to build next. How the new experience looks When you select the help icon and choose Give feedback, the new Feedback experience opens as a portal in the center of your screen, without taking you away from the page you're on. The portal is where you share Feedback, explore Ideas, vote on the ones that matter most to you. If you're coming with a specific request, start with a quick search or browse the tabs - you may find an Idea that's already collecting votes. Explore Ideas by status Published Ideas are organized into tabs based on where they are in their journey: Gathering input: Vote on Ideas we're actively evaluating. This is where you can see what we're currently considering and tell us what matters to you. On the Roadmap: Follow Ideas we're planning or actively building. Recently released: See Ideas that have shipped and are now available in Quickbase. My priorities: Track the Ideas you've voted on and the Feedback you have submitted. You can also switch between your own view and your organization's view, so you have visibility into what your teammates have submitted and voted on as well. Vote on What Matters Most When you find an Idea you'd like to see, cast your vote by choosing how important it is to you and adding a short note with your business context or use case. If the Idea matches what you came to request, voting is the quickest way to add your support and help us understand why it matters. Submit new Feedback Can’t find what you are looking for in the Ideas tab? Select Submit feedback in the portal to open the submission form. As you type, we'll surface any similar published Ideas, if one covers your request, you can vote on it instead. If not, submit your feedback and it goes directly to our Product team for review. The more context you provide, the better we can understand your request. We recommend including: What you're asking for. Why it matters to your team or organization. A real-world use case. How you're solving the problem today. Screenshots or images that help explain your idea. A few things that work differently Along with the new experience, you’ll notice a few changes. Your feedback is now private to your account. The feedback you submit is visible only within your organization. Other customers won't see your individual requests. Our Product team still reviews every submission and groups related feedback into shared Ideas that everyone can discover, vote on, and follow. That makes it easier to see where customer interest is building while keeping individual requests private. Comments are simpler. Instead of open discussion threads, you can add a single note when you vote on an Idea to provide context or explain your use case. There isn't a back-and-forth conversation. If you are looking for a back-and-forth discussion, start a thread on our community, Qrew Discussions. Everything happens inside Quickbase. There's no separate feedback website. You'll access the new experience through the Help menu whenever you want to submit feedback, explore Ideas, or check on updates. What happens to your existing feedback All of your existing feedback and votes carry over and continue to inform our work. At launch, you'll see some of that feedback represented as published Ideas, starting with the requests we've heard most often and continuing as we review additional feedback over time. Even if your feedback doesn't become a published Idea, it's still preserved, reviewed, and considered as we plan future improvements. If feedback you've submitted or voted on is connected to a published Idea, your support carries over automatically. You'll find that Idea in My priorities so you can continue following its progress. When it's happening The transition takes place in two steps during August. First week of August We'll temporarily replace the current feedback experience with a simple submission form while we migrate existing feedback and prepare the new portal. You can continue submitting feedback during this period, and everything you send will carry over automatically. Later in August The new feedback portal becomes available inside Quickbase. You'll be able to browse Ideas, vote on the ones that matter to you, and submit new feedback - all in one place. You don't need to do anything to prepare. Questions you might have (FAQ) What's the difference between Feedback and an Idea? Feedback is what you submit – a feature request, suggestion, or pain point. It stays private to your account and goes directly to our Product team. Ideas are shared topics our Product Managers publish based on related customer feedback. You can vote on them, follow their progress, and see where customers are asking for similar improvements. Not every piece of feedback becomes a published Idea, but every submission is reviewed and helps inform what we build next. Can I see feedback from other customers? No. Feedback submitted by other organizations isn't visible. Instead, you'll explore published Ideas that represent themes we're hearing across customers. Each Idea shows how much support it's received, making it easy to see what's resonating and add your own vote. Will my team have a shared view of our feedback? Yes. In My priorities, everyone in your account can see the feedback your team has submitted and the Ideas your team has voted on. That gives your organization one shared view of what's most important, while keeping it private from other customers. Can I comment on or discuss an Idea? When you vote on an Idea, you can include a short note describing your use case or business context. There aren't open discussion threads or back-and-forth comments. You can start a discussion on the community site, Qrew Discussions. Will I know if my feedback has been reviewed? Yes. You'll receive email updates when the status of your feedback changes or when there's an update on an Idea you've voted on. Should I vote on Ideas that are already on the roadmap? Yes. Voting on an Idea that's already planned is still worthwhile. It lets us understand how important the work is across customers, and you'll receive updates when it's released. Do I need to do anything related to this change? No. There's nothing to migrate or set up. Your existing feedback and votes will move automatically. Thank you Your feedback has a real influence on where Quickbase goes, and that doesn't change with this move. Keep telling us what's working, what getting in your way, and what you'd like to see next.July 2026 Release Enablement
2 MIN READ Learn about the most recent updates to Quickbase, right here: Highlights include: ALM - Dev & Test Rebase In a Dev/Test/Prod setup, if a new QBL (Quickbase Language) version is released, the Dev and Test environments need to be updated to match the latest production schema. The new rebase flow handles this automatically. You no longer need to manually reconfigure parameters, users, or data in lower environments. Release Notes Record 5-minute authentication cache This means that if a user token or app token is deactivated or a session is revoked, it may take up to 5 minutes to fully take effect rather than being immediate. Release Notes Record New Performance Insights for Document Creation and Custom Emails When a document or custom email takes longer than expected to process Performance Insights surfaces a recommendation so you can take action. Help article Release Notes Record Custom Access Denied Messages Previously only appeared when users without permission tried to access app-level pages (like the app dashboard or app settings pages). Now, they also appear when users try to access table-level pages (like forms, reports, or table homepages). Custom access denied messages also now accept basic HTML formatting Help Article Help Article: HTML Tags Release Notes Record Report Totals and averages Non-grouped reports now show totals and averages as soon as they load Release Notes New Distance() Formula Function Calculate the straight-line geographic distance between 2 locations using their latitude and longitude coordinates with the following formula syntax: Distance(Number lat1, Number lon1, Number lat2, Number lon2, Text unit) Release Notes Record Pipelines Error handling Use the Handle Errors block to define what happens when a step fails—route to custom On Error or On Success branches, silently ignore failures, or capture error details to power rich notifications Release Notes Record Pipeline run preview Preview a specific pipeline run Release Notes Record Nested lists - Release Notes Record Work with nested lists in pipeline steps —no extra Jinja expressions needed! Release Notes Record Pipelines search Search pipelines by app and table ID Release Notes Record Connection Central Choose which columns display in your pipeline list Release Notes Record Pipeline fields Pin additional pipeline fields Release Notes Record View and/or search the complete Release Notes AppJuly Qrew Events
1 MIN READ July Qrew update! We’ve got a lighter meetup month with no virtual Qrew meetups scheduled in July, but a few regional Qrews are keeping the momentum going. Here’s what’s on the radar for July 2026: Boston Qrew (In-person or Virtual): July 22, 4:30–6:30 pm ET. Register here Portland Qrew (In-person or Virtual): July 22, 3:00–4:30 m PT. Reach out for details here Atlanta Qrew (Virtual): July 23, 4:00–5:00 pm ET Register and join here Philly Qrew: No Qrew meetup in July Denver and Dallas: TBD Just a reminder that anyone can join any virtual Qrew meetups in any of the regions to meet network, hear use cases, and share challenges and wins. Thanks and hope you’ll be able to join!Better Workflows, Built In
3 MIN READ The Quickbase Extensions Package just got even better. At Empower, we introduced three new Extensions that are now included in the package at no additional cost. That means every customer with the Extensions Package or 30-day free trial now has access to nine tools designed to help you build more complete workflows without leaving Quickbase. Whether you're creating documents, collecting signatures, sending notifications, or mapping work in the field, Extensions help keep every step connected. And with these latest additions, it's even easier to automate document-heavy processes that often slow teams down. A Quick Refresher on the Extensions Package The Extensions Package brings together tools that help you manage work from start to finish inside Quickbase. Instead of piecing together multiple applications, you can create documents, collect signatures, communicate with customers, and visualize work in one connected workflow. The original package of six tools includes: Exact Forms Plus: Create Word and PDF documents directly from your Quickbase data with a single click. XL Docs: Generate formatted Excel files that are ready to share or analyze. JuicedSign: Send, sign, and track legally binding e-signatures without leaving your workflow. Text My Quickbase: Send and receive text messages tied directly to your Quickbase data. Courier: Send emails, reminders, and notifications from inside your workflow. QB Maps: View your data on live Google Maps to see locations, routes, and activity in real time. Now, these are joined by three new Extensions that make document workflows even more efficient. Meet the Three New Extensions Many business processes still depend on documents. Quotes, permits, inspection reports, contracts, invoices, and customer packets all need to be created, combined, reviewed, and shared. The newest Extensions help you automate those steps, so your team spends less time moving files around and more time moving work forward. PDF Stamper Many organizations rely on standardized PDF forms that can't be edited, but still need personalized information. PDF Stamper lets you place Quickbase data exactly where it belongs on any fixed-format PDF, including certificates, brochures, applications, and other standard forms. Your documents stay consistent, your data stays current, and there's no manual editing before you send them. PDF Merger Project documents rarely live in one place. Supporting files often come from multiple records, tables, and formats. PDF Merger brings them together automatically. Combine Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, images, PDFs, and other supported files into a single PDF that's saved back to Quickbase. Instead of downloading, combining, and uploading files by hand, you can complete the process in one step. Package Builder Some workflows require several documents before they're ready for review or approval. Package Builder helps you prepare everything at once. Run multiple document generation Extensions from a single record, combine the results into one complete package, and route it to the next step in your process. Fewer manual steps mean faster reviews, quicker approvals, and more Explore What's New If you already have the Extensions Package, these new capabilities are available to use now. If you're exploring Extensions for the first time, the 30-day free trial now includes all nine tools. Ready to take a closer look? Start with these resources: Learn more about the Extensions Package Watch our recent webinar on the newest Extensions Explore each of the 3 new Extensions: PDF Stamper PDF Merger Package Builder Start your free Extensions trial Join Extensions Office Hours Every workflow has small tasks that add up over time. The newest Extensions help remove more of that manual work, so your team can spend less time managing documents and more time keeping work moving. We can't wait to see what you build next.Improving pipeline resilience: field rename handling and stable step identification in Pipelines
5 MIN READ Quickbase applications and workflows evolve, fields get renamed and pipelines get reorganized. These are routine activities — but until now, both could affect the accuracy of a pipeline configuration in ways that were not always immediately visible, requiring manual intervention to identify and correct. Two recent updates to Quickbase Pipelines address this directly: field renames in Quickbase are now automatically detected and applied, and step identifiers are now permanently stable regardless of how a pipeline is reorganized. This post describes each change, the mechanism behind it, and the practical implications for pipeline reliability and troubleshooting. Background As pipelines grow in complexity, it becomes common to reference the output of one step in the logic of another — passing a value forward, applying a transformation, or building conditional logic around a result. These references are written as Jinja expressions, and they depend on two things staying consistent: the name of the field being referenced, and the identifier of the step whose output is being used. Both of these could previously change as a result of ordinary activity — renaming a field in Quickbase, or reorganizing steps in the pipeline designer — without any corresponding update to the expressions that depended on them. When a field was renamed in Quickbase, Pipelines had no mechanism to detect the change. Any step mapping or Jinja expression using the previous field name would continue to reference a name that no longer existed, producing incorrect output or failing without a clear indication of the cause. When steps were reordered, a similar problem occurred at the pipeline level. Step identifiers were alphabetical and positional — reassigned to maintain sequential order whenever the pipeline was reorganized. An expression that correctly referenced a step before a reorganization could, afterward, point to an entirely different step or resolve to nothing at all. In both cases, the expressions appeared intact in the designer while no longer functioning as intended. Stable field references: automatic rename handling When a field is renamed in Quickbase, Pipelines detects the change at the next refresh and applies two updates together: Step mappings — any step that mapped a value to the renamed field continues to do so under the new name, with the configured value preserved. Jinja template references — standard {{ refID.field_name }} expressions referencing the renamed field, across every step in the pipeline, are rewritten to use the new name. When the update takes effect The update is applied the next time Pipelines re-reads a step's fields from Quickbase. This occurs in three situations: Refresh Schemas — re-reads all steps in the pipeline simultaneously. Recommended after multiple field changes in Quickbase, or to confirm the final state of a pipeline following rename activity. Single step refresh — re-reads only the selected step. If a rename is detected, Jinja references to that field are updated across all steps in the pipeline, not just the one being refreshed. Certain step edits — adding or changing a field via the field selector, or modifying a step's options, triggers an automatic schema re-read as part of saving. Any rename present at that point is applied as part of the same operation. Pipelines continue to execute correctly between a rename and the subsequent refresh — the old field name remains valid until a refresh occurs. No configuration is lost in the interim. Scope Automatic rename detection applies to standard Jinja field references ({{ redID.field_name }}) and step mappings. References embedded in custom Jinja expressions — logic or transformations written manually — are not automatically updated and should be reviewed and corrected manually after a rename. This behavior applies to Quickbase fields only; field renames in other connected channels may still require manual reconfiguration. Stable step references: Reference ID and Step Number Step identification now separates into two distinct identifiers, each with a defined and exclusive purpose. Reference ID (Ref ID) is a permanent identifier assigned to a step at creation. It is not modified by reordering, insertion, or deletion of surrounding steps, and is never reassigned after a step is removed. The Ref ID is the identifier to use in Jinja expressions, and the one that appears in activity logs, error notifications, and field usage views. Ref IDs use an extended alphabetic format: aa, ab, ac… zz. Step Number is a sequential position indicator (1, 2, 3…) that reflects the step's current place in the pipeline. It updates automatically when steps are reordered and is intended for visual navigation in the designer and for following execution order in activity logs. Step Numbers should not be used in Jinja expressions. Reference ID Step Number Format aa, ab, ac… 1, 2, 3… Changes on reorder No Yes Use in Jinja Yes No Primary purpose Expressions, logs, field usage Navigation, execution order Step outputs should be referenced in Jinja using the Ref ID: {{ aa.field_name }} Because the Ref ID is permanent, this expression remains valid after any restructuring of the pipeline — reordering steps, inserting new steps, building parallel branches. The reference is unaffected by positional changes. Troubleshooting with stable identifiers Activity logs now include both identifiers. When reviewing a failed run, it is possible to determine unambiguously which step is referenced — because Ref IDs are permanent and never reassigned, the step in the log is definitively the same step in the designer, regardless of any reorganization that occurred in between. The Quick Reference widget provides a consolidated view of every step's Ref ID and Step Number, searchable by step name, number, or ID, with direct navigation to any step in the designer. The path from an error in a log entry to the relevant step in the designer is a single action. Backward compatibility Existing pipelines require no changes. Single-letter identifiers from pipelines created before this update (a, b, c…) are now treated as Ref IDs — permanent, stable, and functionally equivalent to the new extended format. New steps added to those pipelines receive extended-format Ref IDs (aa, ab…). Pipelines containing a mix of both formats are fully supported across duplication, export, and import. Implications for pipeline reliability and maintenance Together, these updates stabilize both components of a Jinja expression: the step identifier and the field reference. An expression such as {{ aa.customer_manager }} will resolve correctly regardless of subsequent pipeline reorganization or field renames in Quickbase. More broadly, the changes reduce the conditions under which routine application maintenance can introduce silent failures in pipeline behavior. Field renames are reflected automatically at the next refresh rather than discovered following a failed run. Step references in activity logs are unambiguous and consistent over time, independent of the pipeline's current structure. The information available during troubleshooting — log entries, step identifiers, field usage — is more reliable and more directly actionable. Read more in our help documentation about step identifiers and field renames.
