Stencils for repeatable form types

Stencils are reusable starter forms — layout, notifications, integrations, and settings included. They help teams spin up consistent enquiry, application, or survey forms without rebuilding the same field tree every time. This walkthrough builds a stencil, wires synced fields, and deploys it across environments.

Prerequisites

• Stencils
• Synced Fields (optional but recommended)
• Access stencils permission for authors who should manage stencils

Stencils vs live forms

Treat stencils as starting points, not shared live forms.

Step 1 — Build the canonical enquiry stencil

1. Go to Formie → Stencils
2. Click New stencil
3. Name it Enquiry Form (handle enquiryForm)
4. Build the layout you want every enquiry to start with:
   • Name, Email, Phone, Message fields
   • Admin notification + submitter confirmation
   • Turnstile captcha enabled
   • Ajax submit, success message

Save the stencil.

Step 2 — Add synced fields

For fields that must stay identical across every form — consent checkbox, privacy policy link, UTM hidden fields — use synced fields:

1. Create the shared field definition once (Formie → Synced Fields)
2. While editing the stencil, add the field as a synced field placement (not a one-off copy)

When someone creates a form from the stencil, Formie adds a placement pointing at the same shared definition. Update the definition once; all forms update.

If a shared definition is missing on an environment (handle not deployed yet), Formie falls back to an independent field copy from the stencil snapshot.

Step 3 — Set default stencil for new forms

Developers can auto-apply a stencil when authors create forms without picking one:

return [
    '*' => [
        'defaultFormStencil' => 'enquiryForm',
    ],
];

Authors can still choose a different stencil or start blank from the New Form dialog.

Step 4 — Create forms from the stencil

1. Formie → Forms → New Form
2. Pick Enquiry Form stencil
3. Customize title, handle, and any form-specific copy
4. Save

The result is an independent form. Editing the stencil later does not change existing forms — only forms created after the stencil change (unless you manually re-import or rebuild).

Step 5 — Save an existing form as a stencil

From the form builder on any live form:

1. Open the form menu
2. Choose Save as stencil
3. Name the new stencil

Useful when a one-off form became the de facto standard and you want to codify it.

Step 6 — Project stencils (developers)

For starter kits versioned with the site, create project stencils stored in project config:

# config/project/formie/stencils/…

Project stencils:

• Require admin changes enabled to create/edit in CP (typically local/staging)
• Are view-only on production when admin changes are disabled
• Support Save a copy to fork into an editable CP stencil

Handles must be unique across regular and project stencils.

On deploy, project stencils appear in the New Form stencil picker alongside CP stencils.

Step 7 — Combine with form groups

Assign new enquiry forms to a Marketing form group for sidebar organisation and group defaults. Stencils define structure; groups define CP policies and defaults.

See Form groups and defaults at scale.

Step 8 — Deploy across environments

Project stencils travel via project-config/sync. CP-created stencils are database content — export/import them with Import and export between environments or include them in your content migration process.

Order of operations on a fresh environment:

1. Deploy project config (project stencils, synced field definitions, form groups)
2. Import or sync CP stencils if needed
3. Verify synced field handles resolve before authors create forms from stencils

Included default

Formie ships a Contact Form stencil as a general starting point. Replace or extend it for your project's conventions.

Related

• Stencils
• Synced Fields
• Form groups and defaults at scale
• Import and export between environments
• Project config, environment, and control panel settings