PagerDuty Documentation

Customize metadata fields for streamlined tracking and standardized information display.

The Custom Fields feature allows you to:

Enrich PagerDuty incidents with critical and helpful metadata throughout the incident lifecycle.
Flexibly define your preferred data.
Standardize what information your incidents display.
Aggregate data from several existing systems and populate that information during incident response.

Availability

This feature is available with the Business, Enterprise for Incident Management, and Digital Operations (Legacy) pricing plans. Contact Sales to upgrade to a plan with this feature.

An infographic displaying various objects related to incident response: Major Incident, Root Cause, Customers Impacted Custom Fields overview

Configure Custom Fields

Create a Custom Field

After creating an Incident Type, you can add custom fields to that type.

Note: Because Incident Types use inheritance, custom fields become available to that specific incident type and to its children.

Custom Fields Availability

Custom field limits are determined by your plan and the incident type. Please note that disabled custom fields do count toward these limits.

Plan	Base Incident Type Limit	Total Custom Fields Limit
Business / Ops Cloud Essentials	15 Fields	45 Fields
EIM / Ops Cloud Plus/Ultimate	100 Fields	130 Fields

How Limits Work

Each plan has a set number of fields available for the Base Incident Type. You can then add additional custom fields to other Incident Types until you reach your account's total field limit. Each individual Incident Type has a maximum limit of 15 custom fields.

Example: If your plan allows for 15 fields on the Base Incident Type and 45 fields total:

You have 30 fields remaining to use across other types.

You can add up to 15 fields per type (e.g., 15 for "Major Incident" and 15 for "Security Incident") until you hit that 45-field account total.

Required User Permissions

Admins and the Account Owner can create, edit and delete fields.

To create a custom field:

Navigate to Incidents Incident Types.
Select an Incident Type, or create a new Incident Type.
With the **Fields ** tab selected, click New Field.
Enter the following information:

Field	Instructions
Display Name	Enter a logical name for the field that will display on incidents.
Field Name	Enter a name for use when referencing this field in the API. This field can only contain lowercase letters, numbers, and underscores. You cannot change this value after initial creation.
Description	Enter a description to help responders understand what this field is or how they should use it.
Field Type	Select a data type (for example, Text, Single Select, Multi Select). You cannot change this value after initial creation.
Set a Default Value (Optional)	Pre-populate the field for new incidents to show a default value. This value does not apply to past incidents.
Enable Field	Select Enable or Disable.

Click Create Field. Repeat these steps for as many fields as needed.

Edit a Custom Field

Navigate to Incidents Incident Types.
Select the Incident Type for which you want to edit the custom field.
To the right of your desired custom field, click Edit.
Edit the details.
Click Update Field.

Disable a Custom Field

When you disable a field, it is no longer editable on new or existing incidents. However, this will not erase values from existing incidents (i.e., they will still be visible on the incident details page). You should disable fields when you want to maintain existing data but no longer need them.

Navigate to Incidents Incident Types.
Select the Incident Type for which you want to disable a field.
To the right of your desired custom field, click Disable.
In the confirmation modal, click Disable.

Delete a Custom Field

Deletion Warning

Deleting a field from an Incident Type permanently deletes the field for all Incident Types. It also removes the field and values from existing incidents. This action cannot be undone.

Navigate to Incidents Incident Types.
Select an Incident Type.
To the right of your desired field, select Delete.
In the confirmation modal, click Delete.

Field Types

You can specify the field data type when you add a Custom Field. Data types help standardize and validate field data, preventing users from entering incorrect data types into a field. The following field types are available:

Text
Single Select
Multiple Select
Tag
URL
Checkbox
Datetime
Decimal
Integer
Paragraph

Custom Field Limits by Type

The following table shows the maximum character and quantity limits for each custom field type:

Field Type	Max Characters	Max Quantity of Fields
Text	255	100
Single Select	100	100
Multiple Select	100	5 (100 selectable values)
Tag	255	5 (55 selectable values)
URL	500	10
Checkbox	2	100
Datetime	10	100
Decimal	10	100
Integer	5	100
*Paragraph	2,000	5

*indicates new field type

Additional Requirements

Single Select and Multiple Select: Can have a maximum of 100 options each. Multiple Select fields support up to 200 option selections.
URL: Only absolute URLs are allowed, and they must use one of the following schemes: http, https, tel.
Datetime: Values must conform to either full-date or date-time RFC3339, section 5.6. Examples of supported values: 2022-03-14, 2019-08-28T10:43:05Z.

Child Incident Types & Field Limits

Field limits apply per hierarchy branch, not per individual incident type.

Each top-level incident type (including children of the base incident) starts its own hierarchy with independent limits
Fields on a parent type consume the limit for that entire branch (the parent + all its descendants)
Sibling branches maintain separate limits and do not affect each other

Example

If a base incident has 5 paragraph fields, the limit is maxed for that branch. However, if the base incident has 0 fields, a child type like "Major Incident" can use all 5 fields across itself and its children, while a sibling "Security Incident" branch gets its own separate 5-field allowance.

View Custom Fields