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Password

A field whose contents are masked as they are typed.

Where to find it

Architect Panel → Data:

  • Datastores — the datastore, then Table Designer to add or edit a field

Architect Panel → Security:

  • Authentication Methods — how user passwords are actually handled
  • Permissions — restricting who can see a secret

Masking is presentation

The dots hide the value from somebody looking over a shoulder. That is a real benefit and it is the only one the masking itself provides — it says nothing about how the value is stored or who can read it later.

Not for your users’ passwords

The most important thing on this page. Sign-in passwords are handled by the platform's own authentication, which hashes them, applies your policy, and never stores anything reversible.

Creating a password field on a datastore to hold user passwords bypasses all of that. Do not do it — and if you find one in an existing application, treat it as something to remove rather than to improve.

What it is legitimately for

  • A credential for a third-party system that your application must present.
  • A shared secret for an integration.
  • Anything a user should be able to enter without bystanders reading it.

Encrypt it, and restrict it

If the value is a real secret, two things follow. Turn on field encryption so it is not readable in a database backup, and use field security so only the people who need it can see it at all.

A masked field with neither is a secret in plain text with a cosmetic covering, which is a worse position than storing it openly and knowing you have.

Prefer not storing it

The best handling of a credential is not to hold one. Where the platform offers a proper connection type — a data source, an API client, a mail account — use it, because those store credentials encrypted and are built for rotation.

A password field is what you reach for when nothing better fits, not the first answer.

Masking hurts accuracy

People mistype what they cannot see, and a mistyped credential fails somewhere else entirely, often much later. Where the value is not secret from the person entering it, consider whether masking is helping or just making entry error-prone.

Think about the audit trail

Changes are recorded with before-and-after values like any field. For a genuine secret that means the audit trail contains it — worth knowing when deciding who may read the audit log for that datastore.

Worked example

An integration datastore holds a partner's SFTP credential in a password field, encrypted, with field security limiting it to two administrators. User sign-in for the same application uses the platform's own authentication with passkeys — no password field is involved anywhere in it.

Recommendations

  • Never use it for sign-in passwords.
  • Encrypt and restrict anything genuinely secret.
  • Prefer a proper connection type over storing a credential.
  • Consider who can read the audit trail for that field.