Form response compatibility rules

Form field updates protect historical answers. Once a Form has been published, or whenever responseCount > 0, a field’s type cannot change; runtime rejects the update with resource_conflict and the message that the field type cannot change after publish or responses. A draft that has never been published and has zero responses may change its fields freely.

After any response exists, choice options are append-only. Every existing item’s optionId, label, and order must remain byte-for-byte in the same prefix of the new options array. Appending new options is allowed; renaming an existing label or ID, deleting an option, or reordering options is rejected with resource_conflict. Historical answers store option IDs and bind to the submitted revision, so destructive edits would make old answers ambiguous.

For a breaking redesign, add a replacement field and archive the old field, or create a new Form. There is no compatibility bypass. update_field carries forward omitted values; changing only the field label does not require resending options. Always trust the live Action result and its typed conflict over a prediction from this card.

Related actions

arinova.form.get_form, arinova.form.update_field, arinova.form.add_field, arinova.form.archive_field, arinova.form.create_form

Also known as

field type locked, append options, response compatibility, change published field, reorder choices, resource conflict

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