What are input comments?

An input comment is the help text CloudCannon shows beneath an input's label in the Data Editor. You set it with the comment key in your input configuration, and your team reads it while they edit.

Comments are where you explain what a field is for, what format a value should take, or where the value ends up on your Site. For what an Organization Member sees in an input, please read our documentation on what inputs are.

_inputs:
  seo_description:
    type: textarea
    label: SEO Description
    comment: Shown in search results, so keep it under 160 characters

{
  "_inputs": {
    "seo_description": {
      "type": "textarea",
      "label": "SEO Description",
      "comment": "Shown in search results, so keep it under 160 characters"
    }
  }
}

Where comments appear#

comment is the most common of several keys that render the same way. Each sits in a different place in the Data Editor, and all of them accept the same Markdown.

• comment — Beneath an input's label. This is the one you will reach for most.
• disabled_message — Replaces the usual subtext while an input is disabled, so you can say why it cannot be edited.
• context.content — An expandable section below the input, for longer explanation that would crowd the label. Pair it with context.title to label the control that opens it.
• A group's comment — Beneath the heading of a group inside an Object input, describing the fields it collects.
• entries.comment — Above the key field when someone adds or renames a key in a mutable Object input.

Each of these is an input configuration key, so you can set it at any level of the configuration cascade. For more information, please read our documentation on using the configuration cascade.

What you can write in a comment#

A comment is not plain text, but it is not full Markdown either. CloudCannon renders a limited set and strips anything outside it, so a heading or a list will not survive.

You can use links, bold, italic, subscript, superscript, and inline code.

_inputs:
  api_key:
    comment: Paste the value of `JETSTREAM_API_KEY` from your **provider dashboard**

{
  "_inputs": {
    "api_key": {
      "comment": "Paste the value of `JETSTREAM_API_KEY` from your **provider dashboard**"
    }
  }
}

Keep comments short. The text sits between the input's label and the input itself, so a long comment pushes the fields your team is editing further down the page. Where you need more room, use context.content instead, which stays collapsed until someone opens it.

Linking into CloudCannon from a comment#

A link in a comment can point anywhere, and it can also point back into CloudCannon using the cloudcannon: scheme. This is how you send an Organization Member from a field's help text to the file, Collection, or field that answers their question.

CloudCannon links work in comment, in disabled_message, and in a group's comment. A link in context.content can open a destination in the app but cannot open a field, and links in entries.comment do nothing at all.

_inputs:
  author:
    comment: Choose from the team listed in [your staff
      Collection](cloudcannon:collections/staff)

{
  "_inputs": {
    "author": {
      "comment": "Choose from the team listed in [your staff Collection](cloudcannon:collections/staff)"
    }
  }
}

A link to a field — one written as cloudcannon:# followed by a slug — opens a Data Panel for that field. Unlike a link on your previewed page, it takes no style attribute, so data-cms-editor-link-style has no effect in a comment.

Two more things behave differently here. A path beginning with collections/ names the Collection key, as the app's own URL writes it. And two paths work only in a comment: cloudcannon:!home opens your Organization home, and cloudcannon:!support opens the support widget.

For the syntax these links share with the rest of CloudCannon, please read our documentation on what the CloudCannon link protocol is.