👤 For pipe administrators
🔐 Available on all plans
🎯 For anyone who wants to receive data from people outside the platform without giving them access to the pipe
Processes like recruiting, procurement, customer onboarding, and support have one thing in common: someone outside the team needs to provide information before the work can start. The classic problem is that this collection happens by email, spreadsheet, or message, and it arrives fragmented, off pattern, and with no traceability at all.
Pipefy's public form solves this. Anyone can fill out the form and create a card in the process without having an account on the platform. The team receives the information structured, in the right format, ready to be processed.
📖 What you'll learn here:
What it is and when to use it
The public form is the pipe's starting form, accessible without login. When someone fills it out, a card is automatically created in the first phase of the process, with all the data already organized in the correct fields.
Use the public form when the person filling it out is external to the pipe: candidates, suppliers, customers, colleagues from other areas without access to the pipe, or anyone who needs to submit a request without needing to be a member.
Public form is not the same as public pipe. A public pipe allows company members to request access. The public form allows anyone, without a Pipefy account, to send data and generate a card. The settings are independent.
Example: in the employee onboarding process, HR sets up the public form and sends the link to the new employee before their first day. The employee fills in name, documents, and bank details directly through the link, without creating an account. A card already appears in HR's pipe with everything filled in, ready for the review phase.
Where the link is: the most frequent gap
The most recurring question about public forms isn't how to configure them, it's where to find the link after the form has been activated. There are two paths to get there:
- In the pipe header, click Share. On the screen that opens, the public form link is on the left side, with the activate/deactivate button.
- Inside the form editor, click Share form. This leads to the same screen.
The form only generates a link after being activated. If the link doesn't appear, check whether the activate toggle is on in the sharing screen.
Deactivating the public form invalidates the link immediately. Anyone who tries to access the link of a deactivated form sees an error page. If you need to temporarily pause new submissions, deactivating the form is the way to do it, but let whoever has the link know beforehand.
Sharing channels: which one to use in each situation
Pipefy offers three ways to make the form available for external filling:
| Channel | When to use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Public link | Direct sending by email, WhatsApp, social media, or any text channel | Application link sent by email to candidates for a job opening |
| Site embed | Form embedded in an existing page, without redirecting the user | "Contact us" form embedded on the site's contact page |
| Portal | Multiple forms from different processes gathered on a single page | HR portal with vacation, reimbursement, and onboarding forms on the same URL |
Embed and Portal are the channels that remove the most friction for the person filling out the form: they don't need to leave the context they're already in. The direct link is the fastest to implement and works well for one off sharing.
Preparing the form for someone who has never used Pipefy
The external filler has no context about the process. They see the form the way they see any website form: they expect it to be self explanatory, fast, and to work on mobile.
Clear title and description. Use the title to name the process from the point of view of whoever is filling it out, not whoever operates it. "Access Request" is better than "IT Onboarding Form" for the employee who doesn't know the internal name of the process.
Help text in the fields. Fields that seem obvious to the internal team are unclear to whoever is filling them out from outside. "Contract type" with no explanation leads to incorrect answers. Add a description to every field that could generate doubt.
Confirmation message. Set up the text that appears after submission. "We received your request. The HR team will get in touch within 2 business days." removes any doubt about whether the submission worked and sets an expectation for the timeline.
Visual identity. Company logo and brand aligned colors increase the external filler's trust. A form with no visual identity looks generic and can raise suspicion, especially when it asks for personal data.
Best practices to maintain data quality
Data that comes in through a public form has one characteristic: you can't call the person who filled it out afterward to fix what came in wrong. Quality depends on the form's design.
- Required fields with criteria. Mark as required only what truly blocks the process without that information. Forms with too many required fields have a higher abandonment rate.
- Selection instead of free text. Free text fields for categorical information (area, request type, role) generate inconsistent data and break filters and automations. Prefer single or multiple choice when the options are known.
- Conditionals to reduce visible fields. A lean form for each filler profile increases completion rate. If the form has fields for CLT, PJ, and Intern, use conditionals so each one only sees their own.
- Active request status. Pipefy lets the person filling out the form track the status of the card created by that form. Turning on this option reduces "what's the status of my request?" emails and gives the requester autonomy.
Before sharing the link, confirm:
☐ The public form is activated in the sharing screen
☐ The title describes the process from the point of view of whoever is filling it out
☐ Critical fields have help text
☐ The post submission confirmation message is set up
☐ The form was tested by someone outside the team before being shared
