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Allow New Values decides whether people are limited to the options on a field’s Allowed Values list, or can add one that is not there yet. It is a checkbox on the field itself, in the Collection’s Fields tab. The checkbox only applies to List fields. On any other type it stays disabled, and the editor tells you why: switch the Field Type to List first. Tags, the core list field on every Item, ships with Allow New Values already on, which is why you can type any tag you like without configuring anything.

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With it off

The list is the whole vocabulary:
  • The Item form offers the list and nothing else.
  • A CSV import checks every cell in that column against the list and rejects any row with a value that is not on it, naming the offending value and listing what is allowed. Other rows in the file still import.
This is the setting to keep for anything you filter, route, or condition on. A status column with three real values stays three values.

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With it on

  • In the Item form, the picker gains an “Add” box. Type a value, choose a color, and it is added to the Collection’s Allowed Values list immediately — that one action saves straight away, unlike the rest of the Fields tab, which waits for Save changes. From then on the value is a normal option for every Item in the Collection, colored chip included.
  • Like values added in settings, a value typed here is stored lowercased with spaces turned into underscores, while the text you typed is kept as its label.

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The CSV interaction to know about

When Allow New Values is on, CSV import skips the allowed-values check on that field completely. It is not a lenient check — there is no check. Any string in that column is accepted, and the row imports without a warning. That has a consequence worth stating plainly: oprational imports as happily as operational. And unlike a value typed into the Item form, a value that arrives by CSV is not added to the Allowed Values list. So it sits on the Item, out of the picker, with no chip color, and any condition testing for the correct spelling quietly fails to match it. If you rely on CSV import to keep a field clean, leave Allow New Values off and let the import reject the bad rows — the rejection report tells you exactly which rows and which values, and the good rows still land. Turn it on when the field is a genuinely open vocabulary that you want people to grow as they go.