Understanding User Stamps in Knack

Welcome to the guide on User Stamps in Knack. User Stamps are a powerful feature designed to automatically track and manage the relationship between your records and the users who interact with them. This guide will explain what User Stamps are, how they work, and how you can leverage them in your Knack apps.

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Currently, User Stamps & System Users are available exclusively for newly created apps, whether built from scratch or generated via AI. Support for existing apps and template apps is coming soon.

What Are User Stamps?

User Stamps provide built-in, automatic connections between your data tables and the users in your app. Instead of manually creating connection fields to track who created, updated, or owns a record, Knack now handles this automatically for every data table you create.

This feature simplifies app building by ensuring that essential audit and ownership data is always captured and easily accessible.

How User Stamps Work

When you create a new data table in a supported app, Knack automatically generates three specific connection fields behind the scenes. These fields connect your data records to the built-in "All Users" table.

These automatic connections are:

Created By: Records the user who initially created the record.
Updated By: Records the user who most recently modified the record.
Owned By: Designates the user who is considered the owner of the record. By default, this is the user who created the record, but you can update it using Conditional Rules or Batch Updates if you need to transfer ownership.

How User Actions Are Recorded

Knack automatically captures the appropriate user based on their authentication status in your Live App:

Logged-In Users: If a user is logged into your Live App, their name is automatically captured in the Created By, Updated By, and Owned By fields, as well as in the record history.
Not Logged-In Users: If a visitor interacts with your Live App without logging in, their actions are recorded under the default System User called Public (Not Logged-In).
Pre-Existing Records: For any records that were created prior to the User Stamps feature being enabled, the user fields will default to the App Builder system user.

Viewing User Stamps

To view these automatic connections, navigate to the Connections section of your data table and look under the Advanced category. Here, you will see the Created By, Updated By, and Owned By connections linking to the All Users table.

Additionally, every user role table you create will automatically have a connection to the primary "All Users" table, streamlining user management and data relationships.

System Users

To fully support User Stamps, Knack includes a set of System Users. These are specialized, automated accounts that represent system actions and processes within your app. They ensure that even when a record is created or updated by an automated process (like a task or API call), there is still a clear record of "who" performed the action.

You can view and manage System Users by navigating to Settings > System Users in the Builder.

The default System Users include:

Account Owner: Applied when no other user is specified.
App Builder: Applied to actions performed within the Builder by the app's builders.
Automation: Applied to actions performed through Tasks, Flows, API calls, and integrations.
Knack AI: Applied to records created or updated by Knack's AI features.
Knack Support Team: Used to identify records modified by Knack's internal support team.
Public (Not Logged-In): Used for records created in the Live App by unauthenticated visitors.
Shared Builder: Applied to actions performed by Shared Builders.
System: Applied to records modified by Knack's underlying platform for core operations.

You have the flexibility to customize the display names of these System Users to better match your app's specific terminology.

Managing System Users and Fields in the All Users Table

System Users also appear in your "All Users" table alongside your regular users. By default, they may be hidden to keep your user list clean.

When you navigate to the All Users table and click the settings gear icon in the top right, you have the ability to show or hide System Fields and System Users independently:

Show/Hide System Fields: Toggles the visibility of the automatic system fields (like Created By, Updated By, and Owned By) as columns in the builder view.
Show/Hide System Users: Toggles the visibility of the automated system accounts in the list of users.

Once visible, you will see the System Users listed with their respective statuses.

Using User Stamps in Your App

The true power of User Stamps lies in how you can use them within your app's Pages and Elements.

Because Created By, Updated By, and Owned By function exactly like standard connection fields, you can incorporate them into your Live App just as you would any other data.

For example, when configuring a Table view on a page, you can easily add the Created By and Updated By fields as columns to display audit information directly to your users.

You can also use these fields for filtering, sorting, and conditional rules, allowing you to create dynamic views that only show users the records they created or own.

Record History Integration

Additionally, if you have Record History enabled for your app, these new User Stamp fields are automatically included in the history logs, giving you a complete, built-in audit trail of who modified what and when

Summary

User Stamps streamline the process of tracking record ownership and audit history in your Knack apps. By automatically connecting data tables to users and introducing System Users for automated actions, Knack provides a robust, built-in solution for managing user-data relationships.

Remember, as of March 2026, this feature is currently available for new apps, with support for existing apps on the way. Start exploring User Stamps in your next app build to see how they can simplify your data structure!