---
title: Relationship Field
label: Relationship
order: 110
desc: The Relationship field provides the ability to relate documents together. Learn how to use Relationship fields, see examples and options.
keywords: relationship, fields, config, configuration, documentation, Content Management System, cms, headless, javascript, node, react, express
---

<Banner >
  The Relationship field is one of the most powerful fields Payload features. It provides for the ability to easily relate documents together.
</Banner>

**Example uses:**

- To add `Product` documents to an `Order` document
- To allow for an `Order` to feature a `placedBy` relationship to either an `Organization` or `User` collection
- To assign `Category` documents to `Post` documents

### Config

| Option           | Description |
| ---------------- | ----------- |
| **`name`** *         | To be used as the property name when stored and retrieved from the database.  |
| **`*relationTo`** *  | Provide one or many collection `slug`s to be able to assign relationships to. |
| **`hasMany`**        | Boolean when, if set to `true`, allows this field to have many relations instead of only one. |
| **`label`**          | Used as a field label in the Admin panel and to name the generated GraphQL type. |
| **`unique`**         | Enforce that each entry in the Collection has a unique value for this field. |
| **`validate`**       | Provide a custom validation function that will be executed on both the Admin panel and the backend. [More](/docs/fields/overview#validation) |
| **`index`**          | Build a [MongoDB index](https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/indexes/) for this field to produce faster queries. Set this field to `true` if your users will perform queries on this field's data often. |
| **`saveToJWT`**      | If this field is top-level and nested in a config supporting [Authentication](/docs/authentication/config), include its data in the user JWT. |
| **`hooks`**          | Provide field-based hooks to control logic for this field. [More](/docs/fields/overview#field-level-hooks) |
| **`access`**         | Provide field-based access control to denote what users can see and do with this field's data. [More](/docs/fields/overview#field-level-access-control) |
| **`hidden`**         | Restrict this field's visibility from all APIs entirely. Will still be saved to the database, but will not appear in any API or the Admin panel. |
| **`defaultValue`**   | Provide data to be used for this field's default value. |
| **`localized`**      | Enable localization for this field. Requires [localization to be enabled](/docs/configuration/localization) in the Base config. |
| **`required`**       | Require this field to have a value. |
| **`admin`**          | Admin-specific configuration. See the [default field admin config](/docs/fields/overview#admin-config) for more details. |

*\* An asterisk denotes that a property is required.*

<Banner type="success">
  <strong>Tip:</strong><br/>
  The <a href="/docs/getting-started/concepts#depth">Depth</a> parameter can be used to automatically populate related documents that are returned by the API.
</Banner>

### Example

`collections/ExampleCollection.js`
```js
{
  slug: 'example-collection',
  fields: [
    {
      name: 'placedBy', // required
      type: 'relationship', // required
      relationTo: ['organizations', 'users'], // required
      label: 'Placed By',
      hasMany: false,
      required: true,
    }
  ]
}

```