Can sync tables have sub-items?

[Nick_HE]

I have an outside data source that would be well represented by sub-items. Are they supported in Pack sync tables yet?

[Bill_French]

Appologies in advance for the rambling… I asked an AI (CAUTION) because I was curious as well. Let me know if this helps.

Short Answer: Yes, but with “some assembly required.”

Sync tables can support sub-items, but the hierarchy is not automatically enforced by the Pack’s schema alone. It relies on a handshake between the Pack’s design and the Doc Maker’s configuration.

Key Requirements

1. For the Pack Maker (The “Supply” Side)

The Pack developer must ensure the sync table schema includes a Parent Column.

• What it is: A column that acts as the “Parent ID” or “Parent Row” pointer.
• Data Type: It must be a Reference type pointing back to the same sync table (self-referencing).

2. For the Doc Maker (The “Demand” Side)

Syncing the data won’t automatically group rows into parent/child relationships. You must manually enable the view:

1. Open the Table Options for the sync table.
2. Select Subitems.
3. In the setup menu, choose the Parent column (provided by the Pack in step 1) to define the hierarchy.

Current Limitations

• Same-Table Only: The hierarchy must exist within a single sync table. You cannot currently have “Parent” rows in Table A and “Child” rows in Table B displayed as native sub-items of each other.
• Manual Toggle: The visual hierarchy is not “on by default”; it requires the user to toggle the Subitems setting in the UI.

Source

• Authority: Eric Koleda (Coda Developer Advocate / Staff)
• Context: Clarified in the guide “Making Packs that leverage the new subitems feature” and confirmed in community discussions.

[Eric_Koleda]

That summary looks accurate, and here’s the original post it’s sourcing from:

Making Packs that leverage the new subitems feature

Yesterday a Pack developer wrote in with the following question: I am interested to learn, now that Subitems has been released, how can I leverage this in my packs? Is there any documentation available for Pack developers on how we can use subitems? What a great question! Subitems are amazing, but like make Coda features whether or not to use them is up the Doc maker, not the Pack maker. But there are a few things you can do as a Pack maker to leverage this new capability. Add a pare…

[Bill_French]

@Eric_Koleda

That summary looks accurate

@Bharat_Batra1 This was built, tested, and validated entirely with Coda MCP using a single, very brief Antigravity query. Its context included:

1. smartCFL
2. mcpOS
3. Coda Documentation

Here's an interesting question. With your deep understanding of Coda, please
provide a good assessment: 
https://community.coda.io/t/can-sync-tables-have-sub-items/59633?u=bill_french