Apply Prefilled values project-wide on the Webclient

Sparkify's Prefilled values feature lets you set documentation-field defaults once and have them auto-populate everywhere they apply. Apply is the action you reach on the Webclient project layer when the value you want to set as the project standard already exists as a value on some field(s) inside of any chosen Documentation Template in the Prefilled values. You pick the fields, you pick the value, and a single confirmation rewrites that value across every existing Documentation in the project.

What makes the project layer different is what happens when you confirm. The new value rewrites the field across every existing Documentation in the project that was created from that template — and becomes the default for every new Documentation created from that template going forward. The effect is two-way: backwards over what's already there, forwards over what's still to come.

Who can use it

Project-wide Apply on the Webclient is available to Owners and Managers. Users can open the project-layer dropdown (since they're allowed to run Edit), but the Apply prefilled values option won't be available for them. The Apply restriction matches the blast radius: a single confirm rewrites field values across every existing Documentation in the project, so Apply is kept at the Owner / Manager level. If you need a project-level prefilled value applied and you're not an Owner or Manager, ask one to run it.

Where Apply appears

Apply is specific to the Webclient project layer. Both entry points into project-layer prefills — the bolt icon in the top bar and the Prefilled values button on the project info card — open the same dropdown with two options: Apply prefilled values and Edit prefilled values. The Workspace layer doesn't expose Apply at all — there's no Workspace-layer equivalent of the project-wide rewrite. Workspace-layer Edit only sets the workspace-wide default for new Documentations going forward.

For the entry-point walkthroughs and screenshots, see the parent article: Prefilled values.

What Apply does

Apply lets you pick one or more fields, then choose an existing value to set as the project-level prefill for those fields. Use it when the value you want already exists as a value on some field(s) inside of any chosen Documentation Template in the Prefilled values, and you want to adopt it as the new project standard. You're not typing anything new; you're picking from existing values. Once you've chosen, the flow lands at the Apply confirmation step (described below).

The Apply confirmation step

Before any change is committed, the flow shows a confirmation step with a scope preview. The preview spells out exactly what the confirm will do:

• How many fields will be applied.
• How many existing Documentations will be rewritten — every Documentation already in the project that was created with the same Documentation Template now adopts the new value for those fields.

You then confirm or cancel. Nothing is written until you confirm — there is no silent overwrite.

Apply or Edit?

Apply and Edit are now two separate flows with different effects:

• Edit stores a new value as the project-level prefill. After you confirm, you get a "Prefilled value updated" confirmation — and that's it. New Documentations created from the template going forward start out with the new value, but existing Documentations in the project are not touched.
• Apply is what rewrites the value across every existing Documentation in the project that uses the chosen template. An Owner or Manager opens the Apply flow, picks the Documentation Template, picks the fields and the values, and confirms — at which point the project-wide rewrite happens.

Edit no longer chains into Apply. Editing the prefilled value and applying it to existing Documentations are now two independent steps. If you only need to change the default going forward, Edit is enough; to also rewrite existing Documentations, run Apply as a separate step.

Use it carefully

Project-wide propagation makes Apply powerful: a single confirmation rewrites the same field across every existing Documentation in the project that uses that template, and becomes the default for every new one. There is no undo button. Once you confirm, the change is written across every affected Documentation, and the only way to roll it back is to run Apply again with the previous value — which means you (or someone on your team) has to actually remember what the previous value was. If no one does, the prior state is gone.

That makes the scope-preview confirmation step the one moment that matters. Before anything is written, the preview shows you how many fields are about to be applied and how many existing Documentations will be rewritten with the new values. Read it carefully — that's the moment to catch a wrong field or a typo, not after.