---
title: "Editing forms — Forms for Laravel | Roundly"
description: "Diff a new definition against the stored structure and save only what changed — events fire only for changed records."
url: https://roundly-consulting.com/open-source/docs/forms-for-laravel/editing-forms
language: en
---

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# Editing forms

Forms::update($key) returns a builder that diffs your definition against the persisted structure and saves the changes in a transaction — adding new groups and fields, renaming or reordering existing ones, and firing the FormUpdated / Group\* / Field\* events only for records that actually changed. Records absent from the definition are left untouched:

```php
Forms::update('contact')
    ->name('Contact us')
    ->public()
    ->group('details', 'Your details', function (GroupBuilder $g): void {
        $g->field('name', 'Full name')->rules(['required']);
        $g->field('phone', 'Phone'); // added
    })
    ->save();
```

- Groups and fields are matched by key; a key that doesn’t exist yet is created.
- name(), public(bool) and expiresAt() are optional — anything you don’t set keeps its stored value.
- Fields are compared on name, type, help, autofill, options, validations, conditions, messages and order.
- Nothing is deleted — to remove a group or field, soft-delete its model.
- An unknown key throws FormNotFoundException.

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