placeholder

An inline atom that is replaced at render time with a dynamic value — a subscriber field, custom field, user attribute, remote content, or date.

Attributes

Attribute	Default	Constraint	Example	Description
type	—	"CustomField" | "Subscriber" | "User" | "RemoteContent" | "Date"	"Subscriber"	The placeholder category. Determines what value and original contain.
value	—	string | number | null	"email"	The field identifier. A number for CustomField; a string for Subscriber, User, RemoteContent; null for Date.
name	—	string	"Email"	Human-readable display label shown in the editor chip.
original	—	string	"[Subscriber:email]"	The canonical backend token string. The renderer substitutes this token at send time.
max-length	null	string | null	"20"	Maximum character length. Supported for CustomField only; truncates the value and appends ….

Children

None (inline atom, leaf node).

Parent nodes

• paragraph

Available in

• Full Email RFM (rc-text, rc-heading)
• Email Inline RFM (rc-button)

Subscriber

Inserts a standard subscriber profile field.

value	name	Plain-text token
"email"	"Email"	[Subscriber:email]
"phone_number"	"Phone number"	[Subscriber:phone_number]
"language"	"Language"	[Subscriber:language]

JSON:

{
  "type": "placeholder",
  "attrs": {
    "type": "Subscriber",
    "value": "email",
    "name": "Email",
    "original": "[Subscriber:email]",
    "max-length": null
  }
}

Email RFM:

Dear ::placeholder{type="Subscriber" value="email" name="Email" original="[Subscriber:email]"},

Plain text:

[Subscriber:email]

---

User

Inserts a field from the sender (Rule.io account) profile.

value	name	Plain-text token
"CompanyName"	"Company name"	[User:CompanyName]
"Street"	"Street"	[User:Street]
"Zip"	"Zip"	[User:Zip]
"City"	"City"	[User:City]
"EmailAddress"	"Email address"	[User:EmailAddress]

JSON:

{
  "type": "placeholder",
  "attrs": {
    "type": "User",
    "value": "CompanyName",
    "name": "Company name",
    "original": "[User:CompanyName]",
    "max-length": null
  }
}

Email RFM:

Sent by ::placeholder{type="User" value="CompanyName" name="Company name" original="[User:CompanyName]"}

Plain text:

[User:CompanyName]

---

CustomField

Inserts a subscriber custom field value. The value attribute holds the numeric ID of the field (coerced from string to number by the parser). The original token identifies the field by Group.Field name — never by numeric ID.

max-length is supported: append ::N to the original token and set max-length to the same number as a string.

JSON:

{
  "type": "placeholder",
  "attrs": {
    "type": "CustomField",
    "value": 13,
    "name": "Order.Total",
    "original": "[CustomField:Order.Total]",
    "max-length": null
  }
}

With truncation to 20 characters:

{
  "type": "placeholder",
  "attrs": {
    "type": "CustomField",
    "value": 13,
    "name": "Order.Total",
    "original": "[CustomField:Order.Total::20]",
    "max-length": "20"
  }
}

Email RFM:

Your total: ::placeholder{type="CustomField" value="13" name="Order.Total" original="[CustomField:Order.Total]"}

Plain text:

[CustomField:Order.Total]
[CustomField:Order.Total::20]

---

Date

Inserts a formatted date computed at send time. value is always null. The date source and output format are encoded entirely in original.

Date source (type param in token):

Source	Plain-text token
Current date	[Date:now::Y-m-d]
Tomorrow	[Date:tomorrow::Y-m-d]
Yesterday	[Date:yesterday::Y-m-d]
N days from now	[Date:in-2-days::Y-m-d]
N days ago	[Date:3-days-ago::Y-m-d]
Subscriber custom field	[Date:[CustomField:Order.CreatedAt]::Y-m-d]

Format (format param in token): PHP date format string. Supported values: Y-m-d, d.m.Y, m-d-Y, m/d/Y, d/m/Y.

JSON:

{
  "type": "placeholder",
  "attrs": {
    "type": "Date",
    "value": null,
    "name": "Tomorrow",
    "original": "[Date:tomorrow::d.m.Y]",
    "max-length": null
  }
}

Email RFM:

Offer valid until ::placeholder{type="Date" name="Tomorrow" original="[Date:tomorrow::d.m.Y]"}

Plain text:

[Date:tomorrow::d.m.Y]
[Date:in-2-days::Y-m-d]
[Date:[CustomField:Order.CreatedAt]::Y-m-d]

---

RemoteContent

Fetches content from a remote URL at send time and inserts the response body. name is always "RemoteContent". The URL may contain nested [CustomField:...], [Subscriber:...], and [User:...] tokens that are resolved before the request is made.

JSON:

{
  "type": "placeholder",
  "attrs": {
    "type": "RemoteContent",
    "value": "https://api.example.com/banner",
    "name": "RemoteContent",
    "original": "[RemoteContent:https://api.example.com/banner]",
    "max-length": null
  }
}

With nested tokens in the URL:

{
  "type": "placeholder",
  "attrs": {
    "type": "RemoteContent",
    "value": "https://api.example.com/offer?id=[CustomField:Order.Id]&email=[Subscriber:email]",
    "name": "RemoteContent",
    "original": "[RemoteContent:https://api.example.com/offer?id=[CustomField:Order.Id]&email=[Subscriber:email]]",
    "max-length": null
  }
}

Email RFM:

::placeholder{type="RemoteContent" value="https://api.example.com/banner" name="RemoteContent" original="[RemoteContent:https://api.example.com/banner]"}

Plain text:

[RemoteContent:https://api.example.com/banner]
[RemoteContent:https://api.example.com/offer?id=[CustomField:Order.Id]&email=[Subscriber:email]]

---

Plain-text tokens

The bracket tokens that appear in original can also be used directly as plain strings in RCML attribute values, without wrapping them in a ::placeholder{...} Email RFM node. For example:

• As the href of a :link mark: :link[Unsubscribe]{href="[Link:Unsubscribe]"}
• In rc-raw HTML content: <p>[Subscriber:email]</p>
• In any RCML attribute that the backend renderer post-processes at send time

The complete machine-readable token reference is available as placeholderSpec from @rule/rcml:

import { placeholderSpec } from '@rule/rcml';

// All supported token types
Object.keys(placeholderSpec.tokens)
// → ['CustomField', 'Subscriber', 'User', 'Date', 'RemoteContent', 'LoopValue', ...]

// Token syntax and examples
placeholderSpec.tokens['Subscriber'].syntax   // '[Subscriber:<field>]'
placeholderSpec.tokens['Subscriber'].examples // ['[Subscriber:email]', ...]