Insert Rows (Advanced)

The Insert Rows (Advanced) action adds one or more new rows to a sheet with advanced row location support (indentation, to top or bottom, etc).

How this compares to the native Smartsheet Insert Row action

	Native Insert a Row	Insert Rows (Advanced)
Browse and pick a sheet by name*	Yes	No
Rows created per execution	1	Up to 500
Structured column-by-column input	Yes, but not for dynamically assigned sheet IDs	Yes
Works with a dynamically-set sheet ID without extra flow logic	No	Yes
Control where the new row is placed	No	Yes
Total parameters	2	10

*Both actions accept a sheet ID typed in directly or set dynamically from earlier in the flow, while the native action also offers browsing sheets by name. In practice, you usually already have the ID available from a trigger or a previous step, so this rarely is useful in practice.

Parameters

Parameter	Required	Description
sheetId	Required	The ID of the sheet to add rows to.
allowPartialSuccess	Optional	Lets some rows succeed even if others in the same execution fail.
overrideValidation	Optional	Allows values outside a column’s validation limits. Requires strict set to false on the relevant cell.
accessApiLevel	Optional	Set to 1 to allow COMMENTER access. Defaults to VIEWER access.

Using sheetId

This can be a fixed, hardcoded value taken from the properties of a sheet in Smartsheet, but it is very common to get the sheetId dynamically from a trigger or another action.

Using allowPartialSuccess

Set to true to prevent the entire batch of rows being created from failing if there are 1 or more rows that are rejected.

Using overrideValidation

Relevant if a column has dropdown or validation rules and you deliberately want to write a value outside them.

Using accessApiLevel

Not commonly used if you’re running the flow on sheets you own or administer. Smartsheet added Commenter as a distinct access level after the API already existed, so by default it’s quietly treated as Viewer for backward compatibility. Setting this to 1 tells the API to recognize Commenter properly, which is relevant if your API token’s access to this sheet is specifically at the Commenter level.

Adding rows

The Body field accepts rows two different ways, and you can switch between them using the icon in the top-right corner of the field.

The icon in the top-right corner of the Body field switches between the two modes.

Adding rows with detail inputs

The default view. Click Add new item to add each row as its own set of fields, filled in through the picker UI. Straightforward for a known, fixed number of rows — but every row has to be added by hand, so it doesn’t work when the row count varies at runtime.

Adding rows as a raw array

Clicking the icon in the top-right of the Body field in the default view details array view, results in the view shown above. The item picker is replaced with a single field that accepts a JSON array, which means the array can come from an expression or the output of any earlier step. Using this option, the number of rows doesn’t have to be known when you build the flow. This is how you insert a dynamic number of rows, anywhere from 1 up to the 500-row limit, without adding items by hand.

This input accepts a standard Smartsheet row object or array of row objects. Here is an example showing 2 rows being created, each with a value in 1 cell:

[
  {
    "locationType": "Top",
    "cells": [
      { "columnId": 1234567890123456, "value": "New task" }
    ]
  },
  {
    "locationType": "Top",
    "cells": [
      { "columnId": 1234567890123456, "value": "Another new task" }
    ]
  }
]

Row fields

Each row you add is its own item with these fields. You can add multiple rows in one execution of the action, up to 500 rows, which is a hard limit set by the Smartsheet API itself, not something this connector can increase.

Field	Required	Description
cells	Optional	The values to set on the new row. See below.
locationType	Optional	Where to place the new row. See below.
locationReferenceRowId	Situational	Required for some locationType options. See below.
expanded	Optional	Whether the new row starts expanded or collapsed.
format	Optional	Baseline formatting for the row’s blank cells only.
locked	Optional	Whether the new row is locked.

Using cells

Each cell needs a columnId and a value. A few things worth knowing:

• displayValue only matters for contact-list columns, where it sets the displayed name. Put the contact’s email in value and their name in displayValue.
• formula lets you set the cell to a formula (like =SUM(CHILDREN())) instead of a static value. Cannot be combined with value, displayValue, or linkType on the same cell.
• strict set to false bypasses Smartsheet’s normal value type checking. This is also the fix for date columns since Smartsheet’s DATE columns only accept YYYY-MM-DD by default and reject regional formats like 07/30/2026. If you set strict to false on that cell, then you can enter a date value like “07/30/2026”.
• linkType turns the cell into a hyperlink, or removes an existing one. Choose URL, Sheet, Report, or Dashboard to set a new link (provide the target in linkValue, and set value to the link’s label text), or choose Clear to remove a hyperlink that’s already on the cell. Leave blank to leave any existing hyperlink untouched.
• linkValue is the link’s target: the full URL for a URL link, or the sheet/report/dashboard ID for the others. Required alongside linkType unless linkType is Clear.
• For checkbox columns, set value to true for checked, or false (or leave it blank) for unchecked.

Using locationType

Smartsheet’s raw API uses seven separate placement fields that can only be combined in specific ways. This connector replaces all of them with one dropdown:

locationType	Needs locationReferenceRowId?	Places the row
Top	No	At the very top of the sheet.
Bottom	No	At the very bottom of the sheet (the default if you leave locationType blank).
Child (first)	Yes	As the first child of the row in locationReferenceRowId.
Child (last)	Yes	As the last child of the row in locationReferenceRowId.
Sibling (below)	Yes	Directly below the row in locationReferenceRowId, at the same level.
Sibling (above)	Yes	Directly above the row in locationReferenceRowId, at the same level.
Indent under row above	No	Makes the new row a child of whichever row is directly above it.
Outdent one level	No	Moves the new row’s placement out one level from its default.

Leave locationType blank entirely for the default behavior (bottom of the sheet), which is what is done in most situations.

NOTE: Every row in the same call must use the same locationType. You can’t send one row with Sibling (below) and another with Child (last) in the same call. Smartsheet will reject the entire request if the types don’t match.

Using locationReferenceRowId

Pairs with: required when locationType is set to Child (first), Child (last), Sibling (below), or Sibling (above) — see the table above.

The ID of the row that the new row is positioned relative to. For instance, the parent for Child (first) and Child (last), or the sibling for Sibling (above) and Sibling (below). Leave blank for Top, Bottom, Indent under row above, and Outdent one level, which don’t need a reference row.

NOTE: Every row in the same call must use the same locationReferenceRowId. To insert rows under or beside different reference rows, use a separate call for each one.

Using expanded

This controls whether the row displays expanded or collapsed if it has child rows.

Using format

Uncommon. One thing worth knowing: it only sets the baseline format for the row’s blank cells. It does not restyle cells that already have a value. To format existing data, format has to be set per-cell, not on the row.

Using locked

Sets whether the new row is locked from editing as soon as it’s created.

Example

A flow that reads data from an Excel file and inserts rows into a sheet in Smartsheet. Or, if you are adding items to a specific invoice number, you can use locationType and locationReferenceRowId to insert the new rows under the parent invoice number.

What you get back

The newly created row objects, including each new row’s id, which you may need in later actions in the same flow needs to reference the row you just created (attaching a file to it, for example).

Gotchas