Local API: option to validate only the submitted fields on update()

[Ardnived]

Problem

payload.update() validates the whole document on every call. It also validates fields that are not in data. It checks these fields against the stored value. There is no option to validate only the fields in data.

Why it matters

We run a background job. The job updates two fields on a published document: a counter and a timestamp. No form uses these fields. A validator added later can block this update. The validator fails on a stored value in a different field. The job did not send that field.

The only workaround we found is unpublishAllLocales: true. This flag skips validation as a side effect. The flag is documented for unpublish operations. We do not enable localized status, so the flag does not change _status in our case. We depend on an undocumented side effect, not a supported option. draft: true is not a workaround. This flag skips the main row write. It does not skip only validation.

Proposal

v4 canary already has similar logic for trash and for unpublishAllLocales. The logic is in collections/operations/utilities/update.ts, in shouldLimitValidationToSubmittedFields and fieldsToValidate. This logic validates only the submitted top-level fields. Please expose the same logic as a general Local API option, for example update({ ..., data, validate: 'submitted' }). We can open a pull request for this.

Notes

• We use Payload 3.87.1. main and v4 canary have the same gap. The logic exists in the code. The Local API does not expose it outside trash and unpublishAllLocales.

[Ardnived]

Dug into this a bit more on our end. 3.90.0 already does most of what I'm asking here, just narrower: shouldLimitValidationToSubmittedFields/fieldsToValidate in collections/operations/utilities/update.ts replaces the old blanket unpublishAllLocales/trash validation skip with validating only the submitted fields. That's exactly the behavior I want, it's just still gated behind those two operations rather than something you can ask for on a plain update. Figured it's worth linking as the closest existing implementation, in case it changes how this gets prioritized.