When you create a template you pick a pass type. It's the first design decision, and it mainly does two things: it chooses sensible defaults for the template, and it sets the layout the wallet uses to present the pass.
It is not a cage. Whatever type you pick, you can still design freely and choose your own fields afterwards. Think of it as the starting shape, not a fixed one.
The six types
Membership - membership and loyalty cards. This is the default, and the right choice for most businesses. It renders as a wallet store card.
Generic - the flexible catch-all for anything that doesn't fit the others. Reach for it when none of the specific types describe what you're making.
Loyalty - points and rewards cards. Also a store-card style, tuned toward tracking a balance or points total.
Event ticket - a ticket for a dated event. It uses the ticket layout, which reads differently from a store card.
Stamp card - punch and stamp cards, the "buy nine, get the tenth free" pattern.
Transit - travel passes. This type carries a transit type (bus, train, and so on) alongside the usual design.
What the type actually changes
The type sets defaults and the wallet layout - roughly, the frame the pass is presented in. It nudges the field layout toward something sensible for that kind of pass so you're not starting from nothing.
What it doesn't do is lock your design. After you pick a type you still choose your own fields, colours, images and barcode. Two businesses can both pick Membership and end up with passes that look nothing alike. See Fields and regions.
Not sure which to pick? Start with Membership - it's the default for a reason and suits most loyalty and members' use cases. You can always begin from a preset that already has the type and fields set up for a common case. See Starting from a preset.
Where you pick it
You choose the pass type in two places:
- In the template builder, when you create or edit a template directly.
- When using Design with AI, where you tell it what you're making and the type comes set as part of the generated starting point.
Either way the type is part of the template, so every pass issued from that template shares it.
Where to go next
- Pass templates - the basics - how templates fit together.
- Starting from a preset - the fastest way to a working template.
- Fields and regions - the part that most shapes how a pass reads.