# Kafka Connect ExtractNestedField SMT Usage Reference for Confluent Cloud The `ExtractNestedField` Single Message Transformation (SMT) promotes a nested field within the Kafka Connect record key or value to a top level field. This SMT simplifies data access for downstream systems by extracting a required value (for example, `ID`) from a structure and placing it directly at the root level. ## Limitations - Although the SMT has the `output.field.name` configuration for renaming, the extracted field name defaults to the name of the nested field and cannot be customized. #### IMPORTANT Confluent only supports this SMT on Confluent Cloud. For complete details, see the official [ExtractNestedField SMT](https://jcustenborder.github.io/kafka-connect-documentation/projects/kafka-connect-transform-common/transformations/ExtractNestedField.html) documentation.