diff --git a/public/pages/workflow_detail/workflow_inputs/ingest_inputs/source_data.tsx b/public/pages/workflow_detail/workflow_inputs/ingest_inputs/source_data.tsx
index d6ba2a8e..2e8a1937 100644
--- a/public/pages/workflow_detail/workflow_inputs/ingest_inputs/source_data.tsx
+++ b/public/pages/workflow_detail/workflow_inputs/ingest_inputs/source_data.tsx
@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@ export function SourceData(props: SourceDataProps) {
         <JsonField
           label="Upload JSON documents"
           fieldPath={'ingest.docs'}
+          helpText="Documents should be formatted as a valid JSON array."
           // when ingest doc values change, don't update the form
           // since we initially only support running ingest once per configuration
           onFormChange={() => {}}
diff --git a/public/pages/workflow_detail/workflow_inputs/processor_inputs/input_transform_modal.tsx b/public/pages/workflow_detail/workflow_inputs/processor_inputs/input_transform_modal.tsx
index 7a45c1cc..670d22be 100644
--- a/public/pages/workflow_detail/workflow_inputs/processor_inputs/input_transform_modal.tsx
+++ b/public/pages/workflow_detail/workflow_inputs/processor_inputs/input_transform_modal.tsx
@@ -49,8 +49,8 @@ export function InputTransformModal(props: InputTransformModalProps) {
   const { values } = useFormikContext<WorkflowFormValues>();
 
   // source input / transformed output state
-  const [sourceInput, setSourceInput] = useState<string>('{}');
-  const [transformedOutput, setTransformedOutput] = useState<string>('{}');
+  const [sourceInput, setSourceInput] = useState<string>('[]');
+  const [transformedOutput, setTransformedOutput] = useState<string>('[]');
 
   return (
     <EuiModal onClose={props.onClose} style={{ width: '70vw' }}>
diff --git a/public/utils/config_to_form_utils.ts b/public/utils/config_to_form_utils.ts
index fa6a3dc3..fb3bee5f 100644
--- a/public/utils/config_to_form_utils.ts
+++ b/public/utils/config_to_form_utils.ts
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ function ingestConfigToFormik(
   let ingestFormikValues = {} as FormikValues;
   if (ingestConfig) {
     ingestFormikValues['enabled'] = ingestConfig.enabled;
-    ingestFormikValues['docs'] = ingestDocs || getInitialValue('json');
+    ingestFormikValues['docs'] = ingestDocs || '[]';
     ingestFormikValues['enrich'] = processorsConfigToFormik(
       ingestConfig.enrich
     );
diff --git a/public/utils/config_to_schema_utils.ts b/public/utils/config_to_schema_utils.ts
index 72d8055a..7f4a2a39 100644
--- a/public/utils/config_to_schema_utils.ts
+++ b/public/utils/config_to_schema_utils.ts
@@ -108,10 +108,10 @@ function getFieldSchema(fieldType: ConfigFieldType): Schema {
       break;
     }
     case 'json': {
-      baseSchema = yup.string().test('json', 'Invalid JSON', (value) => {
+      baseSchema = yup.string().test('json', 'Invalid JSON array', (value) => {
         try {
           // @ts-ignore
-          JSON.parse(value);
+          return Array.isArray(JSON.parse(value));
           return true;
         } catch (error) {
           return false;