This musical instrument is similar to Chinese guzheng, Japanese koto, the Mongolian yatga, the Korean gayageum, the Vietnamese đàn tranh and the Kazakh jetigen.

The kacapi played as the main accompanying instrument in the Tembang Sunda or Mamaos Cianjuran, kacapi suling (tembang Sunda without vocal accompaniment) genre (called kecapi seruling in Indonesian), pantun stories recitation or an additional instrument in Gamelan Degung performance.

The word kacapi in Sundanese also refers to santol tree, from which initially the wood is believed to be used for building the zither instrument.

The sides of this kind of kacapi are tapered inward from top to bottom, which gives the instrument a boat-like shape.

For both kinds of kacapi, each string is affixed to a small screw or peg on the top right-hand side of the box.

If the kacapi indung is played while sitting on the floor, usually a pillow or some other small object is placed under its left-hand side, as seen from the player, so that the sound can freely escape through the resonance hole in the bottom of the soundbox.

In the Sundanese dictionary published by the Lembaga Basa & Sastra Sunda (1976) the primary meaning of the word pantun is given as kacapi.