﻿# Templated projects

> How to create and manage projects from a project template

:::div{.warning}
Project templates are in Public Preview. The feature is still evolving and standard SLAs don't apply. We don't recommend it for production workloads yet. It's available to Enterprise customers on Cloud and to self-hosted customers running Octopus 2026.2+. We'd love your feedback as we work towards General Availability.
:::

A **templated project** is a project created from a project template. It inherits the template's deployment process, channels, and variables, which you can't modify. You customize the project by supplying values for the parameters defined in the template.

## Create a project from a template

To use a project template, you create a new project based on it.

<!-- markdownlint-disable MD029 -->

1. Select **Projects** from the main navigation and click **Add Project**.
2. If there are any available project templates, you'll see them listed here. Select the template you want to use.

:::figure
![Selecting a project template when creating a new project](/docs/img/platform-hub/project-templates/project-template-selection.png)
:::

1. Give the project a **Name**.

:::figure
![Naming a templated project and choosing storage settings](/docs/img/platform-hub/project-templates/templated-project-creation.png)
:::

4. Click **Next** to configure your versioning preferences. You can change these later in project settings.

If the template has pre-release versions, you'll also be asked to choose a version type:

- **Stable**: Intended for production use
- **Pre-release**: Intended for testing purposes only, typically by the template owner. Not recommended for production use

:::figure
![Choosing between stable and pre-release template versions](/docs/img/platform-hub/project-templates/templated-project-version-selection.png)
:::

5. Select how you want the project to handle template updates:

   - **Accept minor changes**: Automatically updates when a patch or minor version is published. Major versions require a manual update.
   - **Accept patches**: Only automatically updates when a patch is published. Minor or major versions require a manual update.

:::figure
![Configuring template version update preferences](/docs/img/platform-hub/project-templates/templated-project-version-settings.png)
:::

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Click **Create Project**. You'll be taken to the **Template values** page.

## Template values

Template values are the parameters the template owner has defined to let you customize the template for your project. They work like project variables: you can provide a value directly or use variable substitutions. Parameters with defaults are marked as optional.

:::figure
![The Template values page for a templated project](/docs/img/platform-hub/project-templates/templated-project-values.png)
:::

After you've provided the required values, you can create a release as usual.

:::div{.hint}
You can't modify the deployment process in a templated project. You can't add, remove, reorder, or disable steps. If you need to change the process, contact the template owner.
:::

## Channels

[Channels](/docs/releases/channels) in templated projects are inherited from the project template. You can view the channels in a templated project like any other project, but these cannot be modified. The [lifecycles](/docs/releases/lifecycles) used by each channel are also inherited from the project template. The available environments for a channel in a templated project are determined by the environment parameter values set in your templated project. You can view the lifecycle configuration used by a channel once you've set all required environment parameter values.

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## Template updates

When a new version of the template is published, you'll receive the update. How and when it's applied depends on the versioning preferences you've set:

- **Patch and minor updates**: Octopus applies these automatically if you chose to accept them.
- **Major updates**: You must manually apply these manually, regardless of your preferences.

## Limitations

Some features are not yet supported for templated projects. For a full list, see [Troubleshooting](/docs/platform-hub/templates/project-templates/troubleshooting).
