# Templated projects

> How to create and manage projects from a project template

:::div{.warning}
Project templates are in Alpha. The feature is incomplete and standard SLAs do not apply. Don't use it for production workloads. It is available to Enterprise customers on Cloud. Self-hosted customers can access it as an early preview via Octopus 2026.2. We're actively developing this feature and would love your feedback.
:::

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

## Create a project from a template

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

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** and choose where its settings, non-sensitive variables, and template values will be stored.

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

1. 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 producers. 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)
:::

1. 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)
:::

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

## Template values

Template values are the parameters the producer 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 producer.
:::

## Template updates

When the producer publishes a new version of the template, you'll receive the update. How and when it's applied depends on the versioning preferences you set when creating the project:

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

When a major update is available, you'll need to review and apply it before you can create new releases.

## Future direction

We're still shaping what project templates can do, and there are a few areas we're actively thinking about. If any of these sound useful to you, we'd love to hear about it. [Share your feedback](https://oc.to/feedback).

## Limitations

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