---
type: reference
---

# Instance template repository **(PREMIUM ONLY)**

> [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/issues/5986) in
> [GitLab Premium](https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/) 11.3.

## Overview

In hosted systems, enterprises often have a need to share their own templates
across teams. This feature allows an administrator to pick a project to be the
instance-wide collection of file templates. These templates are then exposed to
all users [via the web editor](../../project/repository/web_editor.md#template-dropdowns)
while the project remains secure.

## Configuration

As an administrator, navigate to **Admin area > Settings > Templates** and
select the project to serve as the custom template repository.

![File templates in the admin area](img/file_template_admin_area.png)

Once a project has been selected, you can add custom templates to the repository,
and they will appear in the appropriate places in the
[frontend](../../project/repository/web_editor.md#template-dropdowns) and
[API](../../../api/settings.md).

Templates must be added to a specific subdirectory in the repository,
corresponding to the kind of template. The following types of custom templates
are supported:

| Type              | Directory     | Extension     |
| :---------------: | :-----------: | :-----------: |
| `Dockerfile`      | `Dockerfile`  | `.dockerfile` |
| `.gitignore`      | `gitignore`   | `.gitignore`  |
| `.gitlab-ci.yml`  | `gitlab-ci`   | `.yml`        |
| `LICENSE`         | `LICENSE`     | `.txt`        |

Each template must go in its respective subdirectory, have the correct
extension and not be empty. So, the hierarchy should look like this:

```text
|-- README.md
|-- Dockerfile
    |-- custom_dockerfile.dockerfile
    |-- another_dockerfile.dockerfile
|-- gitignore
    |-- custom_gitignore.gitignore
    |-- another_gitignore.gitignore
|-- gitlab-ci
    |-- custom_gitlab-ci.yml
    |-- another_gitlab-ci.yml
|-- LICENSE
    |-- custom_license.txt
    |-- another_license.txt
```

Once this is established, the list of custom templates will be included when
creating a new file and the template type is selected. These will appear at the
top of the list.

![Custom template dropdown menu](img/file_template_user_dropdown.png)

If this feature is disabled or no templates are present, there will be
no "Custom" section in the selection dropdown.

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