How templates work

A template belongs to one type and to the whole organization. It stores a title, field values, a description and a tree of items to create under the new item. Using a template creates ordinary items. They keep no link to the template, so changing or deleting the template later never changes them.

What a template keeps

The title, the description and the values of the type’s fields.
Dates, as a number of working days after the day the item is created.
The items under it, each with its own type, title, description and fields.

A template never keeps display IDs, formula or lookup values, tracked time, the Completed flag, watchers, comments, attachments or dependencies. The person who creates an item from a template becomes its watcher.

Which value wins

When you create an item, several things can set the same field. From weakest to strongest:

The field’s own default value.
The template.
The view’s filter.
A value you pick while creating.
The board column or group you create the item in.

So an item created in the Doing column stays in Doing, whatever status the template sets.

How dates move

A template counts dates in working days: Monday to Friday, except the organization’s holidays. Day 0 is the day the item is created, or the next working day when that day is a weekend or a holiday. When you save an item as a template, its earliest date becomes day 0, and every other date keeps its distance from it.

For example, an item saved with a start on Friday and a finish on the next Wednesday becomes a template with a start on day 0 and a finish on day 3. Used on a Monday, it creates an item that starts on Monday and finishes on Thursday.

The default template

Each type has at most one default template. It applies wherever an item of that type is created, including quick-add rows and the items added under a parent. Making another template the default replaces the old one.

Applying to an existing item

Applying a template adds to an item and keeps what the item already holds:

An empty field is filled.
A field that allows several values gains the template’s values.
A field showing a value rolled down from an ancestor keeps it, even one that allows several values. Filling it would stop it following the ancestor.
A field holding an option its type may no longer hold keeps its value, because adding to it would remove that option.
Any other field keeps its value.
The title never changes.
The description is added only when the item has none.
The template’s items are added under the item.

Undo reverts the field values and the added items. It does not remove a description the template added.

When a type changes later

A template keeps working when its type changes. A field removed from the type is skipped. An option that the type may no longer hold is left empty. An item under the template whose type was deleted, or that you may not create, is skipped, together with everything under it. A template whose own type is deleted is hidden until the type is restored.

Through the API or an AI assistant

The API, and an AI assistant connected over MCP, create items from a template on the server. They create the same items as the app, with these differences:

Day 0 is the day the request names, or today in the organization’s time zone. A weekend or a holiday moves to the next working day, as above.
Each item is saved on its own. A template item that cannot be created is skipped, together with everything under it, and the answer says why.
On every item it creates, a field the template sets no value for takes its default value.

The AI assistant in the app creates from a template in your browser instead, so Undo takes the items back.

Create items from a template