Issue Templates

Build reusable starting points for issues, and apply them from the create form

A template is a saved starting point for an issue. Choosing one on the create form fills the fields in before you type, and can insist that you fill named fields before you submit.

Elixion, the platform for Engineering Intelligence™, ships no templates. A new workspace's template list is empty until someone creates one, so the first thing this page covers is how to make one.

Where templates live

Templates are managed on their own page, Issue templates (/issue-templates). You can also reach it from the create form: the Manage templates link beside the "Start from template" picker opens it in a new tab, so nothing you have already typed into the form is lost.

The page lists every template you can see, with a search box and a project filter. Each card shows the template's name, description, default labels, how many times it has been used, and its scope.

Creating a template

Press Create Template. The dialog opens with a row of Quick Start buttons: Bug Report, Feature Request and Technical Task. These are starting points, not saved templates. Pressing one fills the form below with a worked example that you then edit and save under your own name.

The form asks for:

| Field | What it does | |-------|--------------| | Template Name | Required. What the picker shows. | | Issue Type | The type an issue made from this template starts as: Story, Bug, Task, Epic, Subtask, Spike, or Tech Debt, the same types issues themselves use. | | Description | When to use this template. Shown on the card, not copied onto the issue. | | Title Pattern | Replaces the issue's title on the create form, for example [BUG]. Not prepended to whatever you type: the field starts with the pattern, and typing over it is how you write the real title. | | Default Description | The issue's starting description. Markdown. | | Default Priority | The priority the issue starts at: Critical, High, Medium, Low, or Trivial, the same five priorities issues themselves use. | | Scope | Who can use it. See below. | | Project | Which project, when the scope is project specific. | | Default Labels | Comma separated. Applied to the issue. | | Checklist Items | One per line. Becomes the issue's acceptance criteria, unchecked. See below. |

Scope

Three values:

  • Personal (Only me). Visible to you alone. This is the default, and the only scope everyone can create.
  • Project-Specific. Visible to anyone who can see that project.
  • Global (All Projects). Visible to everyone. Only an administrator can create one, so if you are not an administrator, leave the scope on Personal or Project-Specific.

What a template carries onto an issue

Applying a template on the create form sets, where the template has a value for it:

  • Title, from the title pattern.
  • Description.
  • Type and priority.
  • Labels, lower cased to match labels you type by hand.
  • Story points.
  • Acceptance criteria and definition of done.
  • Checklist items, appended to the acceptance criteria as unchecked boxes (- [ ] item text). A template with no checklist leaves this part of the acceptance criteria untouched. The New issue form shows them before you create, exactly like any other acceptance criterion, so you can edit or remove one before submitting.
  • Components.
  • Epic, unless the form was opened from a specific epic.
  • Assignee, when that person can be assigned in this project.

It also carries a list of required fields. The create form names them under the picker, reading "This template requires: ...", and will not submit until they have values.

Switching from one template to another resets every field a template controls first, so a previous template's value never sticks to a field the new one does not set. Choosing "None, start from scratch" does the same.

Where the template shows up afterward

The issue it created keeps a link back to the template. The issue page shows "Created from template: " with a link to the templates page, or says the template was deleted if it no longer exists. The issue's Activity History also records the creation, including which template (if any) started it.

An issue created before this link existed shows neither. There is nothing to show, not a broken link.

From the templates page, open a template's issue list (via its usage count) to see every issue it has produced, most recent first. Only issues in projects you can see appear there, whatever the template's own scope is.

Editing and deleting

Open a template from the list to edit it. A template is applied at creation time, so editing one changes what future issues start from and leaves existing issues alone.

Deleting a template removes it. There is no duplicate action and no version history: a template records when it was created and when it was last updated, and nothing between.

Usage counts

Every time an issue is created from a template, Elixion records the use and the time. The count is on the template's card. It is the number to prune by: a template with no uses in a quarter is a template nobody reaches for.

Writing a template that helps

  • Put the questions in the description, as headings with nothing under them. An empty "Steps to reproduce" heading gets filled in; a paragraph of advice gets deleted.
  • Put the outcome in the acceptance criteria template. That is the field both the reviewer and any agent working the issue read.
  • Keep required fields to the ones you would otherwise chase people for. Every required field is a moment someone abandons the form.
  • Name the template after the moment it is used, not the artefact it produces. "Production incident" beats "Bug template 2".

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