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Create and manage commit templates

Commit templates define what data is recorded in CellRepo.

They provide a structured set of fields that ensure each commit captures the critical biological information needed for reproducibility, clarity, and long‑term traceability.

Templates can be reused across repositories and updated over time. Read more in Understanding Commit Templates

Before You Begin: Design What Matters

Before creating templates, it helps to sketch out in your lab notebook what information is essential to capture throughout your experiment: genotype changes, protocol steps, conditions, QC results, or decision‑making context.

Spending a little time designing a template up front makes your commit history more consistent and more valuable later. Templates are fully editable — you can add or change fields at any point — but a clear starting structure reduces rework and ensures your team captures what truly matters.

A strong best practice is to start from a public template, fork it, and then refine it for your workflow. Public starting points include:

  • “Public strain commit template”
  • “Public protocol commit template”

Search for these directly in the search bar to clone and customise.

It is recommended to start with creating 2–3 templates, such as:

  • Strain template
  • Protocol template
  • Assay/experimental update template

Creating a commit template

Creating a Commit Template from scratch

  1. Go to Commit Templates
  2. Select Create template
  3. Give it a clear name
  4. Add your fields (text, dropdowns, files, etc.)
  5. Save — it becomes immediately available for repositories and commits

Creating a Commit Template from a public template

  1. Find public commit template in search function (see section above)
  2. Open commit template
  3. Click FORK at the top right which will open a simple form
  4. Give it a clear name and assign visibility
  5. Click “Fork Template”
  6. Open template from Commit Templates in navigation
  7. Review and add your fields (text, dropdowns, files, etc.) as required
  8. Save — it becomes immediately available for repositories and commits

Templates can belong to your personal workspace or your organisation, depending on where they are created.

Understanding template fields

Each commit template consists of several fields and each field represents one type of information you want recorded when a change is made.

Examples include:

  • description of the experimental step
  • protocol or method used
  • parameters or conditions
  • observations or results
  • notes or comments
  • file or data attachments

Fields can be structured (Numbers, Date, etc) or flexible, required or optional — design them to capture meaningful, repeatable information.

Editing and maintaining templates

You can adjust templates at any time by creating a new version of the template whether this is to:

  • add new fields
  • rename fields
  • remove unused fields
  • adjust which fields are required

Changes never modify past commits. Each historical commit retains the template version used at the time of recording.

Updates affect future commits only — historical commits remain linked to the template version used when they were created.

When to create multiple templates

Use separate templates when you need to capture different types of updates, such as:

  • Routine strain development
  • Stepwise protocol development
  • Analytical or QC workflows

Templates help standardise documentation without forcing everything into one format.

What to do next

Once a commit template exists, you’re ready to create a repository and start recording work. We talk more about using commit templates in the following sections

→ Create your first repository
→ Make your first commit

If you have any questions, please contact us at support@cellrepo.com