Understanding commit templates
Commit templates and repositories are tightly connected in CellRepo. Templates define what information gets recorded and respositories are where that information gets recorded over time. You can create a repository without a commit template, but you can't add information or data (create a new commit) without selecting a commit template.
What Commit Templates Are
A commit template defines the structured fields you complete every time you record a change. Instead of free‑text notes, templates ensure consistent capture of:
- Experimental details
- Design changes
- Protocols or conditions
- Files and attachments
- Observations and metadata
Templates are reusable across projects and repositories and can be updated as your workflow matures.
Important: Commit templates themselves are version‑controlled. For any commit, you can see exactly which template version was used to capture that record, even if the template has changed since. This preserves historical context and makes audits and investigations much more robust.
Why Commit Templates Matter
Templates ensure:
- Consistent documentation across your team
- No missing experimental metadata
- Clear commit histories months or years later
- Standardisation across strains, constructs, or protocol updates
For teams, this standardisation dramatically improves reproducibility and auditability.
When to Create Commit Templates
CellRepo works best if you set up templates before you start creating repositories. This ensures the data you collect in commits is immediately organised.
However, you can:
- Create a repository with a blank/default commit, then
- Attach a commit template later when you are ready to capture data
This is useful while you are still designing your documentation structure.
What’s next
Now that you know what templates are, let’s look at how to create and manage them. → Create and manage commit templates