Skip to content

Key terms at a glance

This page gives you a quick overview of the most important terms used in CellRepo.

You don’t need to memorise these.
The goal is simply to help you recognise what each term refers to when you see it in the interface.

All examples below are illustrative and based on realistic lab scenarios.

Organisation

An organisation represents a lab, research group, or company where multiple people work together.

Example:
NovaSyn Bio Lab

Organisations are useful when: - work is shared between multiple people - ownership should belong to a lab or company, not an individual - access and roles matter

If you’re working alone, you may not need an organisation yet.
(See Using CellRepo solo or in a team .)

Project

A project groups related biological work under a common goal or context.

Example project:
Lactate production optimisation in E. coli

A project might include: - multiple strains - several construct variants - work carried out over weeks or months

Projects help organise work, but they do not track biology directly.

(See Create your first project.)

Repository

A repository tracks one biological asset over time.

Think of a repository as the record for a single entity.

Example repositories within the same project: - ΔldhA knockout strain (E. coli MG1655) - Plasmid pLAC-OPT-v1 - Parental MG1655 strain

Each repository has its own history and updates.

(See Create your first repository.)

Commit

A commit records the state of a repository at a specific point in time.

In lab terms, a commit is like marking an experimental checkpoint.

Example commits for a strain repository: - “Initial construction of ΔldhA knockout strain” - “Genotype confirmed by Sanger sequencing” - “Growth rate measured under aerobic conditions”

Commits create a transparent, time-ordered history.

(See Make your first commit.)

Commit message

A commit message is a short explanation of what changed and why it matters.

Good commit messages are: - specific - descriptive - understandable months later

Example:

“Updated plasmid design to strengthen promoter region”

Avoid vague messages like “update” or “final”.

Commit templates

Commit templates are optional structured formats that guide how commit messages are written.

They are useful when: - multiple people contribute - consistency matters - you want to capture specific fields (e.g. method, result, reason)

Templates help teams record biological context more clearly.

(See Commit templates.)

Branches

A branch allows you to explore an alternative path without changing the main history.

In biology terms, this can represent: - a design variant - an optimisation attempt - a parallel experimental direction

Example: - main branch: standard plasmid design - branch: alternative promoter configuration

Branches are optional and can be ignored at the beginning.

(See Branches and forks.)

Forks

A fork is a copy of a repository, often used for collaboration.

Forks are useful when: - another lab wants to build on existing work - you want to explore changes independently - ownership boundaries matter

Forks preserve provenance while allowing safe reuse.

Visibility

Visibility controls who can see a project or repository.

Typical options include: - private (only you or your lab) - shared with specific collaborators - public (if appropriate)

Visibility does not affect how biology is recorded, only who can access it.

(See Visibility and access.)

History and traceability

History is the ordered sequence of commits in a repository.

This history allows you to: - trace how an asset evolved - understand decision points - demonstrate provenance and ownership

This is the foundation for collaboration, IP protection, and auditability.

If something is unclear

It’s normal to revisit this page multiple times as you use CellRepo.

If a term still feels confusing in the context of your own work, you don’t need to guess.

You can always contact us at
support@cellrepo.com

We’re happy to help translate CellRepo concepts into your specific lab workflow.

Once these terms feel familiar, you can move on to practical examples in the
Workflows section.