Type of templates

The differences between the template types

You can create three types of templates: Public, Private, and Cross-project.

Public templates

They’re available for every user in your Jira instance. When you create them, you’re an owner of these templates, so only you can modify or delete them. Other users can execute these templates manually to create issues. They can also duplicate them to use to create their own templates.

This is a default configuration. You can modify it during template creation and define which users see these templates and can modify them. It’s especially useful for large organizations.

Private templates

As the name suggests, such templates are hidden from others. They’re private. You, as the owner of this template, are the only one who can do anything with them.

Cross-project templates

In the case of private and public templates, when creating them, you define in which projects the issues from the given template will be created. In case of cross-project templates, you define a generic template using the basic fields in Jira, and only when you use it, you choose in which project you want to create the issue.

Unlike the other templates, cross-project template can only be executed manually. The rest can be scheduled and executed automatically. We recommend using this type of template when the template will be used in many different projects, even those that haven't been created yet.

Read the table below for detailed information.

Actions	Owner	User (not-owner)	Jira administrator
Private template
Update template	✅	❌	✅
Run template manually	✅	❌	✅
Set ON/OFF	✅	❌	✅
Duplicate template	✅	❌	✅
Remove template	✅	❌	✅
Public template
Update template	✅	❌ (but it can be changed in the configuration)	✅
Run template manually	✅	✅	✅
Set ON/OFF	✅	❌ (but it can be changed in the configuration)	✅
Duplicate template	✅	✅	✅
Remove template	✅	❌ (but it can be changed in the configuration)	✅

Jira administrator can manage all templates which are on the current Jira instance. Read more on this page.

Template type selection

You can select template type during template creation or update. This change will not impact the template execution calendar.

Once you choose cross-project, you won't be able to change it later. Private and public templates can be changed among themselves.

Examples of two types of templates

A list of examples you can find under the Examples of templates page.