Saved project templates
A saved project template is a snapshot of an existing project's setup — labeling config, instructions, sampling, and annotation rules — that you or others can turn into a fresh, identical project in one click. It is distinct from the built-in templates that ship with AfriAnnotate: those are generic starting points; these are your house styles ("our Hausa NER v2, exactly as tuned").
Templates are a project-creation tool, so they're visible to roles that can create projects: Owner, Admin, Manager, and platform staff. Annotators, reviewers, and guests don't see them.
What a template captures​
| Field | Source on the project |
|---|---|
| Labeling config | Settings → Labeling Interface |
| Labeling instructions + Show before labeling | Settings → Annotation |
| Empty submissions allowed | Settings → Annotation |
| Annotations per task (min / max regions) | Settings → Annotation |
| Whether the Skip button is shown | Project field (show_skip_button), not exposed on a settings tab |
| Maximum annotations per task | Settings → Quality |
| Task sampling | Settings → General |
Not captured: tasks and data, storage connections, members,
visibility, consent requirements, licensing, typed layers, ML
backends, webhooks. A <TypedFeature layer="…"> or
<KBRef kb="…"> in the config is copied verbatim and will point at
IDs that don't exist in the new project until re-pointed.
Saving a project as a template​
Project → Settings → General → Save as template. The modal asks for:
- Name — required; defaults to
<project title> template. - Description — optional; shown on the template card.
- Who can use this template:
| Option | Who can see and instantiate it |
|---|---|
| My organization only (default) | Members of your active org. |
| My org + specific organizations | Your active org plus the orgs you pick. Non-staff can only pick orgs they are themselves a member of; staff can pick any org. Your own org is implicit and not offered in the picker. |
| Platform-wide | Everyone on the platform. Staff only — the option is disabled for everyone else, and a non-staff request for platform scope is saved into the active org instead. |
Saving records you as the template's creator and shows a Saved "…" to your templates confirmation.
Where templates show up​
My templates​
Profile → My templates (/users/<id>/templates; the old
/project-templates URL redirects there). Lists only templates
you authored, across all your orgs. Visible on your own profile
only, and only if you hold a project-creating role.
Labeling templates (organisation)​
Organization → Resources → Labeling templates
(/organization/resources/templates). Lists every template your active org
can use: platform-wide ones, ones owned by the org, and ones another
org shared with it. Staff see all templates.
The project wizard​
When creating a project, the Labeling Setup step merges saved templates into the picker under a Your org's templates group (newest first), ahead of the built-in groups. The group only appears when at least one saved template is available to you. Picking one sets the labeling config and also applies the captured instructions, skip / empty-annotation settings, sampling, and region rules to the draft project.
Actions on a template card​
- Use this — from the standalone lists, asks for a project title (defaults to the template name) and creates the project immediately, then opens its Data Manager. From the wizard, it preselects the template instead. Creating from a template is subject to the same gates as any project creation: the org's Who can create projects policy and the org's project quota.
- Rename and Delete — only for the template's creator or staff. Deleting a template does not affect projects already created from it.
Editing the captured config or settings is not available from the card; save a new template from the updated project instead.
Gotchas​
- Scope is decided at save time. A template saved as My organization only cannot later be widened from the card.
- Sharing with a specific org lets that org's project creators instantiate the template; it does not let them edit or delete it (creator and staff only).
- A member of several orgs sees org-scoped templates for their active org; switch orgs to see another org's templates.
What's next​
- Annotation templates → — the built-in templates the wizard ships with
- Project setup → — creating a project and the Labeling Setup step
- Annotation settings → — the instructions, skip, and per-task rules a template carries
- Typed layers → — why
<TypedFeature>IDs need re-pointing after instantiation