Template Repositories

Gitea (starting with version 1.11.0) supports creating template repositories which can be used to generate repositories based on the template, complete with variable expansion of certain pre-defined variables.

All files in the template repository are included in a generated repository from the template except for the .gitea/template file. The .gitea/template file tells Gitea which files are subject to the variable expansion when creating a repository from the template.

Gitea uses gobwas/glob for its glob syntax. It closely resembles a traditional .gitignore, however there may be slight differences.

Example .gitea/template file

All paths are relative to the base of the repository

# Expand all .go files, anywhere in the repository
**.go

# All text files in the text directory
text/*.txt

# A specific file
a/b/c/d.json

# Batch files in both upper or lower case can be matched
**.[bB][aA][tT]

Variable Expansion

In any file matched by the above globs, certain variables will be expanded.

Matching filenames and paths can also be expanded, and are conservatively sanitized to support cross-platform filesystems.

All variables must be of the form $VAR or ${VAR}. To escape an expansion, use a double $$, such as $$VAR or $${VAR}

Variable	Expands To	Transformable
REPO_NAME	The name of the generated repository	✓
TEMPLATE_NAME	The name of the template repository	✓
REPO_DESCRIPTION	The description of the generated repository	✘
TEMPLATE_DESCRIPTION	The description of the template repository	✘
REPO_OWNER	The owner of the generated repository	✓
TEMPLATE_OWNER	The owner of the template repository	✓
REPO_LINK	The URL to the generated repository	✘
TEMPLATE_LINK	The URL to the template repository	✘
REPO_HTTPS_URL	The HTTP(S) clone link for the generated repository	✘
TEMPLATE_HTTPS_URL	The HTTP(S) clone link for the template repository	✘
REPO_SSH_URL	The SSH clone link for the generated repository	✘
TEMPLATE_SSH_URL	The SSH clone link for the template repository	✘

Transformers 🤖

Gitea 1.12.0 adds a few transformers to some of the applicable variables above.

For example, to get REPO_NAME in PASCAL-case, your template would use ${REPO_NAME_PASCAL}

Feeding go-sdk to the available transformers yields...

Transformer	Effect
SNAKE	go_sdk
KEBAB	go-sdk
CAMEL	goSdk
PASCAL	GoSdk
LOWER	go-sdk
UPPER	GO-SDK
TITLE	Go-Sdk