Creating a template repository

You can make an existing repository a template, so you and others can generate new repositories with the same directory structure, branches, and files.

Anyone with admin permissions to a repository can make the repository a template.

Note: Your template repository cannot include files stored using Git LFS.

To create a template repository, you must create a repository, then make the repository a template. For more information about creating a repository, see "Creating a new repository."

After you make your repository a template, anyone with access to the repository can generate a new repository with the same directory structure and files as your default branch. They can also choose to include all the other branches in your repository. Branches created from a template have unrelated histories, so you cannot create pull requests or merge between the branches. For more information, see "Creating a repository from a template."

  1. On GitHub, navigate to the main page of the repository.
  2. Under your repository name, click Settings. Repository settings button
  3. Select Template repository. Checkbox to make a repository a template

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