Share Templates with your team

Keep the task breakdowns your team agrees on in the repository, next to the code they describe, and change them the way you change code.

1. Opt the repository in. Create a .atomize folder at the repository root. It marks the Workspace Root and makes project scope the default for installing and saving.
2. Install the shared items. Run atomize template install <file> from the repository, or choose Project Catalog in VS Code's Atomize: Install to Catalog. Items land in .atomize/catalog.
3. Commit .atomize/catalog. Everyone working in the repository can then use template:<name> and mixin:<name> from any Atomize tool. Commit .atomize/ai.yaml too if you share Project Reference Documents.
4. Review changes like code. Propose a new or changed Template in a pull request, and run the checklist before merging.
5. Evolve without copying. Put task groups that several Templates share in a Mixin, and build variants with extends, so one change reaches every Template that uses it. To adapt a built-in Template, extend it to stay in sync with updates, or override it by name.

To share outside one repository, publish the file at an HTTPS URL and install it with atomize template install <url>. Installing copies it, so publish and install again when it changes.

Post-creation checklist

Before sharing a template with a team:

1. Validate strictly.
2. Preview with mock data.
3. Preview live against one known story.
4. Confirm estimation distribution.
5. Confirm custom field names with atomize fields list --type Task.
6. Confirm saved query references with atomize queries list.
7. Install project-scoped templates into the repository when they should travel with the codebase.

Useful commands:

atomize validate template:<name> --strict
atomize generate template:<name> --platform mock
atomize generate template:<name> --profile work-ado --story 123
atomize template install ./templates/my-template.atomize.yaml --scope project

Related

How the Catalog works explains scopes and overrides. Compose Templates explains extends and Mixins, and Scripts and CI covers running Atomize from a pipeline.