create-workflow-templates.md

title	Creating workflow templates for your organization
shortTitle	Create workflow templates
intro	Learn how you can create workflow templates to help people in your team add new workflows more easily.
redirect_from	/actions/configuring-and-managing-workflows/sharing-workflow-templates-within-your-organization /actions/learn-github-actions/creating-workflow-templates /actions/learn-github-actions/creating-starter-workflows-for-your-organization /actions/using-workflows/creating-starter-workflows-for-your-organization /actions/sharing-automations/creating-workflow-templates-for-your-organization /actions/how-tos/sharing-automations/creating-workflow-templates-for-your-organization
versions	fpt ghes ghec * * *
contentType	how-tos
category	Reuse and share automations

{% data reusables.actions.enterprise-github-hosted-runners %}

Creating workflow templates

This procedure demonstrates how to create a workflow template and metadata file. The metadata file describes how the workflow templates will be presented to users when they are creating a new workflow.

1. If it doesn't already exist, create a new {% ifversion actions-nga %} {% else %}public {% endif %}repository named .github in your organization.

2. Create a directory named workflow-templates.

3. Create your new workflow file inside the workflow-templates directory.

   If you need to refer to a repository's default branch, you can use the $default-branch placeholder. When a workflow is created the placeholder will be automatically replaced with the name of the repository's default branch.

   {% ifversion ghes %}

   [!NOTE] The following values in the runs-on key are also treated as placeholders:

   • ubuntu-latest is replaced with [ self-hosted ]
   • windows-latest is replaced with [ self-hosted, windows ]
   • macos-latest is replaced with [ self-hosted, macOS ] {% endif %}

   For example, this file named octo-organization-ci.yml demonstrates a basic workflow.

   name: Octo Organization CI
   
   on:
     push:
       branches: [ $default-branch ]
     pull_request:
       branches: [ $default-branch ]
   
   jobs:
     build:
       runs-on: ubuntu-latest
   
       steps:
         - uses: {% data reusables.actions.action-checkout %}
   
         - name: Run a one-line script
           run: echo Hello from Octo Organization

4. Create a metadata file inside the workflow-templates directory. The metadata file must have the same name as the workflow file, but instead of the .yml extension, it must be appended with .properties.json. For example, this file named octo-organization-ci.properties.json contains the metadata for a workflow file named octo-organization-ci.yml:

   {% data reusables.actions.workflow-templates-metadata-example %}

   {% data reusables.actions.workflow-templates-metadata-keys %}

5. To add another workflow template, add your files to the same workflow-templates directory.

Next steps

• For reference information about workflow templates, see AUTOTITLE.