Applying a template creates real work in your map. Before it does, DevStride shows you a preview that is exactly what will be created — and creates nothing until you confirm.
While you're still building, Try it in the builder resolves your current draft, unsaved edits included, without creating anything. It shows the filled values, the resolved tree, blocking problems, and non-blocking warnings.
Use it constantly. It's the cheapest way to confirm a token resolves the way you expect or that your date offsets produce the schedule you had in mind.
Try it works on the draft. The Preview step in the apply flow works on the saved template against a real target — which is why the builder asks you to save before previewing.
An apply always starts from a place in your map, or from inside the builder. The Templates page itself has no Apply action — its row actions are Share…, Duplicate, Edit, and Delete.
If you don't see Apply Template… at all, you're missing a permission — see Where a template can go.
The dialog runs four steps — 1 Template → 2 Variables → 3 Preview → 4 Apply — with a location bar across the top reading Applying into followed by the workstream or item you're applying into. That bar is editable on step 1 only; from step 2 on, the location is fixed. The primary button reads Next, then Preview, then Apply Template; Back returns a step.
Pick where it goes and what to apply. The picker shows only templates that fit the chosen location, with a tally at the bottom — "N of M templates can be applied here." Tick Show templates that don't fit here to see the rest along with the reason each one is blocked.
Each row shows the template's name, audience, what it starts with, how many variables it asks for, and its health.
Answer whatever the template asks. Required answers must be filled before you can continue, and values are validated as you go — a Custom field variable is checked against the real field's rules here, not at the end.
A template with no variables skips this step entirely.
This is exactly what will be created. Nothing exists yet.
This is a genuine server-side dry run. DevStride resolves the saved template against the real target and re-checks everything the apply itself would check — your access to the template, your access to the target, placement legality, validation, and resolution. It uses the same plan-building code the apply job uses, so what you see is what you get.
You get a count of items to be created, the date they're anchored to, which board each cycle placement resolved to, any errors, any warnings, and the full indented tree with type, title, dates, board, and assignee.
If there are errors, the apply button stays disabled. Fix the template and come back.
Templates can specify a persona for work items and subtasks, including work waiting for a person. The preview checks the persona and person together: a compatible chosen persona is preserved, and a person without a chosen persona uses their first eligible persona. An explicitly incompatible pair is refused. Retired personas remain understandable on existing work, but cannot be selected for new template assignments.
Work is created and progress is reported per node. When everything succeeds the dialog reads Template applied — "All items were created successfully."
Placement depends on what the template starts with:
| Template starts with | Can be applied to |
|---|---|
| A workstream | Workstreams only |
| A top-level work type (one with no parent type, e.g. an Epic) | Workstreams only |
| Any other work type | Workstreams, and items of its parent type |
So a template rooted at a Feature can go into any workstream, or under an Epic — but not under a Story. The Applies to chips on the template tell you this up front.
When a target doesn't fit, the picker says why, naming the target's type. If you haven't chosen a location yet, rows read Choose a location first.
Applying requires two role permissions — ACCESS_TEMPLATES and CREATE_ITEMS_AND_WORKSTREAMS — plus permission to create in that specific location. Without the role permissions the Apply Template… entry isn't offered; without access to the location, the dialog tells you which is missing.
An apply runs as a background job, so a large template doesn't hold your browser hostage. You can press Run in background and carry on working; you'll be notified when it finishes.
Node by node, you'll see created, failed, or skipped.
An apply is not a transaction. If one node fails:
This is deliberate: partial progress on a 200-node template is more useful than losing all of it because one custom field rejected one value. The dialog title reads Applied with N failures, the summary reads Partially applied. — "Created items were kept. The failed nodes and everything under them were skipped." — and the node list tells you exactly which ones failed and why, with Copy error details to grab the list.
When it's done, Go to created work takes you straight to the first created root in the map.
After the fan-out, aggregations on the target are recalculated so rollups reflect the new work.
A template node has no status field, and that's deliberate. Every item a template creates gets its status the same way an item created by hand, or by an Excel import, does:
What a template can fix, per work item, is:
The preview enforces the board half of this rule. If a node's board has a first status that doesn't allow the node's work type, the preview reports "The board's default status does not allow this work type" and the apply stays disabled until you pick a different board or fix that board's status collection.
If a template references something that no longer exists, it can't be applied — and DevStride blocks it in the picker, giving the reason and telling you to ask the owner or an admin to fix it. See Template health.
"How do I import a pre-built template?" — there is no import step for Item Templates. A template that already exists in your organization is applied, not imported. What you do depends on where the template is:
| Where the template is | What to do |
|---|---|
| Already in your organization — it shows under All, Mine, or Organization on the Templates page | Apply it from the map or the builder, as described above. |
| Built by a colleague, and you can't see it | Ask them to Share… it with you. Can use lets you apply it; Can edit lets you change it too. It then appears under Shared with me. See Sharing templates. |
| Shared with you, but you want your own editable version | Duplicate it. The copy is yours, starts private, and is named <name> (copy). |
| A spreadsheet | That's the Excel flow, not an Item Template. Use Import Template (Excel) from the ⋯ menu on a workstream column — see Import Templates. |
| In a different DevStride organization | Templates can't move between organizations today. Rebuild it in the target organization — Save as Template… on real work is the quickest way. |
Variables
Turn a fixed field into a question the template asks when it's applied — the eight variable types, token interpolation in titles and descriptions, and dates derived by day offsets.
Sharing templates
Templates start private. Share one with specific people, teams, or the whole organization — and use an explicit exclusion when a team grant reaches someone it shouldn't.