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Creating Templates

Users with the Template Administrator role or above can create templates within Coder.

From a starter template

In most cases, it is best to start with a starter template.

The template builder is the recommended way to create templates in Coder. It guides you through selecting a base infrastructure template, adding modules (IDEs, tools, integrations), and configuring your template, all without writing Terraform.

The template builder is enabled by default. When you select New Template on the Templates page, the builder opens automatically.

The builder guides you through up to five steps:

  1. Select base infrastructure: Choose a starter template for your target platform (e.g. Docker, AWS EC2, Kubernetes). Each base template provides a working foundation with the Coder agent pre-configured.

    Select a base infrastructure template in the template builder

  2. Base template parameters (optional): If the selected base template declares configurable variables, you can supply values for them here. If the base template has no parameters, this step is skipped automatically.

  3. Select modules: Pick from a curated list of registry modules to add IDEs, AI agents, source control integrations, and other tools. Modules are grouped by category and filtered for compatibility with the selected base template's operating system. You can select multiple modules.

    Select modules to add to your template

  4. Module settings (optional): Configure variables for the modules you selected. Required variables without defaults must be filled in before you can proceed. Modules that require secrets (such as API keys) display a notice that developers will be prompted for the value at workspace creation time.

    Configure module settings

  5. Template customizations: Set the template's display name, description, icon, and organization, then select Create Template.

    Set template display name, description, and other metadata

After you select Create Template, Coder composes the Terraform configuration server-side, validates it with terraform init and terraform validate, and creates the template. The generated template is standard Terraform HCL that you can edit later through the dashboard or CLI.

Note

The template builder requires outbound access to registry.coder.com so that terraform init can resolve module sources. For air-gapped or restricted-egress deployments, visit Air-gapped deployments.

If you select modules that are known to conflict with each other, the builder displays a warning. Module conflicts do not block template creation, but you should review the warning before proceeding.

Disabling the template builder

Operators can disable the template builder by setting the CODER_DISABLE_TEMPLATE_BUILDER environment variable or the --disable-template-builder server flag. When disabled, the New Template button links to the starter templates page instead, and the /api/v2/templatebuilder/* endpoints return 404.

Deployments using a self-hosted module registry mirror can set CODER_TEMPLATE_BUILDER_REGISTRY_URL to point generated module source paths at the mirror instead of registry.coder.com.

Alternative creation methods

The template builder's first step also links to alternative creation paths:

  • Upload an existing template: Upload a .tar.gz or .zip of Terraform files you have authored locally.
  • Start from scratch: Follow the template from scratch tutorial to write Terraform by hand.
  • Browse community templates: Browse the Coder Registry for community and official templates.

From an existing template

You can duplicate an existing template in your Coder deployment. This copies the template code and metadata, allowing you to make changes without affecting the original template.

After navigating to the page for a template, use the dropdown menu on the right to Duplicate.

Duplicate menu

Give the new template a name, icon, and description.

Duplicate page

Press Create template. After the build, you will be taken to the new template page.

New template

From scratch (advanced)

There may be cases where you want to create a template from scratch. You can use any Terraform provider with Coder to create templates for additional clouds (e.g. Hetzner, Alibaba) or orchestrators (VMware, Proxmox) that we do not provide example templates for.

Refer to the following resources:

Next steps