Vault templates

A template starts a new vault with folders, rules and a README that tells agents how to work in it, so you and your agents don't begin from an empty page.

Choosing one

On Home, choose New vault. Under Start from, pick a template's card, then under Files without a rule are choose Open or Canon, and Create vault. You are the owner, as always.

Template	Folders	Suggested variables
Blank	none: an empty vault, as before templates	none
Client engagement	`brief/`, `decisions/` and `canon/` are canon (1 approval); `notes/` is open	`DATABASE_URL`, `STRIPE_SECRET_KEY`, `STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET`, `SENTRY_DSN`
Personal projects	`projects/` and `notes/` are open	none
Product team	`specs/` and `decisions/` are canon (1 approval); `notes/` is open	`DATABASE_URL`, `SENTRY_DSN`
Hackathon	`event/` (guidelines and roles) is canon (1 approval); `research/` (a start-here file with corrections at the top) and `open/` (scratch) are open; `plan.md` at the top holds a `work_plan` block to register when the scope settles	none: the README says keys go on the Variables page, never in chat

For a way to use the Client engagement layout with an agent, keeping transcripts as they came, its notes apart and the decisions in canon, see Keep call and meeting notes.

What you choose under Files without a rule are is the vault's default policy: it applies to everything the template's rules don't cover, such as the README at the top of the vault.

What a template creates

Rules for its folders, which you can change later on the vault's Rules page. See Canon, open and rules.
A README.md at the top, written for people and agents: what each folder is for, and how an agent should behave there. It tells agents to propose changes to canon folders, write working notes to notes/ directly, never put a secret in a file, and bring a .env in with reliquary env push. If the machine has no npx, it says to ask a person to run the command or to paste the .env into Import .env on the Variables page.
A short file in each folder, like brief/brief.md or decisions/README.md, with headings to fill in.
Suggested variable names, as a checklist in the README. They are examples to keep or delete, not a list to finish, and names only: a template never holds a value. Set values on the vault's Variables page. See Environment variables.

Everything a template creates is an ordinary file, rule or setting, logged in Activity as yours. Edit or delete any of it.

All or nothing

A template is applied in one step. If anything fails, no vault is created: you never get half a vault.

Templates are for people

Only the web app offers templates. An agent can create a blank vault with create_vault (see Agents and the ceiling), and write a README like the template's with write_file, but it can't set rules, so it can't apply a template: rules are policy, and they stay with people. The database refuses an agent that tries.