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+---
+type: reference
+---
+
+# Instance template repository **[PREMIUM ONLY]**
+
+> [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/issues/5986) in
+> [GitLab Premium](https://about.gitlab.com/pricing) 11.3.
+
+## Overview
+
+In hosted systems, enterprises often have a need to share their own templates
+across teams. This feature allows an administrator to pick a project to be the
+instance-wide collection of file templates. These templates are then exposed to
+all users [via the web editor](../../project/repository/web_editor.md#template-dropdowns)
+while the project remains secure.
+
+## Configuration
+
+As an administrator, navigate to **Admin area > Settings > Templates** and
+select the project to serve as the custom template repository.
+
+![File templates in the admin area](img/file_template_admin_area.png)
+
+Once a project has been selected, you can add custom templates to the repository,
+and they will appear in the appropriate places in the
+[frontend](../../project/repository/web_editor.md#template-dropdowns) and
+[API](../../../api/settings.md).
+
+Templates must be added to a specific subdirectory in the repository,
+corresponding to the kind of template. The following types of custom templates
+are supported:
+
+| Type              | Directory     | Extension     |
+| :---------------: | :-----------: | :-----------: |
+| `Dockerfile`      | `Dockerfile`  | `.dockerfile` |
+| `.gitignore`      | `gitignore`   | `.gitignore`  |
+| `.gitlab-ci.yml`  | `gitlab-ci`   | `.yml`        |
+| `LICENSE`         | `LICENSE`     | `.txt`        |
+
+Each template must go in its respective subdirectory, have the correct
+extension and not be empty. So, the hierarchy should look like this:
+
+```text
+|-- README.md
+|-- Dockerfile
+    |-- custom_dockerfile.dockerfile
+    |-- another_dockerfile.dockerfile
+|-- gitignore
+    |-- custom_gitignore.gitignore
+    |-- another_gitignore.gitignore
+|-- gitlab-ci
+    |-- custom_gitlab-ci.yml
+    |-- another_gitlab-ci.yml
+|-- LICENSE
+    |-- custom_license.txt
+    |-- another_license.txt
+```
+
+Once this is established, the list of custom templates will be included when
+creating a new file and the template type is selected. These will appear at the
+top of the list.
+
+![Custom template dropdown menu](img/file_template_user_dropdown.png)
+
+If this feature is disabled or no templates are present, there will be
+no "Custom" section in the selection dropdown.
+
+<!-- ## Troubleshooting
+
+Include any troubleshooting steps that you can foresee. If you know beforehand what issues
+one might have when setting this up, or when something is changed, or on upgrading, it's
+important to describe those, too. Think of things that may go wrong and include them here.
+This is important to minimize requests for support, and to avoid doc comments with
+questions that you know someone might ask.
+
+Each scenario can be a third-level heading, e.g. `### Getting error message X`.
+If you have none to add when creating a doc, leave this section in place
+but commented out to help encourage others to add to it in the future. -->