GitHub project board templates: what each one copies

A GitHub project board template is a project set up once and reused: when you create a new project from it, GitHub copies its views, custom fields, draft issues, configured workflows and insights into the new project. You get the board's shape without its issues. This guide covers the three ways to start from one (built-in templates, organization templates and Make a copy), what each copies, what the built-in templates actually contain, and how the same views work in Gitsu.

The questions follow the searches ChatGPT ran on 12 October 2026 while answering "GitHub Projects board templates for software teams": which built-in templates exist for team planning, bug triage and roadmaps; how to create an organization template and whether workflows copy; and which template suits a software team.

Which built-in templates does GitHub Projects offer for team planning, bug triage and roadmaps?

GitHub's New project dialog offers built-in templates next to blank Table, Board and Roadmap projects. We read the template picker on 2026-09-25, and these are the views each of four templates creates, as its preview lists them:

The picker also showed Iterative development, Product launch, Roadmap and Team retrospective, which we did not open. GitHub can change this list; the dialog shows the current set and lets you review the fields, views, workflows and insights a template creates before you name the project.

To use one: open your profile or organization, choose Projects, then New project, pick a template, review it, and type a project name. An organization project can also import every issue and pull request from a chosen repository as it is created.

What does a GitHub project template copy, and what does it leave behind?

A template copies the project's configuration and none of its work. GitHub's documentation gives the same list for organization templates and for Make a copy:

• Copied: views, custom fields, draft issues and their field values, configured workflows, and insights.
• Not copied: auto-add workflows, the project's items (its issues and pull requests), its collaborators, and its team and repository links.

Two consequences matter in practice. First, a new project from a template adds nothing on its own until you set Auto-add to project again on its Workflows page, because auto-add is the one workflow left behind. Second, permissions start fresh: add the team or collaborators again.

How do I create an organization project template?

Build a project the way you want teams to start, then promote it. GitHub documents three routes:

1. Create a template directly. In the organization, open Projects, then Templates in the sidebar, and click New template.
2. Set an existing project as a template. With admin permission on the project, open its menu and choose to make it a template. It then appears in the Create a project dialog for everyone in the organization.
3. Copy a project as a template. With write or admin permission, copy it as a template. GitHub duplicates the configuration and marks the copy as the template, leaving the original in use.

An organization owner can then pick up to six recommended templates under the organization's settings, in the Projects section, and drag them into order. Recommended templates are suggested first when a member creates a project. Templates can also be added to a team or repository so they show on its Templates page.

On a personal account none of this applies. You can start from the built-in templates, and you can duplicate a project with Make a copy from the project's menu, choosing the new owner and whether draft issues come along.

Which template fits a software development team?

Start from the template whose views match how your team already talks about work:

For the fields, filters and workflows behind five complete boards, see GitHub project board examples you can rebuild. A template gets you the views; the examples show what to add once it exists.

What do the template views actually contain?

Less than their names suggest. We created a project from the Feature release template and read each view's definition through the GraphQL API and its View menu:

The surprise is Bugs: it has no filter at all, so it shows every item in the project until you add one such as label:bug. In the Kanban template's views, Priority board and Team items have no filter either; what separates them is layout and grouping. Check each view's filter after creating a project from a template, because the name is a promise the view does not keep on its own. The filter syntax guide covers the qualifiers.

Can I use GitHub project templates in Gitsu?

Partly. Gitsu cannot create a project, copy one or mark one as a template; GitHub's API offers mutations for some of that, but Gitsu's GitHub client sends none of them. Create the project from a template on github.com, then open it in Gitsu, where its fields, issues and project data appear as they are on GitHub.

What Gitsu adds is the view half of a template, in one click. Press the + at the end of the saved views row above a list or board, and the Create new view dialog offers eight templates modelled on GitHub's template views:

• Prioritized backlog: list, sorted by Status, grouped by Priority.
• Status board: board with a column per Status.
• Priority board: board by Status, sorted by Priority.
• Bugs: list filtered to label:bug.
• In review: list filtered to status:"In review".
• My items: list filtered to assignee:@me.
• Team items: list grouped by Status.
• Roadmap: items on a timeline.

Each template opens as a draft you can adjust before naming it. Gitsu fixes the Bugs gap on purpose: its Bugs template filters label:bug where GitHub's shows everything. It finds Status and Priority by their role rather than by name, so a renamed Status field still works, and a template that needs a field your project lacks says so on its card ("Needs a Priority field on this project").

What are the trade-offs of Gitsu's view templates?

They are faster to reach and stay private, and that second part cuts both ways:

• Views stay on your device. A view made from a Gitsu template is saved on the device that made it and is not written to GitHub, so teammates on github.com do not see it. GitHub's template views are shared with everyone who opens the project.
• No new project. Gitsu adds views to the project you have open. Fields, workflows and insights still come from a GitHub template or a copy made on github.com.
• Not every view setting. Gitsu's Priority board has no swimlanes, unlike GitHub's.

So the split is: make the project on github.com from the template that matches your team, set Auto-add to project again, and fix the Bugs filter. Then open the project in Gitsu and press + after the quick filters to add Prioritized backlog or My items in one click, without editing a shared view your teammates also use.