Spacewright

Confluence space templates, explained

Checked against Atlassian's documentation on 2 November 2026. Written by the maker of Spacewright, a Confluence app. We say where the app helps and where it does not.

"Space template" means three different things in Confluence Cloud, and most confusion comes from mixing them up.

You want…What Confluence Cloud offers
A ready-made starting point from AtlassianBuilt-in space templates, picked when you create a space
Every new page of a kind to look the samePage templates, per space or site-wide, with variables
To turn your own space into a template for new spacesNothing built in. Requested in CONFCLOUD-4538 since 2005 (657 votes, "Under Consideration")

1. Built-in space templates

When you choose Create → Space, Confluence offers Atlassian's own templates, each with an example page tree and page templates for a type of team. You cannot add your own space to that list, and you cannot edit what those templates create before the space exists. They are a good start when you have no standard yet.

2. Page templates (with variables)

Page templates create one page at a time.

Templates that belong to one space do not travel when you copy its pages to another space. If many spaces need the same page templates, global templates save you from recreating them.

3. A template space you copy (the native workaround)

Many teams keep one normal space as the master, for example "Client template", and copy it for each new client or project:

  1. Build the template space with the pages, labels and attachments every new space should have. Put an obvious marker such as CLIENT NAME wherever the real name will go.
  2. For each new client: create a new space, then duplicate the template's home page with Include children into it, in one operation. Steps: copy a page with its children.
  3. In the Duplicate dialog, rename the page titles in bulk.
  4. Replace the marker in each page's text with the editor's find and replace, one page at a time.
  5. Set the space permissions, description and any space-only page templates by hand.

This works without any app. It gets slow when the template has many pages, or when you create a new space every week.

Can automation create the space for me?

Not entirely. Confluence automation can publish pages from a template (the Publish new page action, which supports smart values in the page content), copy pages and add labels. Its space actions are limited to global automation: adding space permissions, archiving a space, assigning space access and blocking public links. Atlassian's list of actions has no "create space" action.

Where Spacewright helps

Spacewright, our app, adds the missing third kind: a space admin marks any space as a template and lists its variables, such as {{client}} or {{project}}. Whoever creates a space from it fills in a short form, and Spacewright copies the whole space and fills in the values in page titles, page text, link addresses and macro settings. {{space_name}}, {{space_key}} and {{today}} work without being defined, and the space's page templates come along with the values filled in.

Values are not filled into labels or attachment file names, and comments, page history, whiteboards and databases are not copied. Details: Templates and variables and Limits and known gaps.

Sources

← Copy a page with its children Next: A space for every client or project →