Pipeline Templates

This tutorial focuses on how to use templates with Harness pipelines. We will guide you through saving a sample deployment pipeline as a template, and then using it to get started with a new pipeline at project level.

Templates in Harness CD Pipeline

Harness templates allow you to design reusable content, logic, and parameters, ensuring that the application is the major focus of your pipelines. Instead of creating pipelines from scratch each time, Harness lets you select from pre-built templates and link them to your pipelines. The process of developing pipelines thus becomes easier by reducing duplication and increasing reusability.

Why should you use templates?

• Share common logic without duplicating it on multiple pipelines. For example, if you have some tasks or operations that every pipeline must do, then make them a part of a template to use in your pipelines.
• Reduce the complexity and size of creating a single pipeline.
• Set a pattern that you and your team can follow throughout your pipelines.
• Save time and create generic templates that you can use across all scopes in your Harness account.
• Add or remove a change in one file rather than a lot of stages.

Before you begin

Make sure you have followed the get started tutorial, and have a deployment pipeline up and running.

Save a pipeline as template

1. Assuming you already have followed the the get-started tutorial and created a guestbook deployment pipeline, go to the Pipeline Studio of the guestbook pipeline you have created, and on the top right corner click on the dropdown beside Save button.
2. Select Save as Template, enter the Name harness-deployment-template and the Version Label 0.0.1.
   1. You have 3 options under Save To to declare the scope of the template: Project, Organization, and Account.
3. For this tutorial, select Save To Project.

Set up Template

Inline

1. Select Inline and Save the Template.
2. Go to Templates under Project Setup in the left navigation.

Remote

1. In Git Connector, select the harness_gitconnector you created during the get-started tutorial It will pre-fill the other settings.
2. Select Save.
3. Connect to your Github account and select Commit to a New Branch.
4. Select Save.
5. Harness will create the template and push it to Github.
6. When prompted to use use the template, select No.
7. Check your forked harenesscd-example apps repo and under master-patch branch you'll find the deployment-template under .harness directory.

Use the pipeline template

1. In Default Project, select Pipelines.
2. Select New Pipeline.
3. Enter the name guestbook_template_pipeline.
4. Select Inline to store the pipeline in Harness.
5. Now select Start with Template.
6. Select the harness-deployment-template you just created and select Use Template.
7. Select Save and then select Run to run the pipeline.

caution

The harness-deployment-template will only work under the default_project which already has all the pipeline resources created during get started pipleine.