Share and publish
A new template is yours alone. This page covers the three ways to open it up: make it visible to a workgroup or everyone, share it with specific people and groups with a role each, and — for platform administrators — publish it to the App Store.
Everything here is on the template's Sharing tab.
Before you can share
Two things must be true first. The Sharing tab tells you which one is missing.
| Requirement | Message if it is not met |
|---|---|
| The template has been built at least once | Build the template before sharing — team and public need a built image. |
| Stability is beta or stable, not alpha | This template is in alpha — it stays private to you… |
Change stability under Configuration → General → Stability. See Configure a template.
The sharing requirement
Sharing requires a paid plan or 7,500 Zeal. Below that, the Share dialog shows Sharing unlocks at 7500 zeal — you have N. You can still revoke access you granted earlier. See Zeal and Jolt.
Your platform administrator sets the amount. If Zeal is switched off on your platform, the requirement does not apply.
Visibility
| Visibility | Who can see and deploy it |
|---|---|
| Private | Only you |
| Team | Members of the workgroups you share it with |
| Public | Everyone. It is listed in Labs alongside every other lab, and anyone can deploy it. |
Share with people and groups
Select Share… on the Sharing tab.
- Who — type a person's email or name and pick from the suggestions, or choose a workgroup, organization or department. For an organization or department you can choose All members or Owners & admins only.
- As — pick a role (below).
- Optionally allow Can re-share.
- Select Share.
Who has access lists every grant. Change a role inline, or remove access from there.
| Role | What they can do |
|---|---|
| Viewer | See the template and its details |
| Deployer | Deploy their own copies |
| Editor | Edit files, configuration and builds |
| Manager | Everything an editor can, plus manage sharing |
Can re-share lets someone pass their access on, at or below their own role. Only the owner, an administrator or a manager can allow it.
Each role includes everything in the roles above it. Two details the table leaves out:
- A Deployer can also fork the template into a new template of their own (when authoring is enabled for them).
- A Manager can also change the template's visibility and delete it.
An Editor can change files, settings and builds, but cannot open the full editor. Only the owner can open it, because it opens all of the owner's templates at once.
You always keep full control of your own template.
If the template belongs to an organization, only its members can ever get access — sharing to a group does not extend it to anyone outside.
Workgroups
A workgroup is a named group of people you share with in one step, instead of one person at a time. Manage them under Instances → Workgroups.
- Select New workgroup and give it a name.
- Open Settings → Members and add people. A person can be in any number of workgroups.
- Open one of your templates → Sharing → Share…, and pick the workgroup.
Each workgroup has Share defaults — the role it gets unless you pick another. By default, templates are shared as deployer and running labs as viewer.
Templates shared with a workgroup you belong to appear on My Templates under Shared with my workgroups. From there you can deploy them; the author keeps edit rights.
The launcher and review
If a template is Public and has Launcher turned on (or Kind set to App), it can appear as a one-click app on everyone's home page launcher. Because that puts it in front of every user, it waits for an administrator's review first. Until it is approved, it is public in Labs but not on the launcher.
Transferring ownership
Only the owner can transfer a template to someone else — a manager cannot. There is no transfer button on the template page: ask a platform administrator, or use an AI assistant connected through MCP. After a transfer, the previous owner keeps access as a manager.
The new owner must already have an account on the platform — an unknown email is refused with No user with that email. The template keeps its files, versions, build and slug; only the owner changes.
Only templates transfer. Running copies stay with the person who deployed them.
Publishing to the Store (administrators)
Platform administrators can publish a template to the App Store so that other platforms can install it. The action is in the editor's ⋯ menu: Publish to LabStore.
Publishing is refused unless the template:
- has been built, and nothing has been edited since the last build (The template was edited after its last build — rebuild it…),
- has stability beta or stable,
- has a valid slug.
Publishing creates a public project on the platform's GitLab and lists the template in the store once it has been built there. Don't publish anything you would not show the world.
When published, the template's status becomes published. Afterwards:
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| Re-publish to LabStore | Replaces the store listing with the current built template |
| Unpublish from LabStore | Withdraws the listing. No new installs, and platforms that already have it get no further updates. Publishing again relists it. |
Do it with an AI assistant
You can also do this by asking an AI assistant connected to your account — see Connect an AI assistant to set one up.
| Ask | What the assistant does |
|---|---|
| “Is my template ready to share?” | template_status |
| “Make my template visible to my team” | set_template_visibility |
| “Let priya@example.com deploy it” | share_template |
| “Who has access, and remove Priya” | template_shares, then unshare_template |
Sharing needs a template that is built at this moment and past alpha, so an edit since the last build blocks it until you rebuild. If your assistant does not show the sharing tools, share from the dashboard. Publishing to the Store is for administrators only.
Next
- The App Store — what installers see
- Workgroups and organizations — larger teams