---
title: "Creating and managing role templates"
description: "A role template is a reusable role definition administrators create in Structure settings. Talkspirit ships none, so your organisation's list starts empty and you build it."
category: structure-governance
section: roles-and-assignments
tags: [admin]
type: Tutorial
lastUpdated: 2026-09-17
locale: en
canonical: https://support.talkspirit.com/en/structure-governance/role-templates-overview
---

# Creating and managing role templates


## Creating and managing role templates

A **role template** is a reusable role definition: a name, a purpose, domains, accountabilities, and five settings that decide how the role behaves once it exists. Administrators create a template once, and anyone creating a role can start from it, so the same role does not have to be typed out circle by circle.

Talkspirit provides no ready-made templates. A new organisation's list is empty, and every template in it was created by someone in your organisation.

> **In summary:** open **Structure settings** in the Structure side panel, click **General**, then the **Role templates** tab. **Add template** creates one, and the **Actions** menu on a row edits, duplicates, syncs or deletes it.

## What you need

Administrator rights, and this is one of the few places in Structure where the server enforces them rather than the interface alone. The **Role templates** tab appears only for administrators, and creating, editing, syncing or deleting a template is refused for anyone else.

## Open the role templates list

1. In the **Structure** side panel, click **Structure settings** at the bottom.
2. Click **General**.
3. Open the **Role templates** tab.

![The Role templates tab of General settings, with an Add template button and a table listing one template, Circle Lead, under the columns Name, Main, Electable, Assigner, Rep. parent and Rep. child, as the table looked before the Circle admin column was added.](/images/structure-governance/role-templates-overview/01-role-templates-tab.png)

Each row is one template. **Name** carries the template's name with the start of its purpose underneath, and the five columns after it show its settings: a tick means on, a dash means off.

## Create a template

1. Click **Add template**.
2. Type a **Template name**. It is the only required field, and it becomes the name of every role created from the template.
3. Fill in **Purpose**, **Domains** and **Accountabilities**. These follow your organisation's governance fields, so they carry the names your administrator gave them, hidden ones do not appear, and custom role fields are here too.
4. Tick the settings the role should carry.
5. Click **Create template**.

| Setting | Column | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| **Main role** | Main | Talkspirit adds the role to every circle created from then on and pins it to the top of that circle's role list with a **Core** badge. |
| **Electable** | Electable | The role can be filled through an election. The box is greyed out when your organisation has switched elections off completely. |
| **Manages assignments** | Assigner | The role can assign members to other roles in its circle. Tick **Main role** as well: on a template, the two go together. |
| **Represents sub-circle** | Rep. child | Records that the role speaks for a sub-circle in the parent circle. It grants no rights of its own. |
| **Grants circle admin** | Circle admin | Whoever is assigned to the role automatically becomes a circle admin of the circle the role sits in, for as long as the assignment lasts. See [Circle Admins](/structure-governance/who-are-circle-admins). |

**Manages assignments** stays greyed out until **Main role** is ticked, and the form says so underneath it: only a main role can manage assignments. The other settings can be combined freely.

Creating a template changes nothing that already exists. Only **Main role** reaches out on its own, and only into circles created after you tick it. **Grants circle admin** acts at assignment time: a member becomes a circle admin when assigned to a role created from the template, and if you change the setting later and apply it to existing roles, Talkspirit updates the members already holding those roles. See [Main roles and the Core badge](/structure-governance/understanding-core-roles).

## Edit, duplicate, sync or delete

Every row carries an **Actions** menu at its end.

![The Actions menu open on the Circle Lead row, offering Edit template, Duplicate, Sync roles and Delete.](/images/structure-governance/role-templates-overview/02-template-actions-menu.png)

- **Edit template** reopens the form.
- **Duplicate** opens **Add template** pre-filled with a copy of everything, named after the original with `(Copy)` on the end. Rename it, then save.
- **Sync roles** pushes the template's current state onto the roles it created, without opening the form first.
- **Delete** removes the template.

## Push a change out to roles the template already created

When you save an edit, Talkspirit asks which of the two you meant.

- **Save** applies the change from now on and leaves existing roles alone.
- **Save & apply to existing** saves, then opens the **Apply to existing** dialog.

![The Apply to existing dialog, listing six Circle Lead roles that will be updated and one circle that does not have the role yet, above the Update settings, Update content and Also create the missing ones options.](/images/structure-governance/role-templates-overview/03-apply-to-existing.png)

The dialog lists the roles it will update and, underneath, the circles that do not have the role yet. **More options** opens the detail:

- **Update settings** resets those roles' own settings to match the template.
- **Update content** pushes the purpose, domains and accountabilities. Choose **Only the fields you changed** to keep other local edits, or **Overwrite all content** to replace everything, custom fields included.
- **Also create the missing ones** adds the role to the circles listed above. It only does anything on a **Main role** template.

Click **Apply** to run it.

Only roles Talkspirit created from the template itself appear on that list. A role somebody started from a template by hand is a copy, so it is never listed here and no later edit reaches it.

## Start a role from a template

Where you create the role, choose **Import role template** and pick one from the list. The full flow is in [Adding a role or a circle](/structure-governance/how-to-add-a-role-or-a-circle).

Talkspirit copies the template's name, purpose, domains and accountabilities into the form, and you can change any of them before saving. It is a starting point and nothing more: the five settings are not carried across, and the new role is not tied to the template afterwards.

## Delete a template

1. Open the **Actions** menu and select **Delete**.
2. Confirm with **Delete**.

The confirmation warns that the action cannot be undone, and the template is indeed gone from the list. Nothing else changes. Roles created from it stay in their circles, keep their settings and their **Core** badge, and the people assigned to them stay assigned. If you want those roles gone too, delete each one in the circle that holds it.

## What's Next?

- [Main roles and the Core badge](/structure-governance/understanding-core-roles)
- [Role Templates Library](/structure-governance/role-templates-library)
- [Adding a role or a circle](/structure-governance/how-to-add-a-role-or-a-circle)
- [Assigning or removing a member from a role](/structure-governance/how-to-assign-or-remove-a-member-from-a-role)