Customize repository naming patterns

When you create an application, its repository name is automatically generated based on the technology template you select.
However, you can customize how those repository names are generated to follow your organization’s conventions.

By defining naming patterns in your technology template, you can enforce consistent repository structures across teams and ensure repository names reflect your organization’s internal standards.

You can customize these patterns before creating applications by editing your technology templates through the API. Once configured, any new applications created from that template will automatically follow your defined naming rules.

Understanding templates

Technology templates define the base structure, language, and configuration used when creating new applications in your organization.

They work as blueprints: every application starts from a template, which determines its initial repository structure, supported languages or frameworks, and any predefined components.

There are two types of templates:

• Organization-owned templates: Created, managed, and customized by your organization.
  These are typically aligned with internal standards, tooling, and best practices.

• Built-in nullplatform templates: Templates provided out of the box so teams can start building quickly without needing to create their own.

💡 Note: When updating naming patterns or custom rules, you are modifying the configuration of a specific template.

Manage templates in the UI

You can also manage which templates are available for developers directly from the UI.
The Templates view in Platform settings lets you see all templates in your organization and control their availability.

Control which templates developers can use

You can decide which templates appear as selectable options when creating new applications:

• Disable all built-in nullplatform templates
  Disable built-in templates to hide all nullplatform default templates from appearing during application creation.
  They remain visible in the Templates view for reference, but developers cannot select them.

• Activate or deactivate organization-owned templates
  You can individually mark organization-owned templates as Active or Inactive.
  Only active templates will be available for your developers.

This settings does not affect existing applications and can be turned on or off at any time.

How to customize naming patterns

1. Get the template id

To make changes, you’ll need the id of the template you want to update. Send a List all technology templates request and retrieve the id of the template.

Here’s an example request:

curl -L 'https://api.nullplatform.com/template' \
-H 'Accept: application/json'

You'll get a response like this:

{
"paging": {},
"results": [
   {
      "id": 123456789,    // This is the template ID you'll need in the next step
      "name": "Golang template",
      "status": "active",
      "url": "https://example.com/repository-1",
      "provider": {
      "repository": "technology-templates-golang"
      },
      "components": [
         { "type": "language", "id": "example-language", "version": "1.0" },
      ],
      "tags": ["golang", "backend"],
      "updated_at": "2024-01-01T00:00:00.000Z",
      "created_at": "2024-01-01T00:00:00.000Z"
   },
   {
      "id": 987654321,
      "name": "Next.JS template",
      "status": "active",
      "url": "https://example.com/repository-2",
      "provider": {
      "repository": "example-repository-2"
      },
      "components": [
         { "type": "language", "id": "example-language-2", "version": "2.0" },
         { "type": "framework", "id": "example-framework", "version": "3.0" }
      ],
      "tags": ["example", "frontend"],
      "updated_at": "2024-01-02T00:00:00.000Z",
      "created_at": "2024-01-02T00:00:00.000Z"
   },
   ...
   ]
}

2. Update the technology template

To define custom naming patterns, update the technology template. To do this, send a PATCH request to modify the template.

In the request, you’ll:

• Provide the technology template id.
• Update the rules object to define specific naming patterns for:
  • application_name: A regular expression to validate and enforce the format of application names (e.g., ensure they end with -api).
  • repository_path: A substitution expression (similar to sed syntax) that defines the custom structure for the repository path, using matched groups from the application name.

Example

Imagine you want to create an application named "transactions-api" under the namespace "wallet", and you want to use a Golang template.

• Default behavior: Without any customization to the Golang template, the repository name would default to wallet-transactions-api.

• Custom behavior: To set the repository name to mygit.com/wallet/api/golang/transactions, you need to define the following custom naming patterns in the template:

  curl -X PATCH 'https://api.nullplatform.com/template/123456789' \
   -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
   -d '{
     "rules": {
       "application_name": "^(.*)-api$",
       "repository_path": "s/^(.*)-(.*)$/${namespace.slug}-golang-${1}-${2}/g"
     }
   }'

In this example:

• application_name ensures that the application name matches the pattern transactions-api (ending with -api).
• repository_path dynamically generates the repository structure, incorporating the namespace (wallet), language (golang), and the application name (transactions).

Check pattern compatibility

Make sure the structure you define is valid for your specific source repository provider to avoid issues with path resolution or repository creation.

These rules allow you to enforce consistent, meaningful naming conventions across your organization.

3. Create your application

You can now create your application using the updated template. The repository will follow the custom naming pattern you defined.

More resources

If you need to rename the repository in your source provider after creating an application, you can manually update the repository URL in the application to reflect that change and maintain consistency.

See Update the name of your repository for more info.