Task Templates

A task template defines what to run and how: the application, the repository and the file to execute, the inventory, variable groups, credentials, and the options a user may change when starting a task. Every task is created from a template.

Templates support the following applications:

• Ansible
• Terraform/OpenTofu and Terragrunt
• Shell
• PowerShell
• Python

Administrators can enable or disable applications and add their own, see Applications.

Template list

The Task Templates section lists all templates of the project.

Column	Content
Name	Template name with the application icon. The play button starts a new task.
Version	The latest build version for build and deploy templates, otherwise the result icon of the last task.
Status	Status badge of the last task, or Not launched.
Last Task	Number of the last task and who started it.
Playbook	The file the template runs.
Inventory, Variable Groups, Repository	Resources attached to the template.

The tabs above the list are views: named groups of templates. The gear icon in the top right corner lets you choose which columns are shown. Click the arrow on the left of a row to expand the latest tasks of that template.

Template page

Click a template name to open its page. The button in the top right corner starts a task (Run, Build, or Deploy depending on the type), Stop all stops every running or queued task of the template.

Tab	Content
Tasks	Tasks of this template with a rerun button in every row.
Details	The playbook, type, inventory, variable groups, and repository, plus the task status chart with the same filters as Stats.
Workspaces	Terraform, OpenTofu, and Terragrunt templates only: the list of workspaces, see Workspaces.

Template types

Type	Purpose
Task	A plain run. The default type.
Build	Produces an artifact and assigns it an auto-incremented version.
Deploy	Deploys a version produced by a build template.

Build and deploy templates and the semaphore_vars they pass to playbooks are described in Build and deploy templates.

Template form

Users with the Manager role or higher can create and edit templates with New Template and the pencil icon. The form is organized in the following groups. Fields marked with an application name appear only for that application.

Common fields

Field	Description
Name	Required. Template name.
Description	Optional text shown under the name.
App	Application to run.
Repository	Repository with the playbook or script, see Repositories.
Branch	Git branch to check out. Empty means the branch configured in the repository. Disabled for a monorepo repository, which is checked out once for all templates.
Playbook / Script filename	Path to the file relative to the repository root. For Terraform apps: the subdirectory with the configuration.
Different working directory	Run the tool from another directory of the repository.
Inventory	Ansible inventory, or a workspace for Terraform apps.
Variable Groups	One or more variable groups whose variables and secrets are injected into the task, see Variable Groups.
Vault password (Ansible)	Keys used to unlock Ansible Vault, see Multiple vault passwords.
View	Which view tab shows the template.
CLI args	Extra command line arguments as a JSON array, for example ["-vvv"].

Type-specific fields

Field	Type	Description
Start Version	Build	The first version to assign, for example 1.0.0.
Build Template	Deploy	The build template whose artifacts this template deploys.
Autorun	Deploy	Start a deploy automatically after every successful build.

Advanced options

Field	Description
Allow parallel tasks	Let several tasks of this template run at the same time, see Parallel tasks.
Alerts	Use project defaults sends to the server channels enabled for the project and to the alerts marked as project default; Use a custom set of alerts sends only to the selected alerts. See Alerts.
Suppress success notifications, Suppress error notifications	Skip notifications for successful or failed tasks of this template.
Runner tag (Pro)	Run tasks only on runners with this tag, see Project runners.
Executor image	Container image for Docker and Kubernetes runners, see Executor image.
Issue JWT to task runner, JWT audience, JWT TTL	Give the task a signed token, see Task JWTs.
Auto-run task if new git commit have been found	Poll the repository at the given interval and start a task when the branch moves.
Survey variables	Inputs the user fills in when starting a task, see Survey variables.

Prompts

Prompts are checkboxes that let the user change built-in options in the New Task dialog: branch, inventory, CLI arguments, and, for Ansible, limit, tags, skip tags, debug level, and Galaxy installation. See Prompts.

For a monorepo repository the Branch prompt is disabled: every template of such a repository runs in one shared checkout, so a task cannot switch it to another branch or commit. Hover the disabled field to see the reason.

Application options

• Ansible: limit, tags, skip tags, and Galaxy installation options, see Ansible.
• Terraform/OpenTofu/Terragrunt: auto approve and backend override, see Terraform/OpenTofu and HTTP backend.

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Parallel tasks

By default, tasks from the same template execute sequentially. To allow concurrent runs of the same template, enable the "Allow parallel tasks" option in the template settings.

Executor image (Docker and Kubernetes runners)

When a project runner uses the Docker (Pro) or Kubernetes (Enterprise) executor, each task normally runs in the default job image configured on the runner (for example semaphoreui/job:latest). You can override that image per template.

1. Open the template settings
2. Set Executor image to the container image reference (for example my-registry/ansible:2.16 or semaphoreui/job:latest)
3. Save the template

Behavior:

• Only Docker and Kubernetes runner executors honor this field; the local executor ignores it
• Leave the field empty to use the runner's default image from runner.executor.docker.image or runner.executor.k8s.image
• Clearing the field in the UI removes the override

Use cases:

• Templates that need a different toolchain (older Ansible, a specific Terraform version, extra OS packages baked into a custom image)
• Isolated images for security-sensitive templates without changing the runner-wide default

See Runner configuration for default image settings and Project runners for executor setup.