Manage Templates and Releases with Folders

This document explains what folders are in Digital.ai Release, how to organize them, manage permissions, configure notifications, and set up GitOps-based version control. You'll learn how to structure folders to match your organization and use them effectively to manage templates, releases, and configurations across teams.

What is a Folder?

A folder is a container in Digital.ai Release that organizes the core elements you need to build and run delivery pipelines. Each folder holds:

• Templates – Blueprints for repeatable release workflows
• Releases – Instances of templates executing your delivery process
• Variables – Parameterized values for dynamic content (text, password, number, list, and other types)
• Connections – Integration endpoints for external tools and repositories
• Teams and Permissions – Role-based access control at the folder level
• Notification Settings – Event-triggered alerts for release activities
• Dashboards – Custom visualizations of deployment and release metrics

Why Use Folders?

Folders enable you to manage access, organize content, and support release operations. Some of the key benefits of using folders:

• Organize by project or team - Create a folder for each department, team, product, or application. Users see only the folders they have access to. For more information, see Managing Folders.
• Control access with teams and permissions - The primary function of folders is to define teams and permissions at a granular level. This allows you to control who can view, edit, and run items in each folder with role-based access control. For more information, see Folder Roles and Responsibilities.
• Build a hierarchical structure - Folders are hierarchical, meaning you can create subfolders within folders to reflect your organization's structure. Subfolders inherit configurations, permissions, and notifications from parent folders, which you can override for specific requirements. For more information, see Folder Configurations and Inheritance.
• Enable Git synchronization - Enable GitOps versioning to sync folder contents with your Git repository, with version history tracked using Git tags. For more information, see GitOps-enabled Folder Versioning.

Folder Roles and Responsibilities

Different team members interact with folders in different ways. When you create a folder, Release automatically creates three system-defined teams. You can also create custom teams to match your organization's needs.

Team	Type	Responsibilities
Folder Owner	System-defined	Manages folder access, teams, permissions, and subfolders. Sets up the folder structure and defines who can do what.
Template Owner	System-defined	Creates and maintains templates that other teams use. Can define templates in one folder and make them available to releases in other folders.
Release Admin	System-defined	Starts, executes, and monitors releases. Uses templates to create and run deliveries. Members of this team receive extra notifications (for example, when a task fails).
Your teams	Custom	Teams you create for your organization, such as DevOps, QA, Security Engineers, or Product Teams. Each team can have specific permissions within folders.

Accessing and Navigating Folders

You can access and work with folders in several ways:

Using the Sidebar

1. Under the Overview group, click Folders.
2. The folder management view opens, where you can create, organize, and manage folders and their contents.

Using the Top Navigation Bar

• Click the Folders menu in the top navigation bar.

Using Keyboard Shortcuts

• Press the F key from any screen to open Folder selector
• Use Tab + Enter for keyboard navigation.

Keyboard Navigation Shortcuts

Folders menu navigation:

• ↓ Arrow Down: Scroll down through folders
• ↑ Arrow Up: Scroll up through folders
• → Right Arrow: Expand nested folders
• ← Left Arrow: Collapse or return to the parent folder
• ⏎ Enter: Select and open a folder
• ⎋ Esc: Close the Folders menu

Navigation Tips

• Your current folder is shown in the Top Navigation bar. If "Folders" are visible instead, it means you are viewing the Global level.
• Hover over truncated names to see full paths
• Quick access to folder management is at the bottom

In the top menu, folders with Git versioning configured display a Git icon next to the folder name. For more information, see Git Versioning Indicator.

Managing Folders

This section explains how to create, rename, move, and delete folders to organize your templates, releases, and related assets. Managing folders effectively helps maintain a clear structure and ensures that permissions and configurations are applied consistently across your projects.

Creating a Folder

To add a folder at the top level, ensure no other folder is selected and click Add folder at the top of the Folders screen.

To add a folder within another folder:

1. Select the parent folder and click Add folder at the top, or
2. Select the parent folder, click , and select Add folder.

Folder Naming Restrictions

Folder names cannot contain the following invalid characters:

< > : " / \ | ? *

Folders with invalid characters cannot be versioned using GitOps-enabled folder versioning. Additionally, references to folders with invalid names (in Create Release tasks, Triggers, Dashboards, and other configurations) will prevent Git version creation.

If upgrading from an earlier release, ensure all folder names comply with these restrictions before attempting to use GitOps-enabled folder versioning.

note

Folder names must be unique within the same parent folder. You cannot move a folder under a parent that already contains a folder with the same name.

For more information, see Folder Naming Restrictions.

Renaming a Folder

1. Click the folder to select it.
2. Click and select Rename.
3. Type the new name and press ENTER.

Moving a Folder

You can move folders to reorganize your structure, but there are limitations based on how configuration references are resolved.

To move a folder:

1. Select the folder.
2. Hover over the selected folder and click Move folder.
3. Type the destination folder name in the search box or click Expand to view the hierarchy.
4. Select the target folder and click Move folder.

⚠️ Moving folders that use inherited configurations

When moving a folder, only the folder and its contents are moved. Referenced configurations (such as connections) are not moved automatically.

If a release or template inside the folder references a configuration (for example, a Jenkins connection) defined in a parent or another folder, the move will fail unless that configuration is also accessible from the destination folder.

Example:

• A folder contains a Jenkins task that uses a connection defined in its parent folder.
• If you move this folder without also moving or redefining the connection, the reference becomes invalid.
• In such cases, the move is blocked because the configuration is not inherited by the destination folder.

To resolve this:

• Ensure the referenced configurations exist in or are inherited by the destination folder, or
• Update the references after restructuring your folders.

Deleting a Folder

1. Click the folder to select it.
2. Click and select Delete.
3. Confirm the deletion.

Before Deleting

• All subfolders will also be deleted
• You cannot delete folders containing active releases or triggers

Collapse and Expand Folders

Collapse and Expand buttons are enabled when a subfolder exists for a parent folder.

• Collapse: Collapses all expanded subfolders of the parent.
• Expand: Expands all collapsed subfolders of the parent.

Limiting Folder Depth

A deeply nested folder structure (more than five or six levels) can impact performance and usability:

• General slowness
• High CPU usage
• CLI tasks become unreliable
• Create Release task may not be usable

Configure folder depth in Settings > System Settings > Feature Flags > Set Limits within release:

• Select Enable to limit folder depth
• Set the value in Max folder depth
  note

  The default folder depth is 5. Admin users can increase this as needed.

Folder Notifications

Notifications can be defined at the folder level. Releases and tasks inherit all notifications from their folder and parent folders, including global notifications. If you define a notification for a folder, you can only view, edit, or delete it in that folder.

For default notification settings, see Global notification settings.

Configuring Folder Notifications

1. From the navigation pane, under Overview, click Folders.
2. Select a folder.
3. Click the Notifications tab.
   note

   If the folder is a child of another folder, the Inherit notifications from parent folder option is selected by default.

4. Add or remove recipient roles in the Recipients column for Task and Release tables.
   note

   Unchecking Inherit puts the page in edit mode: roles can be removed/added.

5. Click Save.

Available system-defined email recipient teams:

• Release Admin
• Task Owner
• Task Team
• Watcher

note

In folder-level notifications, these 4 teams are system-defined. If a folder team has the same name, the system ignores it and uses the default System Team for notifications.

Users can create custom teams and define them in the Teams and Permissions page under Notification Settings. Notifications are sent according to the selected team configurations.

Editing Default Notification Messages

To edit the default notification email for a specific event in a folder, click Edit message for that event. You can customize the email template that will be sent when the notification event is triggered.

You can change the subject and body text of the email template.

To preview the email template in a new browser tab, click Preview email.

If you have made modifications to the email template and want to revert to the latest saved changes, click Cancel.

Folder Configurations and Inheritance

Connections and other configurations can be defined on folders. Releases and templates inherit all connections from their folder and parent folders, including global connections. By default, the Folder Owner team has the Edit connections permission on new folders.

How Folder Hierarchy and Inheritance Work

You can organize folders to reflect your company structure, with top-level folders for departments and subfolders for projects and teams. Subfolders automatically inherit connections, permissions, and notifications from their parent folders. This inheritance flows down the hierarchy:

Global (connections, permissions, and notifications available to all)
└── Engineering/ (inherits global + defines own)
    ├── Payments/ (inherits from Engineering + Global + defines own)
    │   ├── Team-A/ (inherits from Payments + Engineering + Global)
    │   └── Team-B/
    └── Orders/ (inherits from Engineering + Global + defines own)
        ├── Team-C/
        └── Team-D/

In this structure:

• Global connections, permissions, and notifications are available to all folders
• Engineering configurations are available to Engineering and all its subfolders (Payments, Orders, Team-A, etc.)
• Payments configurations are available to Payments, Team-A, and Team-B, but NOT to Orders or its teams
• Access is granted at the folder level — users see only the folders they have permission to access
• Each folder can override inherited configurations at its level for specific requirements

This allows you to define common configurations once at a higher level and customize them as needed at lower levels, reducing duplication and simplifying management.

Connections, permissions, and notifications defined on a folder can only be viewed, edited, or deleted in that folder. However, you can reference all inherited connections on a task, trigger, or dashboard tile.

Using Templates and Connections Across Folders

You can use a template or connection from one folder in a release in a different folder. For example, you can create a template in a parent folder and use it in a release in a subfolder. The only requirement is that the user running the release has access to both the template and the source folder.

Adding a Connection to a Folder

1. From the navigation pane, click Folders.
2. Select a folder and click the Connections tab.
3. To add a new connection, click next to the desired connection type.
4. Enter the required information and click Save.

Use Unique Names for Connections

There are no naming restrictions for connections. To help better identify connections, using unique names is recommended.

Permissions and Security

You can control access to folders and their contents using permissions. This allows you to define which users or teams can view, create, or modify items such as releases, templates, connections, and other configurations within a folder, helping you manage access as your folder structure grows.

For more information, see Configure Teams and Permissions.

Git Versioning Indicator

Folders with Git versioning configured display a Git icon as the versioning indicator. When a specific version is applied, the version number is also shown, making it easy to distinguish Git-versioned folders from non-versioned ones.

note

Subfolders inherit Git versioning from their parent folder, but the indicator is shown only on the folder where the configuration is defined.

The indicator appears in the top menu folder selector, on the Folders page, and in folder selectors such as the Tasks page filter and the Create Release folder selector.

For more information, see Git Versioning Indicator.

Related Topics

• Release Templates — Learn how to create, organize, and manage templates within folders to build repeatable release workflows.
• Manage Releases — View, organize, and manage releases created from templates in your folders.
• Connections — Understand how connections work when moving templates or folders. Connections do not move with templates; you must manually update references after a move.