---
title: "Templates, forks, and upgrades"
section: "Builder Guide"
canonical_url: "https://support.buildwithhq.com/builder-guide/templates-forking.html"
reviewed_at: "2026-09-14"
authority: Official
---

# Templates, forks, and upgrades

Start from a template, customize freely, and still receive upstream improvements.

## In brief

- **Audience:** Builders
- **Concept depth:** Core mental model
- **Related:** Page editor

Templates give you a finished starting point. The moment you customize a templated page, you've **forked** it — your copy is yours, and nothing upstream ever overwrites it without your say-so. But you don't lose the upstream relationship either.

## The three layers

1. **Base template** — the published version in the library. Immutable once released; new releases create new versions.
2. **Your fork** — your customized copy, with a record of the exact baseline you forked from.
3. **Bespoke pages** — premium custom engineering work, fully excluded from automated upgrades to protect the investment.

## Selective upgrades

When a template gets a new release, you'll see the changes block-by-block, side by side with your version. You choose which upstream blocks to pull in; everything you've customized and don't select stays exactly as it is. Behind the scenes the platform matches blocks by their stable identities and performs a three-way merge between the original baseline, the new release, and your fork.

Note

If a block was deleted on one side and edited on the other, the upgrade flags it for your decision instead of silently choosing — a destructive merge is never automatic.

## Practical guidance

- Customize freely — forking is the intended workflow, not a deviation.
- Review upgrade notices when they appear; small, frequent adoptions merge more cleanly than year-old jumps.
- Avoid deleting blocks you might want upgraded later; hide or empty them instead.

---

Capability review: 2026-09-14. [View the canonical guide](https://support.buildwithhq.com/builder-guide/templates-forking.html).