An instrument template packages one financial product shape for reuse: the asset class and base asset type, the token features and their default values, the metadata fields the issuance flow collects, and the compliance policy a new asset starts from. What you publish on this screen decides what an issuer sees, and must fill in, the next time they open Issue asset.
Use this screen when a new product line needs a shape, such as a bond series, a share class or a deposit programme, or when an existing line's fields, features or policy must change for future issuance. You also use it to choose which templates your organisation offers for issuance. You do not need it to issue one asset. The DALP Library ships system templates for debt, equity, funds, deposits, stablecoins, real assets, structured products, digital assets and Islamic certificates, and most templates start as a copy of one of them. Three of them start published in every organisation: Common Equity, Corporate Bond and Fiat-Backed Stablecoin. Every other DALP Library template stays out of Issue asset until your organisation publishes it.
An issued instrument keeps its own copy of the configuration it was created with, so publishing a change, unpublishing or hiding a template alters the next issuance and never rewrites an existing asset. A template that has issued instruments cannot be deleted. Every create, edit, publish, unpublish and delete of a template or structure lands in the organisation's audit trail, with who made it and the values before and after.
The instrument templates catalogue is a table with one row per template.
Each row names the template, its asset class, its source, its draft, published, or unpublished state, its version, and its last update. A row expands to show the description and the required features.
Steps
Open Instrument templates
Open Asset design, then “Instrument templates”. The catalogue is a table with one row per template and the columns “Name”, “Asset class”, “Source”, “Status”, “Version” and “Updated”. Narrow it with the search box or the “Asset class”, “Source” and “Status” filters, sort it by a column heading, and page through it at the bottom. “Source” separates “DALP Library” system templates from your organisation's own, and “Status” separates “Draft”, “Published” and “Unpublished” templates.
Select the arrow at the start of a row to expand it. The expanded row shows the template's description and its required features, plus its structure role, which class it fills in a multi-class structure, the published structures that use it under Used by published structures, and a “Hidden” badge when those apply. Selecting the row itself opens the template's detail page. To check what issuers see, filter “Status” to “Published” and expand each row to look for the “Hidden” badge.
When you hold a managing role, each row ends with a button. On a published template it reads Unpublish, and on an unpublished one “Publish”, and it asks you to confirm the change. On a draft it reads “Open draft”, because a draft publishes from its detail page after it passes readiness. On a template that a published structure uses, it reads “Used by structures” and opens the “Structures” tab.
Choose a starting point
Select Create template and pick one of the three starting modes:
Every mode creates a new draft. Nothing you change in it touches the source. A clone is named after its source with “(Copy)” appended. Cloning the same source again picks the next free “(Copy 2)”, “(Copy 3)”, and so on, because template names must be unique in your organisation. Duplicate template on any template's detail page is a shortcut into this step with that template preselected. What the DALP Library ships lists the shapes that need a specific set of features and policy.
The Start step shows three starting-mode cards: “Blank”, “Clone one of yours” and “Start from DALP library”.
Choosing “Clone one of yours” or “Start from DALP library” opens a source gallery grouped by asset class, with a search box and an asset-class filter for narrowing a long catalogue.
Name the template and classify it
Work through Basics and “Classification”. The name is yours to change later through the detail page's Basics section, using its “Edit” control, even after publishing. The identifier derived from it at creation is not, so name the product line rather than this quarter's offering. Accented Latin letters fold to plain ones in the identifier.
The asset class decides which base asset type the instrument uses, and the base type decides which instrument-specific details issuance collects later, such as maturity and coupon inputs for a debt shape. The Instrument type choice on “Classification” names the instrument in reports, for example “Sukuk” or “Government security”. It starts at the type the base asset type implies and does not change how the token behaves.
Select the token features and their values
Select the token features on Features and configure each one's defaults. The token features catalogue lists each feature, its parameters, and what it needs.
- Feature dependencies and conflicts are enforced as you toggle. A feature that needs another one reads Select Historical balances first. until you enable that one. A feature that conflicts with one you selected names the other one, such as Conflicts with Transaction fee accounting.
- Turning a feature off also turns off every feature that depends on it.
- Each feature value offers two choices. Fixed value takes the value you enter here, and Issue asset does not ask for it. “Issuer sets it at issuance” leaves the value open on “Instrument details”, with an optional default that pre-fills the field and that the issuer can replace.
- A fixed treasury yield's End date follows its “Start date”: once the start date has a value, the earliest end date you can pick is the next day, and while both are empty the end date's sample date is a day after the start date's. The template stores no date until you pick one.
- A date field in a feature's settings, opened from its card, refuses a typed day that does not exist, such as
2026-02-30, and shows a message under it. Save in those settings stays unavailable until you correct or clear that date. - Seven features need a token already registered in your organisation's system, as Features that need a registered token explains.
The Instrument capital choice on the same step declares what the instrument's units are: “Share capital” for ordinary, preferred and class shares, “Unit capital” for fund units and real-estate fractions, or neither for a SAFE, a warrant or a debt shape. It decides which corporate actions an asset can run, and each asset keeps the capital its template declared when it was issued.
Add the metadata fields issuance must collect
On Metadata, select “Add field” for each product fact the issued instrument should record, such as an ISIN or a maturity date. A field carries a label, a key made from it, a “Type”, a “Changes” choice and a “Storage” choice. “Fixed once set” means the value cannot change after it is saved, and “Managers only” lets anyone with the token's “Governance” role change it later. “Storage” reads “On-chain” or “Off-chain”. After tokens are issued from a template, a field's “Storage” and “Changes” are locked.
Type has fifteen options. Prefer a specific one such as “ISIN”, “LEI” or “Currency” over “Text”, because a field with a specific type checks the issuer's entry as they enter it. Mark a field “Required” only when issuance should not proceed without it, because every required field becomes a gate each future issuance must pass.
A Default value pre-fills the entry. “Configurable in Issue asset” lets the issuer set the value on “Instrument details” instead of taking the default you set here. A date field also takes an optional “Lower bound” and “Upper bound”, the earliest and the latest day the issuer can enter. “Default value”, “Lower bound” and “Upper bound” refuse a typed day that does not exist, such as 2026-02-30, and show a message under that field. “Add field”, or “Save” when you edit a field, stays unavailable until you correct or clear that date.
Attach a compliance policy
On Compliance, pick the published policy template that assets created from this template start from, or “No compliance template”. A template with “No compliance template” still publishes, and its assets deploy without token-level modules, the per-asset compliance rules a policy installs. Issue asset warns “Asset will deploy without compliance controls.” but does not block. Identity checks and inherited global controls, the organisation-wide rules set on Global controls, still apply.
The Compliance step starts with a Jurisdiction field: pick the country where assets from this template are issued, and the policy list below filters to match. The platform stores your choice as the default value of the template's jurisdiction metadata field when that field is a country field, and otherwise of issuerJurisdiction. When the field it would write does not exist, the step adds it as a country field, which then appears on the “Metadata” step and is filled in for the issuer at issuance. A template with neither field gets jurisdiction. When both fields exist and neither is a country field, the “Jurisdiction” field is disabled. When that field limits its options to certain countries, the “Jurisdiction” field offers only those countries.
With a default of Germany, the list shows policy templates that name Germany, policy templates that name a group containing Germany such as the EU or the EEA, and global policy templates. The Applies to Germany chip turns the filter on and off: select it to list every policy template when the one you need lies outside the filter, and select it again to filter once more. The filter never changes the policy template you already selected, which stays selected and visible when it lies outside the filter. With no jurisdiction chosen, the list is unfiltered. Choose “No jurisdiction” to clear the choice.
Attaching a policy adds Compliance details steps to every future issuance from this template, one for each control the policy marks “Make configurable in Issue asset” and one for each control it requires without configuring it. The issuer fills in only those values. Deleting the linked policy on Policy templates later clears the link on this template. The template stays published, and later assets issued from it start without that policy's token-level controls until you link a replacement.
Review and publish
Resolve any gap the Review step lists, then publish or select “Save as draft”. The readiness check blocks publishing when a required feature has no configuration yet or a stored feature configuration no longer matches its expected shape. Its fix is reopening the Features step. Unpublishing never returns a template to draft. To stop offering the template later, unpublish it, as Publish or unpublish a template for your organisation describes.
Publish or unpublish a template for your organisation
Two controls change whether your organisation offers a template, and both work on DALP Library templates and on your own.
- On the template's detail page, the Visibility card starts with the “Published” switch. Turn it on to offer the template in Issue asset, and off to stop offering it.
- In the catalogue table, the Publish or “Unpublish” button at the end of the row does the same without opening the template.
The template's detail page shows the “Details”, “Metadata”, “Token features” and “Compliance” tabs.
The “Visibility” card on that page holds three switches: “Published”, “Hide from main sidebar” and “Hide from Issue asset”.
Either control opens a small panel anchored at it, titled Publish template? or “Unpublish template?”. The panel says that existing tokens and deployed contracts do not change, and that unpublishing does not make the template a draft. When you confirm, the change takes effect at once and applies to your organisation only. On a draft the switch is unavailable and the Console explains why: resolve the readiness gaps, then select the “Publish template” button in the detail page header. Only the first publish runs the readiness list. Every later save still refuses a missing dependency, a conflicting pair or an invalid feature configuration.
Edit, hide or delete a template
A published organisation template stays editable through its Details, “Metadata”, “Token features” and “Compliance” tabs. Saved changes update future issuance. A DALP Library template is the exception: its detail page shows a “DALP Library” badge beside the title, with an information button that says the template is read-only, and it has no edit or delete control. “Duplicate template” in the Actions menu is the only way to adapt one into an editable copy your organisation owns.
Three more controls on the detail page take a template out of use:
- The other two Visibility switches, “Hide from main sidebar” and “Hide from Issue asset”, hide the template without deleting anything. Hiding is reversible and applies to your organisation only. “Hide from Issue asset” removes the template from the choices for new issuance, whatever its published state, and leaves existing tokens unchanged. It also removes the template from the starting-point gallery in “Create template”, which unpublishing does not. A DALP Library template cannot be hidden from the main sidebar, but it can be hidden from Issue asset. Publishing and hiding govern issuance from a template only: on a deployment whose operator turned on legacy asset creation, an integration can still create a classic asset type through
POST /api/without a template, as Issue asset explains.v2/ tokens - Delete is permanent and offered only on templates your organisation created. The confirmation dialog warns that it removes the template together with its metadata fields and feature settings. “Delete” is disabled while the template is a class of a structure, and the platform refuses it while an issuance from the template is still running. A template that tokens were issued from cannot be deleted either. After you confirm, the Console shows “Tokens were issued from this template.” with “Keep the template. To stop new issuance from it, unpublish it or hide it from Issue asset.”, and the template stays.
Declare templates as one structure
An instrument structure declares two to eight templates as one multi-class instrument, such as a dual-class share. Each template fills one class of the structure, and each class keeps its own compliance stack.
Open the Structures tab of Instrument templates and select “Create structure”. Enter a “Name”, and optionally a “Description” and an “Asset class”, which files the whole structure in the catalogue. Under “Classes”, select “Add class” for each class, give it a “Class name” of at least two letters or digits, and choose its template. Each class needs its own name, and a structure has two to eight classes. A draft template cannot fill a class, so finish and publish the draft first.
A DALP Library structure is read-only: the Console says System structures are read-only. Select “Copy to edit” to make your own copy, named after the source with “(copy)” appended. Once instruments have been issued from a structure, its classes are locked: the Console says “Deployed instruments reference this structure” and asks you to create a new structure instead. Select “Delete structure” to remove a structure of your own. Its templates stay and only the pairing is removed, but the platform refuses the delete while deployed instruments were issued from the structure. A structure you create starts published, as Publish an instrument structure for your organisation describes.
Publish an instrument structure for your organisation
A structure has its own published state in your organisation, separate from the state of its templates. The DALP Library holds the Dual-Class Share Structure and the “Convertible Note Structure”. Issue asset offers a structure only when three things are true: your organisation has the structure published, every template in it is published, and no template in it is hidden.
Open the Structures tab of Instrument templates to see every structure as a table. The “Status” column reads “Published” or “Unpublished”, and a published structure with a hidden template also shows “Not offered”. Expand a row to see each class with its role, its template, and the template's own state: “Published”, “Unpublished”, or “Hidden”. Filter “Status” to find the structures your issuers cannot choose.
The “Structures” tab is a table with one row per structure.
Each row names the structure with its source, “DALP Library” or “Organisation”, and the number of instruments your organisation deployed from it (a DALP Library structure never counts another organisation's instruments), then its asset class, its “Published” or “Unpublished” status, and its last update. A row ends with a “Publish” or “Unpublish” button and a “View structure” link. Your organisation's own structures show “Edit structure” instead, plus “Delete structure” while nothing is deployed from them. A row expands to show each class.
To publish a structure, select Publish at the end of its row, or open the structure and turn on the “Published” switch at the top of the sheet. On a DALP Library structure that switch is the only control you can change. When some of the structure's templates are unpublished, a dialog lists them first, because publishing the structure also publishes them for your organisation. Confirm to publish all of them in one step, or cancel to change nothing.
To stop offering a structure, select Unpublish or turn the switch off. There is no confirmation, the change is reversible, and the structure's templates stay published. Unpublishing does not affect assets already issued from the structure, and an issuance run that the platform accepted before you unpublished still completes.
A template that a published structure uses cannot be unpublished. In the catalogue its row shows Used by structures, which opens the “Structures” tab, in place of “Unpublish”. On its detail page the “Published” switch is disabled and names the structures that use it. Unpublish those structures first. Because a structure your organisation creates starts published, its templates are protected from the moment you save it.
When you replace a class of a published structure with an unpublished template, the structure becomes Unpublished. It stays unpublished when that template is published later for another reason, so the structure is offered again only when someone publishes it.
Both DALP Library structures start unpublished in every organisation, including one that published their templates.
Draft, published and unpublished templates
Each template has one of three statuses in your organisation. The status is yours alone: another organisation that reads the same DALP Library template sees the status it chose.
Your choice replaces that starting state for your organisation and stays until you change it again.
Publishing and unpublishing are reversible without limit. Unpublishing never returns a template to draft, so publishing it again needs no second readiness check. An asset issued from a template you later unpublish keeps its page, its asset class, its sidebar entry, and its operations.
A template change lands at the next issuance: every instrument already issued keeps its own configuration from issuance.
Features that need a registered token
Seven features need a token already registered in your organisation's system, the token that pays or prices the feature: external transaction fee, maturity redemption, fixed treasury yield, dividend yield, interest yield, the distribution waterfall and conversion. Conversion also needs a target token that carries the conversion minter. Any token the system already holds satisfies the check. It does not have to be a stablecoin, and the conversion target does not have to be an equity token. A template that fixes the value itself, instead of leaving it to the issuer, does not trigger the condition.
Enabling one of these without its token in place still lets the template save and publish. Issue asset then marks its row “Needs a denomination asset” or “Needs a target token”, and the issuer cannot pick it until the token exists. For a denomination asset, its details offer “Issue a stablecoin” and “Register an external token”. For a target token, they offer “Issue a conversion target token”.
Two sets of features conflict: Transaction fee conflicts with “Transaction fee accounting”, and “Booked movements” conflicts with “Management fee”, “Conversion”, “Conversion minter”, “Maturity redemption” and “Supply delegate”.
What the DALP Library ships
The DALP Library holds 36 system templates, spread over seven of the nine asset classes. Derivatives and Yield instruments have no template of their own. Beyond the plain bonds, shares, funds, and deposits, these templates cover shapes that need a specific set of features and policy:
- Sukuk Ijara and “Sukuk Murabaha” are lease-backed and cost-plus Islamic certificates in Fixed income. Both carry the “Shari'ah / AAOIFI - Islamic Finance” policy and maturity redemption. Ijara pays declared periodic rental distributions through Dividend yield, and Murabaha pays through Fixed treasury yield.
- Tokenized Virtual Asset is a custody-backed claim on a digital asset, in Digital assets. “Tokenized Spot Commodity” is a physically backed commodity token, in Real assets. Both use Historical balances and Permit.
- Government Security is coupon-bearing debt of a government, its agencies, or a sub-sovereign authority. It starts as a copy of “Sovereign Bond” with the issuer field labelled “Government issuer”.
- Controlling Class Share and “Economic Class Share” are the two classes of the “Dual-Class Share Structure”. The controlling class carries Historical balances, Distribution waterfall and Dividend yield. The economic class carries Historical balances, Dividend yield, Voting power and Permit. “Share-Class Mirror” is the on-chain record of a share class whose register a fund administrator keeps.
- Custody Receipt is the claim a client holds on coins that your custody gateway received for them. Custody receipts describes how it is backed.
- SAFE and “Warrant” convert into a separately deployed “Convertible Target Equity”, which is the equity share they convert into. Both carry Historical balances, Conversion, and Permit. The target token must authorise the converter first, as Authorise the converter on the target token describes.
Troubleshooting
The template cannot be published
Publishing is blocked when you lack the Permission manager, System manager or Asset designer role, or when a draft's readiness list shows a gap. A readiness gap is a required feature with no configuration yet, or a saved feature configuration that no longer matches its expected shape. Open the Token features tab, or the “Features” step in the wizard, configure the feature the gap names, and save. A template written through the API is also refused when a feature misses a dependency or when it selects two conflicting features.
The template is absent from asset issuance
A template appears in Issue asset only when your organisation has it published, it is not hidden from Issue asset, its asset class is visible, and the system has a “DALP asset” factory. Check the “Status” column in the catalogue and the “Visibility” switches on the detail page. A DALP Library template other than Common Equity, Corporate Bond, and Fiat-Backed Stablecoin stays unpublished until someone in your organisation publishes it. When none of these explains it, ask a system manager to check Factories.
A structure is listed but cannot be selected
One of its templates needs a prerequisite token, and its row shows “Needs a denomination asset” or “Needs a target token”. Set up that token first, then reopen Issue asset.
A structure is absent from asset issuance
Issue asset lists a structure only when your organisation has published it and every template in it, and none of those templates is hidden. An unpublished structure, such as either DALP Library structure in a new organisation, shows Unpublished on the “Structures” tab. There, “Publish” offers the structure and publishes its unpublished templates with it after you confirm. Ask an asset designer when your account cannot publish. A structure with a hidden template shows “Not offered”, and its expanded row marks the hidden template. Show that template again from its detail page, then reopen “Issue asset”.
Unpublish is disabled on a template
A published structure uses the template. The catalogue row shows Used by structures instead of “Unpublish”, and the disabled “Published” switch on the detail page names the structures. Unpublish them on the “Structures” tab, then unpublish the template.
Unpublish is refused on a draft or an unpublished template
The platform answers the 409 error ASSET_ (DALP-14018) when you unpublish a
template that is still a draft or is already unpublished. A draft was never published, and unpublishing never returns
a template to draft. Read isDraft and isPublished on the template first, then publish a ready draft instead.
An API, SDK, or CLI issuance is rejected because a template is unpublished
The platform rejects a token creation or an issuance run that names a template your organisation has not published,
with the 409 error TOKEN_ or TOKEN_. The frozen v1
token creation route rejects the same request with its existing 422 INPUT_VALIDATION_FAILED (DALP-0316). Retrying
does not help until the template is published. This affects every DALP Library template except Common Equity,
Corporate Bond and Fiat-Backed Stablecoin until you publish it. Publish the template on this screen or call the
publish endpoint, then send the request again.
The template is listed but cannot be selected
The template needs a prerequisite token, as Features that need a registered token explains. Use the row's details in Issue asset to issue or register that token. After issuance, Token conversion covers running the conversion itself.
A template lost its class or policy
Deleting the asset class or policy template it used clears that field on the template rather than deleting the template. A template that lost its policy stays published, and Issue asset warns “Asset will deploy without compliance controls.” Open the template and set a replacement before the next issuance. Before you delete a policy template, its Used by card lists the instrument templates that link it.
The wizard rejects the template name
Template names are unique within an organisation, so a name already in use is refused. Pick a distinct name.
Frequently asked questions
Who can see the templates my organisation creates?
No other organisation's members see your templates. The catalogue shows your own templates plus the shared DALP Library. The published state is equally organisation scoped, so unpublishing a DALP Library shape removes it from your issuers' choices without affecting anyone else.
API routes
The instrument template endpoints list, create, read, update, publish, unpublish and delete a template, and the CLI commands mirror them.
PUT /api/with the bodyv2/ settings/ asset- type- templates/ {asset Type Template Id}/ publication {"published": true}publishes a template, and the same request with{"published": false}unpublishes it. Publish accepts a DALP Library template and an unpublished template, as well as a ready draft. Each template in a list or read response reportsisPublishedfor the calling organisation, and the list acceptsisPublishedas a filter and as a sort field.- Publishing through the API also rejects a template whose feature misses a dependency or that selects both conflicting features. The Features step prevents both.
- Deleting a template that tokens were issued from answers HTTP 409 with DALP-181131.
PUT /api/with the bodyv2/ settings/ asset- type- template- structures/ {structure Id}/ publication {"published": true}publishes a structure together with its unpublished templates, and the same request with{"published": false}unpublishes it. Both answer409when the structure is already in that state. Each structure in a list or read response reportsisPublishedfor the calling organisation, each of its members reportsisPublishedandisHidden, and the list acceptsisPublishedas a filter and as a sort field.- Unpublishing a template that a published structure uses answers the
409errorASSET_, and itsTYPE_ TEMPLATE_ USED_ BY_ PUBLISHED_ STRUCTURE data.structureslists theidandnameof each structure that uses the template. An issuance run on an unpublished structure answers the non-retryable409errorTOKEN_.ISSUANCE_ RUN_ STRUCTURE_ UNPUBLISHED - On a deployment whose operator turned on legacy asset creation, a token manager can still create a classic bond, equity, fund, stablecoin, deposit, real-estate or precious-metal token through the API without a template, as Upgrade a deployment to DALP 3.2 describes. That token takes the compliance modules the request supplies, not a template's policy, and skips the publication check. With the setting off, the default, the API refuses that request and every new token comes from a published template.