Getting started

Spacewright is an app for Confluence Cloud. It creates new spaces from template spaces and copies whole spaces. It does not work with Confluence Data Center or Server, and it does not copy between two different Confluence sites.

Where to find Spacewright

After installation, Spacewright adds three screens to Confluence:

Screen	Where	Who can use it
Spacewright, with three tabs: New space from template, Copy a space and Jobs	Confluence's Apps menu	Everyone on the site, unless a site admin limits it to some groups
Spacewright template	The settings of each space	Space admins can change it (a site admin can limit this to some groups). Others see it read-only.
Spacewright settings and audit log	Confluence administration	Confluence site admins only

Menu names depend on your Confluence navigation. If you cannot find a screen, search Confluence for "Spacewright".

1. Install

A Confluence site admin installs Spacewright from the Atlassian Marketplace and approves the permissions it asks for. The security page explains what each permission is used for.

2. Decide who may use it (optional)

In Confluence administration, open Spacewright. You can set:

Who can create and copy spaces with Spacewright. Leave it empty to allow everyone, or pick groups.
Which space admins can turn their space into a template. Leave it empty to allow every space admin, or pick groups.
Default options: which boxes are ticked when someone starts a copy. Out of the box, attachments, blog posts, space page templates and page restrictions are ticked; space permissions are not. If you untick page restrictions, restricted pages are not copied at all: Spacewright never copies a restricted page without its restrictions.

Site admins can always use every part of Spacewright. The same screen shows the audit log: copies from the last 30 days (up to 100), with who ran them, when, from which space to which, the number of pages and the result. Each line is deleted after 30 days and only counted in monthly totals (type, result, number of copies and pages, without names or space keys), which the same screen shows.

3. Make your first template

Build a normal space the way you want new spaces to look. Write placeholders such as {{client}} in page titles and text.
In that space's settings, open Spacewright template, turn on Offer this space as a template, add the variables (or click Find placeholders in this space) and save.
Open Spacewright → New space from template, pick the template, fill in the values and click Create space.

Details: Templates and variables.

4. Or copy a space

Open Spacewright → Copy a space and choose the space.
Enter a name and key for the new space and choose what to copy.
Click Dry run first to see what will be copied, then Copy space.

Details: Copying a space.

Optional: copy the space look

Tick Space look on the copy form (it is not ticked by default) to give the new space more of the source space's look. It works on a plain copy and when creating a space from a template. Spacewright then copies only what Confluence's documented REST API lets an app read and set with space-level permissions:

Part	Copied?	How, or why not
Space description	Yes	Set when the new space is created, as plain text (links in it are not switched). If you typed a description for the new space, yours is used.
Space theme	Yes, if the source space has its own theme	The new space gets the same theme. A theme that comes from another app needs that app on your site.
Look and feel (custom colours)	No	Confluence's API for a space's colours needs a site-wide permission ("Update Confluence settings, including global look and feel"). We chose not to ask for it. Set the colours by hand in the new space's look and feel settings.
Space settings	Yes	Page spacing (standard or compact) and whether an app's space theme may replace the space home page.
Space logo	No	Confluence's REST API has no call that sets a space logo. Upload it by hand in the new space's settings.
Sidebar (shortcuts, links, what it shows)	No	Confluence's REST API has no call that reads or changes the space sidebar. Set it up by hand in the new space.

The dry run lists each part with what will happen. The copy report lists the result of each part under Space look and settings, and the parts that were not copied, with the reason, under Not copied. If Confluence refuses one part (for example because you lack the permission to change the new space's look), that part is listed as not copied and the rest of the copy carries on.

To do this, Spacewright asks for two extra Confluence permissions: view and update space settings and themes. They are used only when this box is ticked, and Confluence still checks your own permissions on each space. Spacewright does not ask for permission to change site-wide Confluence settings. See the security page.

Optional: rename the copied titles

On Copy a space, tick Rename the copied titles (not ticked by default) to change the title of every copied page, folder and blog post, for example to copy last year's space with "2027 – " in front of each title. You can fill in any of these:

Add before every title (a prefix) and Add after every title (a suffix), up to 100 characters each.
Find in titles and Replace with: plain text, not a pattern. Upper and lower case must match, and every place the text appears in a title is replaced.

Rules, so the result is predictable:

Find and replace runs first, then the prefix and suffix are added, so the prefix is never changed by the replace.
Double spaces left by the replace become one space, and spaces at the start and end are removed. A title that would end up empty keeps its original text.
Confluence needs page titles to be unique in a space. If two titles end up the same (for example "Plan 2026" becomes "Plan 2027" and "Plan 2027" already exists), the first one in copy order keeps the title: the homepage first, then the page tree from top to bottom. The others get " (2)", " (3)" and so on. Blog posts only clash with posts of the same day. Upper and lower case count as the same.
A title longer than 255 characters is shortened: the original part is cut and ends with "…", and your prefix and suffix stay whole.
Links between the copied pages follow the new titles.

The dry run shows the rule you chose, how many titles change, how many get a number or are shortened, and the first 25 old and new titles. The copy report repeats the rule.

Permissions you need

To create a space you also need Confluence's own permission to create spaces. Confluence checks it when Spacewright creates the space.
Spacewright acts as you. Screens read and write Confluence with your permissions. A background copy runs with the permissions of the person who started it, so it can only copy pages that person can see.
Jobs are private. A copy or dry run is visible to the person who started it and to site admins.

Licence

Spacewright is a paid app billed through the Atlassian Marketplace. If the site has no active licence or trial, every Spacewright screen shows "Spacewright is not licensed on this site" and copies that are still running stop with the status blocked.

Guides: doing it with Confluence alone

These guides explain Confluence Cloud's own ways to copy and template spaces, what each keeps and loses, and where Spacewright helps.