A template is itself a nanopublication. It describes the shape of one part of some other nanopublication as a list of statements, with placeholders standing where the values are still to come. Nanodash turns a template into a form, and publishes the filled-in values in place of the placeholders.

Because a template is an ordinary nanopublication, it is signed, versioned and citable like any other, and the nanopublications made from it record which template they came from.