Browsing and installing packages
Discover community templates, environments and bundles; install with one click.
dalea.market is the community catalogue of templates, blocks, environments, and bundles. This page covers how to find a useful package and install it into your workspace.
What's on the marketplace
Packages broadly fall into four buckets:
- Institutional templates — IACUC submissions, GxP SOP forms, IND procedures shared by universities, research institutes, and CROs.
- Assay environments — pre-configured schemas for ELISA, qPCR, flow, cell-line registries, antibody libraries.
- Reusable blocks — complex 96-well plate layouts, specific chart configurations, calculator widgets.
- Bundles — environment + template combinations for whole workflows.
Packages are scoped (@scope/name) and versioned (semver). Both scientists
and bioinformaticians publish; institutional scopes (@your-university) are
common.
Browsing
There are two surfaces:
| Surface | Best for |
|---|---|
| dalea.market website | Open-ended browsing. Filter by type, tags, license, scope. Sort by stars, downloads, or recency. Read full README, reviews, discussions. |
| In-app marketplace | Quick install when you know what you want. Sidebar → Marketplace. Same catalogue, narrower view. |
The website also shows full package profiles — README, changelog, version history, reviews, discussions, contributor list, related packages.
What to look at on a package page
Before installing, skim:
- Description and tags
- Tells you what it's for at a glance.
- Author or org
- A trusted institution's scope is a strong signal. Click through to their other packages.
- Stars
- Social proof. Not the whole story but a quick filter.
- Reviews
- Read at least the most-recent ones. "Saved me 2 hours" is good. "Schema doesn't match the new reagent" is a warning.
- Discussions
- Open issues, feature requests, edge-case reports. Health of the community around the package.
- Versions
- A package with regular minor-version bumps is being maintained. One that hasn't moved in 18 months may not be.
- License
- Check this if you're evaluating for institutional use. Proprietary scope packages are often org-internal only.
- Last published
- Recency.
Installing
- Click Install on the package page
From the website, you'll be redirected to dalea.app's import flow. From in-app marketplace, the install dialog opens directly.
- Pick a target workspace
Packages install into a specific workspace. If you have several, pick the one where the template will be used.
- Pick a version
Latest is the default. Pin to an older version if you have a reason (e.g. you've evaluated 1.4.2 and don't want to pull untested updates).
- Review what gets created
Templates create a workspace template. Environments create an empty schema (no data). Bundles create everything in the bundle. Dalea shows a preview before committing.
- Confirm and import
Adds entries to your workspace. The new template / environment / blocks appear immediately, marked with their
@scope/name@versionso you remember where they came from.
Updates
When the maintainer publishes a new version, you'll see an update prompt next time you open the template or anywhere the package surfaces. Updating is opt-in:
- Update — bumps your local install to the new version. Existing documents stay on the version they spawned from; only future spawns use the new version.
- Skip this update — pins your install to the current version.
- Pin and notify on major updates only — you'll see updates only when the major number bumps (1.x → 2.x).
Forking
Sometimes a package is 90% what you want. To customise:
- Fork to workspace — copies the package into your workspace as a workspace-scoped template. From there it's yours; edits don't affect the source. Updates from the source can be merged manually if you want them.
- Fork to a new package — make your customised version a new package under your scope. Useful if you've made institutional adjustments other members of your org want.
Forking respects the source license. Always credit the original (link to it in your description).
Stars, reviews, discussions
These are the levers users have to give back to authors:
- Star the packages you use regularly. It boosts their search rank and signals to other consumers that the package is valuable.
- Review when you've used a package for a while. Be specific — "lock config too restrictive for our institution" is more useful than "didn't work for us".
- Discuss when you have a question, find a bug, or want a feature. Most authors respond.
In aggregate this is what makes dalea.market a marketplace and not a dump of files. Skipping the social loop is fine, but participating is how the catalogue improves over time.
Tips
- Org scope from a known institution. 2. Recent maintenance. 3. Reviews that read like real users (specific scenarios, not just "great"). 4. Star count. Stars alone can be gamed — the other three are harder to fake.
Importing an environment package creates an empty schema. If you then bulk import data into that schema, you're locked into the column shapes the package author chose. Spend a minute reviewing the columns, validation rules and naming schemes before pouring real data in.