Tutorial: Adding a Repository Preset

Repository presets are the "types" users see when creating a new repository — General, Scientific, Enterprise. Each preset bundles a curated set of search/resolution providers and a context allow-list. This tutorial shows how to add a new one — for example, a "Medical" preset.

How presets work

Presets are defined in config.default.yaml under repository_presets. Each entry has:

• id — unique identifier (used as the selector)
• label — display name in the UI
• description — shown below the label
• providers — which search and resolution providers are enabled by default
• contexts — the curated context vocabulary (["all"] for everything, or a specific list)
• custom_contexts — non-standard labels to seed (optional)

The default_repository_preset field names which preset is pre-selected when the create form opens.

Step 1: Add the preset

In backend/configs/config.default.yaml, add a new entry to repository_presets:

repository_presets:
  # ... existing presets ...

  - id: medical
    label: Medical
    description: "OpenAlex + Unpaywall for open-access papers, medical and life-science contexts."
    providers:
      search: ["openalex"]
      resolution: ["fetch", "unpaywall", "tls"]
    contexts:
      - Biomolecule
      - drug
      - disease
      - Medicine
      - medical specialty
      - gene
      - protein
      - enzyme
      - organ
      - HumanGene
      - chemical compound
      - chemical substance
      - chemical element
      - research project
      - scientist
      - academic journal
      - article
      - book
      - species

That's it. The preset appears in the create-repository UI immediately.

Step 2: Set it as the default (optional)

If you want "Medical" to be the pre-selected option:

default_repository_preset: medical

Step 3: Custom contexts (optional)

If the preset needs non-standard context labels (beyond the embedded 88 DBpedia labels), add them:

  - id: medical
    label: Medical
    description: "..."
    providers:
      search: ["openalex"]
      resolution: ["fetch", "unpaywall", "tls"]
    contexts: ["all"]           # Start with everything
    custom_contexts:
      - Clinical Trial
      - Patient Outcome
      - Drug Interaction
    custom_context_descriptions:
      Clinical Trial: "A controlled study evaluating a medical intervention."
      Patient Outcome: "A measurable result of a medical treatment."
      Drug Interaction: "A reaction between two or more pharmaceuticals."

Custom contexts are seeded with is_custom=TRUE in the repository_contexts table, so they appear alongside the standard contexts.

How the preset is applied

When a user creates a repository with preset: "medical":

1. The API looks up the preset by id in the config.
2. It seeds the repository's provider settings from providers.search and providers.resolution.
3. It resolves contexts — "all" expands to the full embedded vocabulary; a specific list seeds only those contexts.
4. Custom contexts from custom_contexts are added with their descriptions.

The user can still toggle providers and contexts on the Settings page after creation — the preset is just the starting point.

Summary

File	Change
backend/configs/config.default.yaml	Add entry to repository_presets list

No code changes needed — presets are entirely config-driven.