SCL CLI (Sierra Creative Labs Scaffolding System)

scl-cli is a high-performance, developer-friendly scaffolding command-line tool built using Bun, TypeScript, React/Ink (for terminal TUIs), and Handlebars (for template compilation). It is designed to quickly generate new projects, microservices, or modules using standardized architectural layouts and strict developer tooling.

🚀 Key Features

• 🎨 Interactive Ink TUI: Rich terminal user interface with step-by-step guidance, spinner animations, and error handling.
• 🌐 Remote Git Templates: Pass a Git repository URL (e.g. GitHub repo) directly as the template type. The CLI automatically clones, caches, and parses its configuration.
• 📦 Pre-Configured Remote Registry: Features a built-in template registry. If a registry alias (like hono-microservice) is specified and not found locally, the CLI dynamically resolves and clones it from its registered Git URL. When running in interactive mode, registry templates that are not yet downloaded show up in the dropdown as (Remote) and are downloaded on-the-fly when selected.
• ⚡ Dynamic Manifest Prompts: Templates can declare custom prompts (like asking for an entity name) in a template.json file. The CLI parses these and injects them as interactive steps or matches them to CLI variables.
• 🔧 Built-in Case Helpers: Supports Handlebars case transformations for paths, filenames, and file content:
  • {{pascalCase var}} (e.g. GreetingController, GreetingInMemoryRepository)
  • {{kebabCase var}} (e.g. greeting-controller.ts)
  • {{camelCase var}} (e.g. greetingRepository)
  • {{lowerCase var}} (e.g. greeting)
• 📁 Flexible Lookup Hierarchy: Searches for templates in:
  1. SCL_TEMPLATES_DIR environment variable
  2. Local directory .scl-templates
  3. Git-cached templates directory ~/.scl-cli/cache/templates
  4. Global user directory ~/.scl-cli/templates
  5. Built-in CLI templates folder

📦 Installation

Option 1: Global Installation via NPM (Recommended)

npm install -g @sierracreativelabs/scl-cli

Option 2: Live Link for Active Development

Symlinks the executable into your global PATH, automatically reflecting any compiled changes:

# 1. Build the CLI package
bun run build

# 2. Link it globally
npm link

Option 3: Standalone Compiled Binary

Compiles the TypeScript entry point into a single, self-contained binary including the Bun runtime:

# 1. Compile to a standalone binary
bun build ./src/index.ts --compile --outfile scl-cli

# 2. Move to a folder in your PATH
mv scl-cli ~/.local/bin/

📖 Usage Guide

Run the CLI help command to see all available arguments and options:

scl-cli create --help

1. Interactive Mode (Default)

Simply run create without the --yes flag to open the terminal user interface:

scl-cli create

You will be prompted to select the template, enter the project name, configure target paths, enter description/author details, respond to template-specific questions, and decide on Git initialization and dependency installation.

2. Non-Interactive Mode (--yes / -y)

Perfect for CI/CD pipelines or automation scripts:

scl-cli create hono-microservice my-service-dir --yes --description "Hono Microservice API" --author "Developer"

3. Using Remote Git Templates

You can pass any Git/GitHub repository URL ending in .git or starting with HTTP/SSH protocols directly:

scl-cli create https://github.com/SierraCreativeLabs/hono-ms-template.git my-service-dir

The CLI will automatically pull/clone it to ~/.scl-cli/cache/templates/ and load it.

4. Specifying Custom Variables

Pass custom template variables directly using the --var option (useful in non-interactive mode):

scl-cli create hono-microservice my-project --yes --var entity=User

🛠️ Creating Your Own Templates

Templates must have the following structure:

my-template-folder/
├── template.json
└── files/
    ├── package.json
    ├── tsconfig.json
    └── src/
        └── adapters/
            └── in/
                └── http/
                    └── {{kebabCase entity}}.controller.ts

Template Manifest (template.json)

The manifest configures the metadata, alias, and custom prompts to ask:

{
  "name": "Hono Microservice",
  "alias": "hono-microservice",
  "description": "A high-performance HTTP microservice using Hono and Hexagonal Architecture",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "prompts": [
    {
      "name": "entity",
      "type": "text",
      "message": "Initial domain entity name (e.g. User, Product)",
      "default": "Greeting"
    }
  ]
}

📄 License

Proprietary — Sierra Creative Labs.