cloneman

Template manager for Node applications and libraries. 🐢

Usage for consumers

Available commands

• Create
• Update
• Verify
• Migrate

Create a new application based on a template

npx cloneman@latest create my-new-application template-package-name

Keep in mind that template-package-name needs to be published to the npm registry.

The latest version of the template is installed by default. To install a specific version, specify it using the @version suffix: npx cloneman@latest create my-new-application [email protected]

You can also refer to a local template file: npx cloneman@latest create my-new-application ../directory/template.tgz

If the template declares parameters, cloneman will prompt for their values when the terminal is interactive. Values can also be supplied non-interactively using --param key=value:

npx cloneman@latest create my-new-application template-package-name --param KEY=VALUE

The --param flag can be used multiple times.

Custom output directory

By default, Cloneman creates a sub-folder with the same name as the application. To override this behavior and specify a different target directory, use the --output option.

Examples:

• --output . -> Generates the files in the current directory.
• --output custom -> Creates a new folder named custom.

Update your application

To the latest version: npx cloneman@latest update

You can also update to a specific version: npx cloneman@latest update 1.2.3

If the template declares parameters, cloneman will prompt for their values when the terminal is interactive. Values can also be supplied non-interactively using --param key=value:

npx cloneman@latest update --param KEY=VALUE

The --param flag can be used multiple times.

See docs/update.md for more information.

Verify

Verifies the application has been updated with the template (NPM dependency). Typically used to fail the build when an external tool such as Dependabot or Renovate is used to update the NPM dependency.

npx cloneman verify

Exits successfully if the application is up-to-date or with a non-zero status and a detailed instruction if the application needs to be updated.

It is recommended to run this from the prepare script in the applications package.json:

npm pkg set scripts.prepare="cloneman verify"

Migrate

Migrates an existing application to use a cloneman template.

npx cloneman@latest migrate template-package-name

After migrating, run update to apply the template files:

npx cloneman@latest update

Note: the migration won't modify any files other than package.json, which connects your application to a specific template. It is up to the update command to actually modify the repository.

Get Template Parameters

Get a list of parameters for a specific template:

npx cloneman@latest get-params <template-package-name> [--json]

Creating and managing templates

See docs/templates.md for more information.