gen-from

CLI tool to generate projects from GitHub template repositories using tiged.

Installation

npm install -g gen-from

Or use directly with npx:

npx gen-from

Usage

Interactive mode (recommended)

npx gen-from

Shows a list of available templates to choose from.

Direct template selection

npx gen-from npm-utils-template

Generate in current directory

npx gen-from npm-utils-template --here

How it works

1. Template Selection: Choose from configured templates or specify directly
2. Validation: Checks if the template repository exists on GitHub
3. Information Collection: Prompts for project details (name, author, description, etc.)
4. Download: Uses tiged to download the latest template files (fast, no git history)
5. Processing: Replaces placeholders with your provided information
6. Ready: Your project is ready to use!

Template Placeholders

The following placeholders are automatically replaced in template files:

• {{PROJECT_NAME}} - Project directory name
• {{PACKAGE_NAME}} - NPM package name
• {{USERNAME}} - GitHub username
• {{AUTHOR_NAME}} - Author full name
• {{DESCRIPTION}} - Package description
• {{KEYWORDS}} - Keywords (comma-separated)
• {{LICENSE}} - License type

Configuration

Templates are configured in templates.json. You can add your own templates by:

1. Adding entries to the templates array
2. Specifying the GitHub repository path
3. Templates should use the placeholder format above

Example template entry:

{
  "name": "my-template",
  "description": "My awesome template",
  "repo": "username/my-template-repo"
}

Creating Templates

1. Create a GitHub repository with your template files
2. Use placeholders like {{PACKAGE_NAME}} in your template files
3. Add your template to the configuration
4. The template will be available in the CLI

Examples

# Interactive template selection
npx gen-from

# Generate from specific template
npx gen-from npm-utils-template

# Generate in current directory
npx gen-from react-component-template --here

Requirements

• Node.js >= 16
• Git (for tiged to work)

License

MIT © phucbm