jatg is a low configuration tool to generate files based on templates.

Most template generation tools require elaborate configurations, lack intuitive usage, are tied to a specific framework or do not support variable transformations. The objective of this tool is to be as intuitive as possible while providing a flexible feature set.

Simply create your template files, add them to the configuration file and then run jatg to generate the resulting files.

You can create the file by running npx jatg --init, or just start by copying the example below:

templates.json

{
  "$schema": "https://unpkg.com/jatg/templates.schema.json",
  "templates": [
    {
      "name": "my-awesome-template",
      "sourcePaths": ["./templates"],
      "outputPath": "./src/modules",
      "variables": [
        {
          "variable": "name",
          "name": "Module Name"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Read the configuration reference for a list of all possible properties.

You can have as many files as needed for a single template.

templates/%name%.ts

export class %name.pascalCase% {
  // ...
}

The template can have variables, and they can be transformed through functions. Read more about them in the variables reference.

Just run the CLI to generate files based on the templates created.

You'll be prompted which template you want to generate, and what are the variable values.

npx jatg

Pretty straightforward, isn't it?

A template can have multiple variables. Those can be defined in the configuration and can be used to make template contents and file names dynamic.

The syntax is the variable name surrounded by percentages (%variable_name%) and the value can be formatted through special functions, separated by dots (%variable_name.upper%).

For the variable named entity and the value user-post, here are a few examples:

Variables can be used in template file contents, the template file name and the configuration outputPath.

Variables that are not defined in the configuration file will be ignored and kept as-is. However, valid variables with invalid formatting functions will throw an error.

These are based on the basic string functions included in JavaScript.

These functions use change-case under the hood.

These functions use pluralize under the hood.

The sourcePaths is a list of paths to template files and directories that contain template files.

For directories, all files inside it will be considered templates. The directory structure will be kept for the generated results.

The file names don't need to follow any specific extension. If you need to, you can end them with .template. The .template extension will be removed for the resulting file.

The file names, directories and the outputPath can contain variables.

Here's an example of the folder structure:

templates/
├── entities/
│   └── %name%.entity.ts.template
└── models/
    └── %name%.model.ts.template

The templates.json file:

// templates.json
{
  // ...
  "sourcePaths": ["./templates"],
  "outputPath": "./src/modules/%name%",
  // ...
}

The resulting files for the variable name being "product":

src/
└── modules/
    └── product/
        ├── entities/
        │   └── product.entity.ts
        └── models/
            └── product.model.ts

Template files must be in plain text encoded in UTF-8. The files can contain as many variables as needed.

The format of the template.json file is also documented through the TemplateConfiguration TypeScript interface and the JSON Schema.

You can run the generation through npx by simply running the command: npx jatg.

You can also install globally through npm install --global jatg and run it directly through jatg.

You can also install it as a dev dependency to your project through npm install -D jatg and add a script in your package.json:

{
  // ...
  "scripts": {
    "generate": "jatg"
  }
  // ...
}

Then you can run it through npm run generate.

You can also specify options, such as picking a specific template:

npx jatg --template my-awesome-template

Alternatively, you can use environment variables to set the option values.