This is a library for building npm init packages more easily, by providing a set of utility functions for collecting information and then creating the starter package from a folder of template files.

USAGE

Create a package that exports a single bin command:

{
  "name": "create-my-special-thing",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "npm init my-special-thing",
  "bin": "index.mjs"
}

Then in that bin script (shown here as index.mjs), put code like this:

#!/usr/bin/env node
import { Init } from 'npm-init-template'

// Provide it with the path to this file, so we know how to find
// the template files.  If using commonjs, use __filename instead.
const { prompt, build, values, positionals, run } = new Init(
  import.meta.url,
)

// any prompts that the user already set in the command line,
// like with --foo=bar will be automatically set in the values
// already, and will skip the prompt
// Otherwise, these will update the values object appropriately.
await prompt('What is your name?', 'name')
await prompt('What is your quest?', 'quest')
// third arg is passed as options to `read`
await prompt('What is your favorite color?', 'color', {
  default: 'blue',
})
await prompt(
  'What is the flight average velocity of an unladen sparrow?',
  'sparrow',
)

if (values.sparrow === "I don't know") {
  throw new Error('AAAHHHH!!!!')
}

await build({
  // The folder where the templates live
  // Any files that named *.mustache will be expanded using
  // the values object built up by the prompts.
  // Any other kinds of files will be copied as-is.
  //
  // Default is './templates'

  // templates: './templates',

  // Set the settings for template file handling.
  //
  // By default:
  //
  // Any file named *.{json,js,ts,jsx,tsx}.mustache will use the
  // template tags <% %> instead of {{ }}, and JSON.stringify
  // escaping instead of HTML escaping.
  //
  // Any file named *.{html,xhtml,xml}.mustache will be escaped using
  // HTML escaping by default.
  //
  // Any other kind of *.mustache file will not escape values
  // (default behavior can be overridden by setting the '*'
  // member here)
  //
  // add/adjust as you see fit

  // templateSettings: {
  //   bash: {
  //     tags: ['(%', '%)'],
  //     escape: text => JSON.stringify(text),
  //   }
  // },

  // of course, you can also change the mustache tags in the
  // template itself, using the syntax like `{{=(% %)=}}`

  // the folder to build the package in. To build in place,
  // use `target: '.'`
  // this is required.
  // positionals is the positional arguments read by parseArgs
  target: positionals[0] || `${values.name}-${values.quest}`,

  // glob pattern(s) of template files to include, defaults to '**'
  // You can use this for example to conditionally only include
  // tsconfig and .ts files if the user has opted into typescript
  // This is matched against the file being written, so without
  // the '.mustache' extension.
  // include: '**',
  // include: ['tsconfig*.json', 'src/**/*.ts'],

  // excludes take priority over includes. This will omit
  // templates from the built results. Defaults to undefined (ie,
  // include everything.)
  // exclude: 'files/to/exclude/**',
})

// after building, you can run stuff in the folder, if you want
await run('npm install')

In ./templates/quest.html.mustache, you can put mustache templates, something like this:

<html>
  <body style="background-color:{{ color }}">
    <h1>Hello, {{name}}!</h1>
    <p>Good luck on {{quest}}.</p>
    <p>
      The average flight velocity of an unladen sparrow is {{ sparrow
      }}.
    </p>
  </body>
</html>

JSON files use JSON.stringify as the default escaping mechanism, so in templates/package.json.mustache, you can put something like this:

{
  "name": <% name %>,
  "description": <% quest %>
}

Templates can also include each other as partials, each will be loaded with its name relative to the templates folder.

<html>
  <body style="background-color:{{ color }}">
    <h1>Hello, {{name}}!</h1>
    <p>Good luck on {{quest}}.</p>
    <p>
      The average flight velocity of an unladen sparrow is {{ sparrow
      }}.
    </p>

    <p>Your `package.json` file is:</p>
    <pre>{{>package.json}}</pre>
  </body>
</html>

FAQs

What is npm-init-template?

Is npm-init-template popular?

Is npm-init-template well maintained?

Package last updated on 08 Jul 2024

Did you know?

Socket for GitHub automatically highlights issues in each pull request and monitors the health of all your open source dependencies. Discover the contents of your packages and block harmful activity before you install or update your dependencies.

Install