CLI Flags

Usage

boilerplate [options]

Required Flags

Flag	Description
--template-url URL	Path to the template directory. Can be a local path or a remote go-getter URL
--output-folder PATH	Directory where rendered files will be written

Variable Input

Flag	Description
--var NAME=VALUE	Set a variable value. Can be specified multiple times. Supports YAML syntax for complex types
--var-file PATH	Load variables from a YAML file. Can be specified multiple times

Complex variable syntax

# String
--var 'Name=Hello World'

# List (YAML syntax)
--var 'Tags=["web", "api", "v2"]'

# Map (YAML syntax)
--var 'Config={host: "localhost", port: "8080"}'

# Bool
--var 'EnableDocker=true'

# Dependency-specific variable
--var 'my-dependency.Port=9090'

Behavior Flags

Flag	Default	Description
--non-interactive	false	Don’t prompt for input. All variables must be provided via flags or files
--missing-key-action	error	How to handle undefined template variables: error, zero, or invalid
--missing-config-action	exit	How to handle missing boilerplate.yml: exit or ignore
--disable-dependency-prompt	false	Skip confirmation prompts for dependencies (keeps variable prompts)
--no-hooks	false	Don’t execute any hooks
--no-shell	false	Don’t execute shell helpers (returns "replace-me" instead)
--parallelism	Number of CPUs	Maximum number of concurrent parallel operations Boilerplate will perform. Use --parallelism=1 to disable concurrency

Manifest Flags

Flag	Default	Description
--manifest	false	Write a manifest of all generated files (with SHA256 checksums) to the output directory as boilerplate-manifest.yaml
--manifest-file PATH		Write the manifest to a custom path. Implies --manifest. Format is auto-detected from extension (.yaml/.yml for YAML, otherwise JSON)

See Manifest for details on the manifest schema and usage.

Info Flags

Flag	Description
--version	Print the version number
--help	Print help text

Examples

Basic interactive usage

boilerplate \
  --template-url ~/templates/go-service \
  --output-folder ~/projects/my-service

Non-interactive with variable file

boilerplate \
  --template-url ~/templates/go-service \
  --output-folder ~/projects/my-service \
  --non-interactive \
  --var-file vars.yml

Remote template from Git

boilerplate \
  --template-url "git@github.com:myorg/templates.git//go-service?ref=v1.2.0" \
  --output-folder ~/projects/my-service \
  --non-interactive \
  --var ProjectName="my-service"

Tip

The double-slash (//) in go-getter URLs separates the repository URL from the subdirectory path within the repository.

Generate with a manifest

# Default YAML manifest in the output folder
boilerplate \
  --template-url ~/templates/go-service \
  --output-folder ~/projects/my-service \
  --non-interactive \
  --manifest

# Custom YAML manifest path
boilerplate \
  --template-url ~/templates/go-service \
  --output-folder ~/projects/my-service \
  --non-interactive \
  --manifest-file ~/projects/my-service/manifest.yaml

Lenient mode for partial templates

boilerplate \
  --template-url ./partial-template \
  --output-folder ./output \
  --missing-key-action zero \
  --missing-config-action ignore