boilerplate.yml

The boilerplate.yml file is the configuration file at the root of every Boilerplate template. It defines variables, dependencies, hooks, skip rules, partials, and engine overrides.

Top-Level Structure

required_version: ">= 0.5.0"     # Optional version constraint

variables:
  - name: MyVar
    # ... variable definition

dependencies:
  - name: my-dep
    # ... dependency definition

hooks:
  before:
    - command: echo
      args: ["Starting..."]
  after:
    - command: echo
      args: ["Done!"]

partials:
  - ../partials/*.html

skip_files:
  - path: "*.test.go"
    if: "{{ not .IncludeTests }}"

engines:
  - path: "**/*.jsonnet"
    template_engine: jsonnet

Sections

`required_version`

An optional version constraint (Terraform-style) that ensures the user is running a compatible version of Boilerplate:

required_version: ">= 0.5.0, < 1.0.0"

`variables`

A list of variable definitions. See the Variables page for the full reference.

`dependencies`

A list of child templates to process. See the Dependencies page for full details.

`hooks`

Shell commands to run before (before) or after (after) template rendering. See Hooks.

`partials`

A list of glob patterns for external template files that can be included via Go’s {{ "{{" }} template "name" . {{ "}}" }} syntax:

partials:
  - ../../partials/*.html
  - ../shared/footer.html

Partials are defined in external files using {{ "{{" }} define "name" {{ "}}" }}...{{ "{{" }} end {{ "}}" }} and can be reused across multiple template files.

`skip_files`

Rules for excluding files from the output. See Skip Files.

`engines`

Override the template engine for specific files. Currently supports jsonnet as an alternative to the default Go template engine:

engines:
  - path: "**/*.jsonnet"
    template_engine: jsonnet

Missing Config Behavior

If a template directory doesn’t contain a boilerplate.yml, Boilerplate’s behavior depends on the --missing-config-action flag:

Value	Behavior
`exit` (default)	Exit with an error
`ignore`	Log a warning and process files without variable substitution