Go Templates

Boilerplate uses Go’s built-in text/template engine. Every file in your template directory (except boilerplate.yml) is processed through this engine.

Accessing Variables

Variables defined in boilerplate.yml are accessed with dot notation:

Hello, {{ .ProjectName }}!
The port is {{ .Port }}.

Conditionals

{{ if .EnableFeature }}
Feature is enabled!
{{ else }}
Feature is disabled.
{{ end }}

Comparison operators

{{ if eq .Environment "production" }}
  Production mode
{{ else if eq .Environment "staging" }}
  Staging mode
{{ else }}
  Development mode
{{ end }}

Available comparison functions:

Function	Meaning	Equivalent
eq	equal	==
ne	not equal	!=
lt	less than	<
le	less than or equal	<=
gt	greater than	>
ge	greater than or equal	>=

Go templates use function-call syntax rather than infix operators, so eq .Port 8080 means .Port == 8080. You can also pass multiple arguments: eq .Env "dev" "development" returns true if .Env equals either value.

Loops

Iterating over lists

{{ range .Tags }}
- {{ . }}
{{ end }}

Iterating over maps

{{ range $key, $value := .Config }}
{{ $key }}: {{ $value }}
{{ end }}

Pipelines

Chain functions with the pipe operator:

{{ .ProjectName | lower }}
{{ .ProjectName | upper | replace " " "_" }}

Variables Inside Templates

Assign values to local variables:

{{ $name := .ProjectName | lower }}
The slug is: {{ $name }}

Whitespace Control

Use - to trim whitespace around template actions:

{{- .ProjectName -}}

Tip

Use {{- and -}} to avoid unwanted blank lines in your output, especially around conditionals and loops.

Dynamic File Names

File and directory names can also use template syntax:

{{ .ProjectName | snakecase }}_service.go
com/{{ .PackageName }}/MyClass.java

Missing Keys

By default, referencing an undefined variable causes an error. Control this with --missing-key-action:

Value	Behavior
error (default)	Exit with an error
zero	Render zero value (empty string, 0, false)
invalid	Render <no value>