shablon

A small CLI for generating project files from Jinja2 templates. Templates live under .shablon/templates/, and each one renders to the matching path under your project root -- .shablon/templates/foo/bar.md becomes foo/bar.md. Inspired by code generators like protobuf (one canonical source, many target outputs).

Install

uv tool install git+https://github.com/a3lem/shablon       # global
# or
uvx --from git+https://github.com/a3lem/shablon shablon    # ephemeral

Walkthrough

Scaffold a fresh project:

$ mkdir my-cli && cd my-cli
$ shablon init
initialized /.../my-cli/.shablon

State after init:

my-cli/
└── .shablon/
    ├── config.toml
    ├── vars.sh           # Executable, prints '{}'. Optional.
    └── templates/
        └── _includes/

Add a partial, a vars.sh, and two templates that share the partial:

{# .shablon/templates/_includes/usage.md #}
Use `{{ cli.name }}` (v{{ cli.version }}) to track tickets in `.tickets/`.

# .shablon/vars.sh
#!/usr/bin/env sh
echo '{"cli": {"name": "tiquette", "version": "0.4.0"}}'

{# .shablon/templates/plugins/claude/AGENTS.md #}
# {{ cli.name }} plugin (Claude Code)

{% include "_includes/usage.md" %}

Track work via the `Bash(tq ...)` tool.

{# .shablon/templates/plugins/opencode/AGENTS.md #}
# {{ cli.name }} plugin (OpenCode)

{% include "_includes/usage.md" %}

Track work by running `tq` in a shell tool call.

Render. Each template's output path is its path relative to .shablon/templates/, written under the project root. The _includes/ subtree is skipped -- partials only get pulled in by {% include %}.

$ shablon generate
wrote plugins/claude/AGENTS.md
wrote plugins/opencode/AGENTS.md

After:

my-cli/
├── .shablon/                         # unchanged
└── plugins/                          # generated
    ├── claude/
    │   └── AGENTS.md
    └── opencode/
        └── AGENTS.md

Both outputs share the usage paragraph (from the partial, parameterized by vars.sh) and differ only where the agent calling convention does. Re-run shablon generate after edits to update outputs in place.

How it works

• Path rule: a template at .shablon/templates/<path> renders to <project-root>/<path>. Parent directories are created as needed; existing files are overwritten.
• Partials: any directory named _includes (configurable via partials_dir in config.toml) at any depth holds partials. Available to {% include %} and {% extends %}, never rendered as outputs.
• Dotfiles: paths whose basename starts with . are skipped by default. Re-enable specific ones via the include array in config.toml (basename fnmatch patterns).
• Variables: .shablon/vars.<ext> is any executable file (shell, Python, Node, a compiled binary). Shablon runs it with cwd set to the project root and SHABLON_PROJECT_ROOT injected; it must print a JSON object on stdout. Top-level keys become Jinja variables. If absent, the render context is {}.
• Discovery: shablon generate walks upward from the working directory and stops at the nearest ancestor containing .shablon/. Sibling directories are not searched. There is no flag to override the working directory -- cd to where you want to run.
• File mode: outputs inherit their template's mode bits; chmod +x the source to get an executable output.
• Newlines: shablon renders with keep_trailing_newline=True; outputs end with the same single trailing newline as the source.

Why I built this

I maintain several CLIs designed for use by AI coding agents (e.g. tiquette). Each ships with a companion plugin: rules injected into the system prompt, plus one or more skills that progressively disclose how to use the CLI.

I want each CLI to ship plugins for multiple coding agents (Claude Code, OpenCode, Pi, ...). Two sources of friction:

1. The agents differ. Plugin layouts, supported artifact types, and system-prompt injection mechanisms all vary.
2. The prompts differ. Wording often needs per-agent tweaks (tool names, file paths, conventions).

I need a way to manage these per-agent variants while keeping the shared content DRY: write a rule, a skill, or parts of a hook script once, and reuse it across every agent's plugin tree.

Using shablon with AI coding agents

A use-shablon skill ships at skills/use-shablon/. Install it into your agent of choice.

Claude Code

Add the marketplace.

claude plugin marketplace add a3lem/shablon

Then install the shablon plugin.

/plugin install shablon@shablon-marketplace

Status

Pre-1.0. The CLI surface and .shablon/ schema are still evolving; see CHANGELOG.md.

License

MIT

AI usage notice

Unsurprisingly, the code in this project is written mostly by AI.