Cookiecutter

A command-line utility that creates projects from cookiecutters (project templates), e.g. creating a Python package project from a Python package project template.

• Documentation: http://cookiecutter.rtfd.org
• GitHub: https://github.com/audreyr/cookiecutter
• Free software: BSD license
• PyPI: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/cookiecutter

Features

Did someone say features?

• Cross-platform: Windows, Mac, and Linux are officially supported.

• Works with Python 2.6, 2.7, 3.3, and PyPy. (But you don't have to know/write Python code to use Cookiecutter.)

• Project templates can be in any programming language or markup format: Python, JavaScript, Ruby, CoffeeScript, RST, Markdown, CSS, HTML, you name it. You can use multiple languages in the same project template.

• Simple command line usage:

  # Create project from the cookiecutter-pypackage.git repo template
  # You'll be prompted to enter values.
  # Then it'll create your Python package in the current working directory,
  # based on those values.
  $ cookiecutter https://github.com/audreyr/cookiecutter-pypackage.git

• Can also use it at the command line with a local template:

  # Create project in the current working directory, from the local
  # cookiecutter-pypackage/ template
  $ cookiecutter cookiecutter-pypackage/

• Or use it from Python:

  from cookiecutter.main import cookiecutter
  
  # Create project from the cookiecutter-pypackage/ template
  cookiecutter('cookiecutter-pypackage/')
  
  # Create project from the cookiecutter-pypackage.git repo template
  cookiecutter('https://github.com/audreyr/cookiecutter-pypackage.git')

• Directory names and filenames can be templated. For example:

  {{cookiecutter.repo_name}}/{{cookiecutter.repo_name}}/{{cookiecutter.repo_name}}.py
  

• Supports unlimited levels of directory nesting.

• 100% of templating is done with Jinja2. This includes file and directory names.

• Simply define your template variables in a cookiecutter.json file. For example:

  {
      "full_name": "Audrey Roy",
      "email": "audreyr@gmail.com",
      "project_name": "Complexity",
      "repo_name": "complexity",
      "project_short_description": "Refreshingly simple static site generator.",
      "release_date": "2013-07-10",
      "year": "2013",
      "version": "0.1.1"
  }

• Unless you suppress it with --no-input, you are prompted for input:

  • Prompts are the keys in cookiecutter.json.
  • Default responses are the values in cookiecutter.json.
  • Prompts are shown in order.

• Cross-platform support for ~/.cookiecutterrc files:

  default_context:
      full_name: "Audrey Roy"
      email: "audreyr@gmail.com"
      github_username: "audreyr"
  cookiecutters_dir: "~/.cookiecutters/"
  

• Cookiecutters (cloned Cookiecutter project templates) are put into ~/.cookiecutters/ by default, or cookiecutters_dir if specified.

• You can use local cookiecutters, or remote cookiecutters directly from Git repos or from Mercurial repos on Bitbucket.

• Default context: specify key/value pairs that you want used as defaults whenever you generate a project

• Pre- and post-generate hooks: Python or shell scripts to run before or after generating a project.

• Paths to local projects can be specified as absolute or relative.

• Projects are always generated to your current directory.

Available Cookiecutters

Here is a list of cookiecutters (aka Cookiecutter project templates) for you to use or fork.

Make your own, then submit a pull request adding yours to this list!

Python

• cookiecutter-pypackage: @audreyr's ultimate Python package project template.
• cookiecutter-flask : A Flask template with Bootstrap 3, starter templates, and working user registration.
• cookiecutter-simple-django: A cookiecutter template for creating reusable Django projects quickly.
• cookiecutter-django: A bleeding edge Django project template with Bootstrap 3, customizable users app, starter templates, and working user registration.
• cookiecutter-djangopackage: A template designed to create reusable third-party PyPI friendly Django apps. Documentation is written in tutorial format.
• cookiecutter-django-cms: A template for Django CMS with simple Bootstrap 3 template. It has a quick start and deploy documentation.
• cookiecutter-openstack: A template for an OpenStack project.
• cookiecutter-docopt: A template for a Python command-line script that uses docopt for arguments parsing.
• cookiecutter-django-crud: A template to create a Django app with boilerplate CRUD around a model including a factory and tests.
• cookiecutter-quokka-module: A template to create a blueprint module for Quokka Flask CMS.
• cookiecutter-django-lborgav: Another cookiecutter template for Django project with Booststrap 3 and FontAwesome 4.
• cookiecutter-django-paas: Django template ready to use in SAAS platforms like Heroku, OpenShift, etc..
• cookiecutter-kivy: A template for NUI applications built upon the kivy python-framework.
• cookiecutter-pypackage-minimal: A mimimal Python package template.
• cookiecutter-ansible-role: A template to create ansible roles. Forget about file creation and focus on actions.
• cookiecutter-pylibrary: An intricate template designed to quickly get started with good testing and packaging (working configuration for Tox, Pytest, Travis-CI, Coveralls, AppVeyor, Sphinx docs, isort, bumpversion, packaging checks etc).
• cookiecutter-pylibrary-minimal: Same as above but without Pytest and static configuration for Tox/Travis/AppVeyor (no generator).

C

• bootstrap.c: A template for simple projects written in C with autotools.
• cookiecutter-avr: A template for avr development.

C++

• BoilerplatePP: A simple cmake template with unit testing for projects written in C++.

Common Lisp

• cookiecutter-cl-project: A template for Common Lisp project with bootstrap script and Slime integration.

JS

• cookiecutter-jquery: A jQuery plugin project template based on jQuery Boilerplate.
• cookiecutter-jswidget: A project template for creating a generic front-end, non-jQuery JS widget packaged for multiple JS packaging systems.
• cookiecutter-component: A template for a Component JS package.

LaTeX/XeTeX

• pandoc-talk: A cookiecutter template for giving talks with pandoc and XeTeX.

Berkshelf-Vagrant

• slim-berkshelf-vagrant: A simple cookiecutter template with sane cookbook defaults for common vagrant/berkshelf cookbooks.

HTML

• cookiecutter-complexity: A cookiecutter for a Complexity static site with Bootstrap 3.
• cookiecutter-tumblr-theme: A cookiecutter for a Tumblr theme project with GruntJS as concatination tool.

Similar projects

• Paste has a create option that creates a skeleton project.
• Diecutter: an API service that will give you back a configuration file from a template and variables.
• Django's startproject and startapp commands can take in a --template option.
• python-packager: Creates Python packages from its own template, with configurable options.
• Yeoman has a Rails-inspired generator system that provides scaffolding for apps.
• Pyramid's pcreate command for creating Pyramid projects from scaffold templates.
• mr.bob is a filesystem template renderer, meant to deprecate tools such as paster and templer.
• grunt-init used to be built into Grunt and is now a standalone scaffolding tool to automate project creation.
• scaffolt consumes JSON generators with Handlebars support.
• init-skeleton clones or copies a repository, executes npm install and bower install and removes the .git directory.
• Cog python-based code generation toolkit developed by Ned Batchelder

Community

The core committer team is @audreyr, @pydanny, and @michaeljoseph. We welcome you and invite you to participate.

Stuck? Try one of the following:

• See the Troubleshooting page.
• Ask for help on Stack Overflow.
• You are strongly encouraged to file an issue about the problem, even if it's just "I can't get it to work on this cookiecutter" with a link to your cookiecutter. Don't worry about naming/pinpointing the issue properly.
• Ask for help in #cookiecutter if you must (but please try one of the other options first, so that others can benefit from the discussion)

Development on Cookiecutter is community-driven:

• Huge thanks to all the contributors who have pitched in to help make Cookiecutter an even better tool.
• Everyone is invited to contribute. Read the contributing instructions, then get started.

Connect with other Cookiecutter contributors and users in IRC:

• #cookiecutter on irc.freenode.net (note: due to work and commitments, @audreyr might not always be available)

Encouragement is unbelievably motivating. If you want more work done on Cookiecutter, show support:

• Thank a core committer for their efforts.
• Star Cookiecutter on GitHub.
• Join the Cookiecutter Gittip community.

Got criticism or complaints?

• File an issue so that Cookiecutter can be improved. Be friendly and constructive about what could be better. Make detailed suggestions.
• Keep us in the loop so that we can help. For example, if you are discussing problems with Cookiecutter on a mailing list, file an issue where you link to the discussion thread and/or cc audreyr@gmail.com on the email.
• Be encouraging. A comment like "This function ought to be rewritten like this" is much more likely to result in action than a comment like "Eww, look how bad this function is."

Waiting for a response to an issue/question?

• Be patient and persistent. All issues are on the core committer team's radar and will be considered thoughtfully, but we have a lot of issues to work through. If urgent, it's fine to ping a core committer in the issue with a reminder.
• Ask others to comment, discuss, review, etc.
• Search the Cookiecutter repo for issues related to yours.
• Need a fix/feature/release/help urgently, and can't wait? audreyr is available for hire for consultation or custom development.