A lightweight CLI tool for scaffolding projects from GitHub repositories or local directories.
- 🚀 Simple: Single binary, no runtime dependencies
- 🔒 Private Repo Support: Uses system git for SSH/credential authentication
- 📁 Skip-Existing: Never overwrites your existing files
- 🎯 Monorepo Friendly: Supports subdirectory extraction
- 📊 Transparent: Shows exactly which files are applied or skipped
cargo install --path bin/tpljust install-tplThe binary is named tpl for brevity. If you prefer template, add an alias:
Bash/Zsh (add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc):
alias template='tpl'Fish (add to ~/.config/fish/config.fish):
alias template='tpl'PowerShell (add to $PROFILE):
Set-Alias -Name template -Value tpl# Clone from GitHub (default branch)
tpl user/repo
# Specify a branch or tag
tpl user/repo#main
tpl user/repo#v1.0.0
# Extract a subdirectory (great for monorepos)
tpl user/repo/templates/rust
tpl user/repo/packages/starter#main
# Use a local directory as template
tpl file://./my-templates/rust-cli
tpl file:///absolute/path/to/template
# Specify destination (default: current directory)
tpl user/repo ./my-new-project| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
-s, --ssh |
Use SSH for GitHub clone (git@github.com:...) |
-v, --verbose |
Show detailed output including directory creation |
-h, --help |
Print help information |
-V, --version |
Print version |
# Create a new Rust project from a template
tpl longcipher/rust-template ./my-app
# Use SSH for private repositories
tpl -s company/private-template
# Verbose output to see all operations
tpl -v user/repo
# Extract just the frontend from a monorepo
tpl my-org/monorepo/packages/frontend- Parse: Parses input to determine source type (GitHub or local)
- Fetch: Clones repository (shallow, depth=1) or locates local directory
- Apply: Copies files to destination, skipping existing ones
- Report: Shows summary of applied and skipped files
Template never overwrites existing files. This is by design:
Applying template to ./my-project...
✓ src/main.rs
✓ Cargo.toml
⊘ .gitignore (exists)
⊘ README.md (exists)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✓ Done!
Applied: 2 files
Skipped: 2 files (already exist)
This allows you to safely apply templates to existing projects without losing your customizations.
| Feature | tpl | degit | tiged |
|---|---|---|---|
| Private repos | ✅ (via system git) | ❌ | ❌ |
| SSH support | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Subdirectories | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Skip existing | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Template engine | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Single binary | ✅ | ❌ (Node.js) | ❌ (Node.js) |
# Format code
just format
# Run lints
just lint
# Run tests
just test
# Build release binary
just build-tpl
# Run with arguments
just run-tpl user/repoLicensed under either of:
- Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
- MIT license (LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)
at your option.