Project Generator

Context

CLI tool for scaffolding new projects with templates.

Problem & Goals

  • Reduce project setup time
  • Standardize project structure
  • Provide template system
  • Good CLI UX

Constraints & Risks

  • Template maintenance overhead
  • Cross-platform compatibility

Architecture & Alternatives

  • Python with Typer for CLI
  • Jinja2 for templating
  • YAML configuration

Trade-offs

  • Flexibility vs simplicity
  • Template variety vs maintenance

Results & Metrics

  • 90% reduction in setup time
  • Consistent project structure
  • Easy template addition

What I'd change next time

  • ✅ Add interactive prompts - Implemented comprehensive interactive setup with step-by-step configuration
  • ✅ Better template validation - Added robust validation system with error reporting and template syntax checking
  • ✅ Plugin system - Created extensible plugin architecture with built-in Docker and documentation plugins

Recent Improvements (v2.0)

Interactive Setup

  • Full interactive mode with --interactive flag
  • Smart prompts for missing arguments
  • Configuration validation with detailed error reporting
  • Preview and confirmation before generation

Enhanced Validation

  • Template syntax validation using Jinja2
  • Project configuration validation
  • Comprehensive error and warning reporting
  • Manifest file validation for plugin templates

Plugin Architecture

  • Base ProjectPlugin class for extensibility
  • Built-in plugins for Docker and MkDocs documentation
  • Plugin manager for loading external plugins
  • Post-generation hooks for advanced customization

Additional Features

  • Enhanced file templates with better defaults
  • Comprehensive .gitignore generation
  • Full license text generation (MIT, Apache-2.0, etc.)
  • Better CLI UX with progress indicators and next steps
  • Template validation command (projgen validate)
  • Plugin management commands (projgen plugins, projgen install-plugin)

Usage Examples

# Interactive setup
projgen init --interactive

# Quick setup with validation
projgen init my-project --language python --validate-only

# With plugins
projgen init my-app --language node --interactive  # Prompts for Docker, docs, etc.

# List available plugins
projgen plugins

# Validate templates
projgen validate