Backpack

A tool to curate and automate your starter projects

Key Features • How To Use • Download • Contributing • License

Key Features

Generate from full project, subfolders, branches, tags 🌠 - use complete, versions, or any parts of repos you like
Shortcuts 🚀 - create a personal or team list of your projects with global and local shortcuts
Variable replacements - replace variables in content and path (like cookiecutter)
Automated setup steps 🤖 - run yarn install or make automatically after a clone
Interactive inputs - define steps to take inputs and select options in YAML while generating a new project
Fast & efficient 🏃 - no history or .git folder, local caching of content by default, supporting git and tar.gz download

How to Use

$ bp --help
backpack 2.0.0
Set up projects and download files from existing repos

USAGE:
    bp [OPTIONS] [ARGS] [SUBCOMMAND]

ARGS:
    <shortlink>    A full or short link to a repo (e.g. org/user)
    <dest>         Target folder

OPTIONS:
    -c, --config <config>    Use a specified configuration file
    -f, --fetch              Fetch and apply into the current folder
    -g, --git                Clone with git
    -h, --help               Print help information
    -n, --no-cache           Fetch resources without using the cache
    -V, --version            Print version information
    -w, --overwrite          Always overwrite target file(s)

SUBCOMMANDS:
    add       Save a repo as a project
    cache     Cache handling
    config    Create a personal configuration
    help      Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)

To download and generate a new project, you can use any repo:

$ bp your/repo

Download

For macOS:

brew tap rusty-ferris-club/tap && brew install backpack

Otherwise, grab a release from releases and run bp --help:

🔨 Create starters from ordinary repos

Go to your ordinary repo and follow the add wizard:

$ cd your-repo
$ bp add

Note that if a repo contains a .backpack-project.yaml file, it will be automatically used. A .backpack-project.yaml file is a way for the repo author to give instructions for how to make a template out of their project, here's an example:

project:
  shortlink: kriasoft/react-starter-kit
  actions:
  - name: "name of file"
    hook: before
    interaction:
      kind: input
      prompt: name of your app
      out: file_name
  swaps:
  - key: README.md
    val_template: "{{file_name}}"
    path: .*
  - key: tsconfig.json
    val: ts-config.json

You create this file and format in your own repos to make them backpack friendly.

🔨 Create starters manually

Create a backpack.yaml:

$ bp config --init
wrote: /Users/jondot/.backpack/backpack.yaml.

Configure a starter:

projects:
  rust-starter: 
    shortlink: jondot/rust-starter  # you can use any custom prefix here too
    # is_git: true # force fetch from ssh
    actions:
    - name: run an initial build
      run: cargo build

And now run:

$ bp rust-starter

To personalize a project you can take input and replace content:

projects:
  rust-starter: 
    shortlink: jondot/rust-starter  # you can use any custom prefix here too
    actions:
    - name: get app name
      hook: before
      interaction:
        kind: input
        prompt: name of your app
        out: app_name
    swaps:
    - key: APP_NAME
      val_template: "Welcome to {{app_name}}"
      path: "README.md"

Example of a fully personalize config in my ~/.backpack/backpack.yaml, with minimal prompts (generating from rust-starter):

Show example

projects:
  jondot-rs:
    shortlink: rusty-ferris-club/rust-starter
    actions:
      - name: project
        interaction:
          kind: input
          prompt: project name (e.g. newtool)
          out: project
        hook: before
      - name: description
        interaction:
          kind: input
          prompt: description (e.g. one liner)
          out: description
        hook: before
    swaps:
      - key: __V_PROJECT_NAME__
        val_template: "{{project}}"
        path: ".*"
      - key: __V_REPO_NAME__
        val_template: "jondot/{{project}}"
        path: ".*"
      - key: __V_REPO_URL__
        val_template: "https://github.com/jondot/{{project}}"
        path: ".*"
      - key: __V_PROJECT_FORMULA__
        val_template: "{{project | capitalize}}"
        path: ".*"
      - key: __V_TAP_NAME__
        val: "jondot/homebrew-tap"
        path: ".*"
      - key: __V_BIN_NAME__
        val_template: "{{project}}"
        path: ".*"
      - key: __v_bin_name__
        val_template: "{{project}}"
        path: ".*"
      - key: __V_AUTHOR__
        val: "dotan@example.com"
        path: ".*"
      - key: __V_DESCRIPTION__
        val_template: "{{description}}"
        path: ".*"

🙋‍♀️ Configure user projects

bp (with no args) will automatically display a list of projects if configure those.

Projects define repos and custom actions and / or swaps you want to attach to each.

Generate a global user configuration file:

$ bp config --init --global

Edit the file:

$ vim ~/.backpack/backpack.yaml

Add to the projects section:

projects:
  rust-starter: 
    shortlink: rusty-ferris-club/rust-starter

🚨 Run actions and user input

You can add custom actions to a project:

projects:
  rust:
    shortlink: rusty-ferris-club/rust-starter
    actions:
    - name: 🚨 ====== init git ===========
      run: git init . && git add . && git commit -am "first commit"
    - name: 🚨 ====== first build ========
      run: cargo build

You can also add inputs, selections and confirmation, including variable capture.

Show full example

actions:
  - name: "Install deps"
    interaction:
      kind: confirm
      prompt: "are you sure?"
    run: yarn install
    ignore_exit: true
  - name: select a DB
    interaction:
      kind: select
      prompt: select a database
      options:
      - sqlite
      - postgres
      - mysql
      default: sqlite
      out: db
  - name: "generate a model"
    interaction:
      kind: input
      prompt: name of your app?
      out: name
    run: yarn run init-app {{db}} {{name}}

Actions have a before and after hook, which make them run before copying content (e.g. user input), and after the content have being copied (e.g. installing dependencies).

By default actions are hooked to the after event, but you can change it:

- name: name
  hook: before
  interaction:
    kind: input
    prompt: name of your project
    out: project_name

💡 Replace content

Define keys to swap, where a key can be anything.

Swaps can happen both in content or path.
You can limit to a path with a regex
You can use a val_template which pulls a variable from those you gathered while running actions. You also have a set of inflections such as {{project_name | kebab_case}}

Show example

projects:
  my-project:
    shortlink: kriasoft/react-starter-kit
    swaps:
    - key: MIT
      val: Apache 2.0
      path: README.md
    - key: AUTHOR_NAME
      val_template: Dr. {{user_name}}
      path: src/.*

FAQ

How can I set up an enterprise / hosted git, or use Gitlab or others?

You can use custom git vendors.

Start by generating a configuration file:

$ bp config --init

Example: configure a Github Enterprise instance:

vendors:
  custom:
    ghe: # <--- this prefix is yours
      kind: github
      base: enterprise-github.acme.org
             # `---- it will point here now

And now, you can use the ghe: prefix for your shortlinks:

$ bp ghe:user/repo

What's the difference between `bp` and `bp -f`?

$ bp kriasoft/react-starter-kit my-react-project

Create a new project into my-react-project
Resolves to https://github.com/kriasoft/react-starter-kit
Finds the default branch, downloads it and caches locally. Next time you run, it'll be much faster.

$ bp -f kriasoft/react-starter-kit/-/.github

Let's say you really like how react-starter-kit configured its Github Action, and you'd like to copy that to your existing project. You can do this:

Use /-/ to access a subfolder
Use -f to overlay files onto your current working directory

Can I generate a project without typing the name of the repo?

$ bp

And follow the interactive menu, which will let you:

Pick a project, if you have any configured
Input a shortlink
Input a destination or pick an auto generated one

What's a shortlink?

A shortlink is a pointer to a Git repo which looks like this:

Any one of these is a legal shortlink:

user/repo -> resolves to https://github.com/user/repo
gl:user/repo -> resolves to https://gitlab.org/user/repo
user/repo/-/subfolder -> takes only 'subfolder'
user/repo#wip -> takes the 'wip' branch

✅ Bare minimum is user/repo which defaults to Github.
✅ You can set up a custom prefix if you want.

Is it possible to use backpack only on parts of source repos?

Yes, use the folder notation /-/:

$ bp user/repo/-/path/to/folder dest-folder

Can I generate from a given branch?

Branches or tags can be used with the #branch specifier.

$ bp kriasoft/react-starter-kit#feature/redux my-starter

Can I use backpack on empty or populated directories?

Yes. Use -f to grab content and apply it to an existing empty or populated directories:

$ cd your-directory
$ bp -f user/repo

Can backpack work on self hosted Git servers?

If it's one of the supported vendors, you can create a custom prefix configuration:

vendors:
  custom:
    gh:
      kind: github
      base: github.acme.com/my-org

Note that in addition to the custom hosted github.acme.com server, we also specified a default org my-org above, so it saves a bit of typing. Then you can run:

$ bp gh:my-repo my-repo

Can backpack infer the name of the destination folder and save me some more typing?

Where it's non ambiguous, yes. For example, when you specify a subfolder:

$ bp user/repo/-/my-folder

Will grab just my-folder from user/repo and create in a destinaton folder called my-folder.

If there's a inference strategy you think will work, open an issue or submit a PR.

How to install backpack globally?

With Homebrew it happens automatically. Otherwise, download a binary and add its containing folder to your PATH in the way that's supported by your OS.

We're accepting PRs for other OS specific installers.

Any requirements or dependencies for backpack?

Just git to exist (and we will eventually remove that dependency). Other than that the bp binary is self contained and has no dependencies.

Can I get a single file?

Yes. backpack will act differently when the source is a file, it will do what you're expecting it to.

For example, this will give you a .gitignore file from another project:

$ cd my-project
$ bp -f rusty-ferris-club/backpack/-/.gitignore
$ tree
.gitignore

This will copy just a single workflow file, but also the entire hierarchy of folders:

$ cd my-project
$ bp -f rusty-ferris-club/backpack/-/.github/workflows/build.yml
$ tree
.github/
  workflows/
    build.yml

Or in other words:

When you specify a target file verbatim, it will use that
If you're not specifying a target file, the destination file and folder path will be copied from the source.

Contributing

We are accepting PRs. Feel free to submit PRs.

To all Contributors - you make this happen, thanks!