Cookiecutter Examples¶

Practical Cookiecutter Usage Examples

This document provides practical examples of using Cookiecutter directly with UVI, demonstrating the flexibility discussed in Direct Cookiecutter Usage.

1. Creating a Project with Custom Parameters¶

You can pass parameters directly to Cookiecutter to customize your project without interactive prompts:

# Create a project with custom parameters
uvx cookiecutter /path/to/uvi --no-input \
  project_name=api-service \
  project_description="API service created with direct cookiecutter" \
  dockerfile=y \
  devcontainer=y

This creates a complete project with parameters specified on the command line, ideal for scripting or automation.

2. Batch Project Creation¶

Direct Cookiecutter access enables creating multiple projects in a single operation:

#!/bin/bash
# create_services.sh - Create multiple microservices from a template
for service in "auth-service" "user-service" "payment-service"; do
  uvx cookiecutter /path/to/uvi --no-input \
    project_name="$service" \
    project_description="Microservice for ${service}" \
    dockerfile=y \
    devcontainer=y
done

This script generates three separate projects, each with its own configuration but sharing common settings. Excellent for creating collections of related microservices or libraries.

3. CI/CD Pipeline Integration¶

For CI/CD environments, use something like:

# In a GitHub Actions workflow
- name: Generate project
  run: |
    uvx cookiecutter https://github.com/shaneholloman/uvi.git --no-input \
      project_name=${{ github.event.repository.name }} \
      project_description="${{ github.event.repository.description }}" \
      include_github_actions=y \
      codecov=y

This approach allows generating standardized project templates based on repository metadata.

4. Local Template Development¶

When developing the template itself, use local paths:

# Use local template for testing changes
uvx cookiecutter /path/to/local/uvi --no-input \
  project_name="test-project" \
  include_github_actions=n

This allows for rapid testing of template changes without pushing to a remote repository.

5. Creating Projects in Specific Locations¶

You can specify where the generated project should be created:

# Output to a specific directory
uvx cookiecutter /path/to/uvi --output-dir ./projects \
  project_name="specific-location"

This is useful for organizing multiple generated projects in a structured way.

Notes on Parameter Formatting¶

Boolean values are passed as y or n (e.g., dockerfile=y)
Strings with spaces need quotes (e.g., project_description="My Project")
All parameters must match those in cookiecutter.json
Parameter names are case-sensitive

Available Parameters¶

All parameters defined in UVI's cookiecutter.json file:

Parameter	Description	Example Values
author	Author name	"Your Name"
email	Author email	"your.email@example.com"
author_github_handle	GitHub username	"your-github-handle"
project_name	Project name	"example-project"
project_slug	Slug for import (auto-generated)	"example_project"
project_description	Brief description	"This is a template repository..."
include_github_actions	Add GitHub Actions	"y" or "n"
publish_to_pypi	Configure PyPI publishing	"y" or "n"
deptry	Add deptry for dependency checking	"y" or "n"
mkdocs	Add MkDocs documentation	"y" or "n"
codecov	Add code coverage	"y" or "n"
dockerfile	Add Dockerfile	"y" or "n"
devcontainer	Add VS Code devcontainer	"y" or "n"
open_source_license	License type	"MIT license", "BSD license", etc.