/templating

name: templating
description: Render any text file (HTML, markdown, config, SQL, email) from a mustache template plus JSON data. Use when an output's shape is fixed ahead of time and only the values change.

templating — fill data into text-file templates

Render any text file (HTML, markdown, config, SQL, email, …) from a mustache template plus JSON data. Use this whenever the shape of an output is known ahead of time and only the values change — it is faster and less error-prone than writing the file by hand.

Other skills build on this one (e.g. `slides` composes presentation decks from slide templates).

Quick reference

| Task | Command | | -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Render with inline data | `create-from-template --template t.html --data '{"name":"Ada"}' --output out.html` | | Render with a data file | `create-from-template --template t.html --data @data.json --output out.html` | | Fail on missing keys | add `--strict` | | Overwrite existing output | add `-f` | | Use partials (`{{>name}}`) | add `--partials-dir ./partials` |

The command prints the absolute output path on success and exits non-zero with a message on any error (bad JSON, missing template, existing output without `-f`, missing keys under `--strict`).

Template syntax (mustache)

| Syntax | Meaning | | --------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- | | `{{name}}` | Insert value, HTML-escaped | | `{{{name}}}` | Insert value raw (no escaping) — for trusted HTML fragments | | `{{#items}}…{{/items}}` | Repeat block for each array item; also renders for truthy values | | `{{.}}` | The current item inside a list block | | `{{^items}}…{{/items}}` | Render block only when the value is empty/falsy/missing | | `{{user.name}}` | Dotted path lookup | | `{{>header}}` | Include partial `header` (resolved from `--partials-dir` as `header` or `header.html`) | | `{{!comment}}` | Comment, never rendered |

Example:

<ul>
  {{#items}}<li><b>{{label}}</b>: {{value}}</li>{{/items}}
  {{^items}}<li>No items</li>{{/items}}
</ul>

create-from-template --template list.template.html \
  --data '{"items":[{"label":"CPU","value":"42%"}]}' \
  --output list.html

Workflow tips

• Keep data in a JSON file (`--data @data.json`) when it is more than a

couple of fields — easier to iterate on than a long inline string.

• Use `--strict` while developing a template to catch typos in key names;

drop it when optional keys are intentional.

• Templates are plain text files — author your own anywhere (the org home

folder under `/app/org/home/templates/` is a good durable place for organization-wide templates).