SKILL.md
Code Generation & Templates
Table of Contents
- [Overview](#overview)
- [When to Use](#when-to-use)
- [Quick Start](#quick-start)
- [Reference Guides](#reference-guides)
- [Best Practices](#best-practices)
Overview
Comprehensive guide to code generation techniques including template engines, AST manipulation, code scaffolding, and automated boilerplate generation for increased productivity and consistency.
When to Use
- Scaffolding new projects or components
- Generating repetitive boilerplate code
- Creating CRUD operations automatically
- Generating API clients from OpenAPI specs
- Building code from templates
- Creating database models from schemas
- Generating TypeScript types from JSON Schema
- Building custom CLI generators
Quick Start
Minimal working example:
// templates/component.hbs
import React from 'react';
export interface {{pascalCase name}}Props {
{{#each props}}
{{this.name}}{{#if this.optional}}?{{/if}}: {{this.type}};
{{/each}}
}
export const {{pascalCase name}}: React.FC<{{pascalCase name}}Props> = ({
{{#each props}}{{this.name}},{{/each}}
}) => {
return (
<div className="{{kebabCase name}}">
{/* Component implementation */}
</div>
);
};Reference Guides
Detailed implementations in the references/ directory:
| Guide | Contents |
|---|---|
| Template Engines | Template Engines |
| AST-Based Code Generation | AST-Based Code Generation |
| Project Scaffolding | Project Scaffolding |
| OpenAPI Client Generation | OpenAPI Client Generation |
| Database Model Generation | Database Model Generation |
| GraphQL Code Generation | GraphQL Code Generation |
| Plop.js Generator | Plop.js Generator |
Best Practices
✅ DO
- Use templates for repetitive code patterns
- Generate TypeScript types from schemas
- Include tests in generated code
- Follow project conventions in templates
- Add comments to explain generated code
- Version control your templates
- Make templates configurable
- Generate documentation alongside code
- Validate inputs before generating
- Use consistent naming conventions
- Keep templates simple and maintainable
- Provide CLI for easy generation
❌ DON'T
- Over-generate (avoid unnecessary complexity)
- Generate code that's hard to maintain
- Forget to validate generated code
- Hardcode values in templates
- Generate code without documentation
- Create generators for one-off use cases
- Mix business logic in templates
- Generate code without formatting
- Skip error handling in generators
- Create overly complex templates