CLI

Architect provides a simple command-line interface that uses sensible default values to get going as quickly as possible.

To instantiate a template in a child directory of the working directory execute this command:

architect <PATH-OR-URL>

Architect follows the Git way of determining the output directory. If you don't explicitly specify an output directory, it will use the name of the source Git repository or the directory name of the path as the target directory name.

Example:

Git repository: https://github.com/v47-io/architect-test-template.git
Output directory: ./architect-test-template

Additionally, you can also specify a target directory yourself, e.g. if you don't want to use the name of the source repository:

architect <PATH-OR-URL> some-directory

Architect behaves the same as Git in this instance, it will create a directory with this name, relative to the working directory. Of course, you can also specify an absolute path.

By default, Architect will copy the entire Git history of the source repository to the target, or initialize the target as a Git repository. To prevent you from accidentally overwriting the template Architect removes the original Git remotes from the target.

Options

Architect offers some options to customize the behavior of Architect.

--b, --branch <branch>

Specify a different remote branch to fetch instead of the default branch of the repository.

Flags

To customize the behavior of Architect even further you can specify one or more flags as described here.

--local-git

Use your local Git installation instead of embedded Git.

This is intended as an escape hatch if you are using authentication scenarios not supported by the embedded Git functionality in Architect.

Architect is able to use most SSH agent scenarios and username/password authentication, so this should not be needed often.

--dry-run

Produces the same terminal output as normal operation without performing it.

This allows you to inspect the log output to determine whether Architect would perform its operations as intended.

Architect still takes all your input into account, it just stops shy of actually rendering and copying files to the target directory.

--dirty

Use the template source in its current (dirty) state.

This only has an effect if a local path is specified as the source repository. In that case Architect won't perform a Git clone but will just copy the directory, regardless of the local state.

This is most useful to test a template locally while you are developing it.

This option has no effect with remote repositories.

--ignore-checks

Ignore some failed checks that would prevent Architect from creating the target files.

These errors will be ignored:

Unexpected type of default value (for any question type)
Default value not matching the format (for custom questions)
Unknown default item (for selection questions)
Condition evaluation errors (for conditional files)

Architect

CLI