dems

A combination of degit and ms (for mustache). This is a scaffolding tool that downloads a given repository from GitHub / GitLab / BitBucket and optionally replaces any designated variables in it. Without variables, this acts much the same as degit.

Getting Started

npx dems user/repo

That's it! This will copy the latest commit on the default branch into a local directory that shares the name of the repo. As with degit, all git history is removed during the process, so it appears as a clean repo.

You can also supply an alternate target with an optional second argument:

npx dems user/repo new-dir

This will copy the repo to a local new-dir directory.

Templating

During the cloning process, dems will parse each file looking for mustache templating. If any variables are found, it will then launch a wizard asking you to enter a value for each variable. Finally, the templated files are rendered with mustache.

To see an example of this, take a look at the example repo.

Why should I use this?

This is an experiment for me; I really like the idea of degit, but it has some under-explored concepts around "actions" and I thought I'd take it in a different direction via templating. I usually find, when using degit, that I have to replace several simple strings; package name and author fields for example, so dems provides a solution. If you also find yourself experiencing this, give dems a go.

This code is really bad! It's missing $FEATURE! I found a bug!

Open an issue. If I agree with you, I'll probably fix the bug / add the feature, but it'll be in my own time. If you need it sooner, open a Pull Request or fork for your own needs.

Credits

Big thanks to Rich Harris for degit, which provided a bunch of code and inspiration for this.