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:

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