📄 Auto File Templates

🚀 Fast, minimal file scaffolding for VS Code
Create new files pre-filled with templates — automatically or on demand.

Auto File Templates lets you define simple text templates and apply them:

• automatically when a new file is created
• manually via the command palette
• directly from the Explorer right-click menu (just like VS Code’s native “New File”)

No frameworks. No magic. Just smart defaults.

✨ Features

🧠 Automatic template insertion

• Applies a template only when a file is empty
• Never overwrites existing content
• Works with files created via:
  • VS Code Explorer
  • Command line (touch, custom shell functions, etc.)

📄 Template matching rules

• By extension
  • index.html → html.template
  • main.py → py.template
• By full filename (no extension)
  • Dockerfile → Dockerfile.template
  • Makefile → Makefile.template

🖱️ Explorer right-click: “New file from template”

• Right-click a folder in the Explorer
• Choose a template
• Enter the filename inline (no system file dialog)
• File is created in place and opened with the template inserted

⌨️ Command palette support

• Create a new file from any template
• Choose destination using the native save dialog

🛠️ Fully configurable

• Custom template directory
• Plain text templates
• Supports VS Code snippet placeholders ($TM_FILENAME, tab stops, etc.)

📦 Built-in Starter Templates

This extension ships with a small set of starter templates out of the box.

On first activation:

• A template directory is created (if missing)
• Default templates are copied once
• Existing user templates are never overwritten

You are free to edit, delete or add templates at any time

🚀 How It Works

Automatic mode (zero interaction)

1. You create a new file (Explorer, CLI, script, etc.)
2. VS Code opens the file
3. If the file is empty:
   • The extension looks for a matching template
   • Inserts it as a snippet
4. If no template exists → the file stays empty

Manual mode (on demand)

You can explicitly create a file from a template using:

• the Command Palette
• the Explorer context menu

📂 Template Resolution Rules

Templates are optional — no template means no action.

🖱️ Explorer Context Menu

Right-click a folder in the Explorer and select:

Flow:
1. Pick a template
2. Enter a filename (inline prompt)
3. File is created in the selected folder
4. Template is inserted automatically

This behaves similarly to VS Code's built-in New File action

⌨️ Command Palette

Flow:
1. Pick a template
2. Choose a location using the save dialog
3. File is created and opened with the template inserted

⚙️ Configuration

📁 Template Directory

Default location

Windows

$HOME/AppData/Roaming/Code/User/FileTemplates

Linux

$HOME/.config/Code/User/FileTemplates

macOS

$HOME/Library/Application Support/Code/User/FileTemplates

Custom template path

Override the default path in VS Code settings:

{
  "autoFileTemplates.templatesPath": "C:/path/to/your/templates"
}

This extension provides several templates that you can put in your template folder and modify at will

📄 Template Naming Rules

Templates are plain text files named as:

<extension>.template

or

<filename>.template

Example

FileTemplates/
├── html.template
├── css.template
├── js.template
├── ts.template
├── py.template
├── Dockerfile.template
├── Makefile.template
├── README.md.template

✨ Snippet support

Templates are inserted using VS Code's snippet engine

You can use:

• $TM_FILENAME
• $TM_FILENAME_BASE
• tab stops ($1, $2, ...)

Example:

/**
 * File: $TM_FILENAME
 */

function main() {
  $1;
}

🖥️ Recommended CLI Workflow

This extension pairs perfectly with command-line file creation (touch, start, helper functions)

Example bash helper:

new() {
  for filepath in "$@"; do
    mkdir -p "$(dirname "$filepath")"
    [ ! -f "$filepath" ] && touch "$filename"
    code "$filepath"
  done
}

Usage:

new src/index.html
new Dockerfile
new scripts/main.py

Templates are applied automatically when VS Code opens the file

🛡️ Safety & Design Principles

✅ Templates are applied once

✅ Existing files are never modified

✅ No background watchers or polling

✅ No assumptions about frameworks or tooling

✅ Plain files, easy to understand and customize

⚡ Activation

The extension activates on:

• VS Code startup
• File creation
• File opening

Lightweight and low-overhead, no manual setup required

🧩 Compatibility

• ✅ Windows
• ✅ Linux
• ✅ macOS
• ✅ VS Code Stable & Insiders

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome:

• Template ideas
• Bug reports
• Feature requests
• Code improvements

Open an issue or pull request on the repository

📄 License

MIT License

🙌 Philosophy

This extension is built for developers who value:

• Speed
• CLI-friendly workflows
• Minimal configuration
• Predictable behavior
• Smart, optional automation