Codebot — Code generator by templates

Stop copying and pasting boilerplate. Define your file structure once as a template and generate it anywhere with two clicks.

What it does

Codebot reads a folder of Handlebars (.hbs) template files you define once in your project, and generates all the files from that template every time you right-click a folder in the Explorer.

• ✨ Build Template — generates a new folder with all files from the chosen template, with every {{name}} replaced by your component name.
• 🔁 Update Template — adds any missing files from a template into an existing folder, without overwriting files that already exist.

Templates can be as simple as a single .tsx file or as complex as a full package with nested directories — Codebot handles both.

Quick start

1. Create your templates folder

By default, Codebot looks for a templates/ folder at the root of your workspace. Each subfolder inside it is a separate template.

your-project/
└── templates/
    └── ReactComponent/
        ├── ReactComponent.tsx.hbs
        └── index.tsx.hbs

2. Write your template files using {{name}}

ReactComponent.tsx.hbs

import { ReactNode } from 'react';

export interface {{name}}Props {
  children: ReactNode;
}

export function {{name}}({ children }: {{name}}Props) {
  return <div>{children}</div>;
}

index.tsx.hbs

export * from './{{name}}';

3. Right-click any folder in the Explorer

Select ✨ Build Template, type the component name (e.g. Button), and Codebot creates:

src/components/
└── Button/
    ├── Button.tsx
    └── index.tsx

Every {{name}} in file names and file contents is replaced with the formatted component name.

Template file naming convention

Codebot renames template files to match the component name using two patterns:

Any filename that contains either the template folder name or the literal word Template will be renamed to the component name.

Template variables

Only one variable is available inside .hbs template content:

The formatting of {{name}} is controlled by the nameFormat setting.

Commands

Both commands are available by right-clicking a folder in the VS Code Explorer.

✨ Build Template

Right-click a folder → ✨ Build Template

1. You are prompted for the component name.
2. If you have more than one template, you select which template to use.
3. Codebot creates a new subfolder named after the component and writes all template files inside it.
4. Files that already exist are skipped automatically.

🔁 Update Template

Right-click an existing folder → 🔁 Update Template

Adds any template files that are missing from an existing component folder. The component name is derived from the folder you right-click. Existing files are never overwritten.

Configuration

Open VS Code settings (Cmd+, / Ctrl+,) and search for Codebot, or add any of these keys to your .vscode/settings.json:

codebot.templatesFolderPath

Path to the templates folder, relative to the workspace root.

{
  "codebot.templatesFolderPath": "src/templates"
}

Default: "templates"

codebot.templateSettings

Per-template settings. Keys must match template folder names exactly.

{
  "codebot.templateSettings": {
    "ReactComponent": {
      "nameFormat": "pascal-case"
    },
    "ReactPackage": {
      "nameFormat": "kebab-case"
    }
  }
}

Default: {} (all templates use pascal-case)

Name formats

The nameFormat option controls how the value you type is transformed before being passed to {{name}} and used as the output folder/file name.

All formats accept any input style — you can type my button, my-button, MyButton, or myButton and they all produce the same result.

Example: typing "my button" with each format:

pascal-case → MyButton
kebab-case  → my-button
camel-case  → myButton
snake-case  → my_button

Nested template directories

Templates can contain subdirectories of any depth (up to 10 levels). The directory structure is preserved in the output.

templates/
└── ReactPackage/
    ├── package.json.hbs
    ├── tsconfig.json.hbs
    ├── vite.config.ts.hbs
    └── src/
        ├── App.tsx.hbs
        ├── main.tsx.hbs
        └── lib/
            └── main.tsx.hbs

Generates:

packages/
└── my-package/
    ├── package.json
    ├── tsconfig.json
    ├── vite.config.ts
    └── src/
        ├── App.tsx
        ├── main.tsx
        └── lib/
            └── main.tsx

Examples

The examples/ folder in this repository contains ready-to-use templates you can copy into your project:

ComponentSass example

ComponentSass.tsx.hbs

import { ReactNode } from 'react';

import styles from './{{name}}.module.scss';

export interface {{name}}Props {
  children: ReactNode;
}

export function {{name}}({ children }: {{name}}Props) {
  return (
    <div className={styles.container}>
      {children}
    </div>
  );
}

index.tsx.hbs

export * from './{{name}}';

ReactPackage example (kebab-case)

package.json.hbs

{
  "name": "@myorg/{{name}}",
  "version": "0.0.1",
  "main": "./dist/index.js",
  "types": "./dist/index.d.ts"
}

.vscode/settings.json

{
  "codebot.templateSettings": {
    "ReactPackage": {
      "nameFormat": "kebab-case"
    }
  }
}

Typing "my button" generates a folder named my-button with package.json containing "name": "@myorg/my-button".

Requirements

• VS Code 1.100.0 or later
• Templates folder must exist in the workspace before using the extension

Links

• VS Code Marketplace
• Open VSX Registry
• GitHub Repository
• Report an issue