cookiecutter

It provides a command‑line utility that generates a new project from a “cookiecutter” template, which can be hosted on GitHub or stored locally. Users invoke the tool, answer prompts defined in a template’s cookiecutter.json, and the utility creates the directory structure and files according to the template, optionally running pre‑ or post‑generation hooks for tasks such as initializing a git repository or installing dependencies.

The tool works on Windows, macOS, and Linux and supports Python 3.10–3.14, but the templates themselves are language‑agnostic, allowing creation of projects in Python, Rust, Terraform, documentation sites, or any other framework. It can be used directly from the shell or imported into a Python program for programmatic generation.

Template authors define variables and defaults in a single JSON file and may include scripts that run before or after project creation, enabling custom setup steps. A large collection of ready‑made templates is discoverable on GitHub, covering common use cases such as Python packages, Django sites, and pytest plugins.