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Synthesis Little Brother

Synthesis-Little-Brother

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Field	Value
GitHub	https://github.com/Cantara/Synthesis-Little-Brother
Language	Java
Stars	1
Last updated	2026-04-10

README

Forge — KCP-Native Project Scaffolding

Sibling to Synthesis: Synthesis indexes what exists. Forge creates what's needed.

Generate company-standard projects from versioned KCP template manifests. Define your architecture standards once, enforce them everywhere — in CI/CD, IDE, and developer laptops.

Quick Start

# Install
curl -L https://github.com/Cantara/Synthesis-Little-Brother/releases/latest/download/forge.jar -o forge.jar

# Generate a project
java -jar forge.jar generate java-base --var groupId=com.example --var artifactId=my-app

# Non-interactive (CI/CD)
java -jar forge.jar generate java-base -y \
  --var groupId=com.example \
  --var artifactId=my-app

Commands

Command	Description
`forge generate <template>`	Scaffold a new project
`forge list`	List available templates
`forge inspect <template>`	Show template details and variables
`forge validate <path>`	Validate a template manifest
`forge registry add <url>`	Add a Git template registry
`forge registry list`	Show configured registries

`forge generate`

forge generate <template-id-or-path> [options]

Options:
  -o, --output-dir <dir>       Output directory (default: ./<template-id>)
  --var <key=value>            Variable override (repeatable)
  --vars-file <file.yaml>      YAML file with variable values
  -y, --no-interactive         Skip prompts, use defaults
  --dry-run                    Show file tree without writing

Template Format (`forge-template.yaml`)

forge_version: "0.1"
template:
  id: my-template
  name: "My Template"
  version: "1.0.0"
  description: "What this template creates"
  tags: [java, maven]
  author: "Your Company"

variables:
  - name: groupId
    description: "Maven groupId"
    type: string          # string | boolean | choice | number
    required: true
    default: "com.example"
    prompt: "Maven groupId"

files:
  - source: "pom.xml.ftl"    # .ftl = rendered; no .ftl = copied as-is
    target: "pom.xml"
  - source: "App.java.ftl"
    target: "src/main/java/{{groupId | replace('.','/')}}/App.java"
  - source: "Dockerfile.ftl"
    target: "Dockerfile"
    condition: "{{includeDocker}}"  # skip if variable is false/0/empty

hooks:
  post_generate:
    - command: "git init"
    - command: "git add ."

Variable Substitution

Use {{variableName}} in template files and target paths. Apply filters with |:

Filter	Example	Result
`upper-case`	`{{name \\| upper-case}}`	`MY-APP`
`lower-case`	`{{name \\| lower-case}}`	`my-app`
`pascal-case`	`{{name \\| pascal-case}}`	`MyApp`
`camel-case`	`{{name \\| camel-case}}`	`myApp`
`kebab-case`	`{{name \\| kebab-case}}`	`my-app`
`replace('a','b')`	`{{pkg \\| replace('.','/')}}`	`com/example`

Template Registries

Templates are stored in Git repositories. Add a registry once, use all its templates:

# Add a registry (clones to ~/.forge/registries/)
forge registry add https://github.com/your-org/your-templates.git --name myorg

# List all templates from all registries
forge list

# Generate from registry template
forge generate myorg/spring-boot-service --var artifactId=my-service

Registry structure

your-templates/
  templates/
    spring-boot-service/
      forge-template.yaml
      pom.xml.ftl
      src/
        main/java/App.java.ftl
    react-app/
      forge-template.yaml
      package.json.ftl

Variables file (for CI/CD)

# project.yaml
groupId: com.example
artifactId: my-service
javaVersion: "21"
includeDocker: true

forge generate java-base --vars-file project.yaml --no-interactive

Built-in Templates

Template	Description
`java-base`	Minimal Java 21 Maven project with JUnit 5

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/Cantara/Synthesis-Little-Brother.git
cd Synthesis-Little-Brother
mvn package -q
java -jar target/forge.jar --help

License

Apache 2.0