chassis

README

Chassis

A lightweight CLI tool to scaffold project directory structures from layout definition files.

Installation

From Source

go install github.com/pyzamo/chassis@latest

Pre-built Binaries

Download the latest release for your platform from the Releases page.

Commands

chassis analyze - Extract Templates with AI

Analyzes existing projects and uses Google Gemini AI to generate reusable scaffolding templates.

chassis analyze <source> [flags]

Arguments:

• <source> - Local directory or GitHub repo URL

Flags:

• --format string - Output format: tree, yaml, json (default: tree)
• --max-depth int - Maximum depth to analyze (default: 5)

Examples:

# Analyze local project
chassis analyze ./my-app > template.txt

# Analyze GitHub repository
chassis analyze https://github.com/gin-gonic/gin > gin-template.txt

chassis build - Create Project Structure

Creates directory structure from a layout definition file.

chassis build <layout-file> [target-dir]

Arguments:

• <layout-file> - Path to layout file (or - for stdin)
• [target-dir] - Target directory (defaults to current directory)

Flags:

• -v, --verbose - Print every path created/skipped
• --indent int - Space width for plain-text parser (default: 2)

Layout Formats

Plain-Text Tree

project/
  src/
    main.py
    utils/
      helpers.py
      constants.py
  tests/
    test_main.py
  requirements.txt
  README.md

YAML

Use null for files, {} for empty directories

backend:
  cmd:
    server:
      main.go: null
  internal:
    handlers: {}
    models: {}
  go.mod: null
frontend:
  src:
    App.tsx: null
    index.tsx: null
  package.json: null

JSON

{
  "webapp": {
    "client": {
      "src": {
        "App.tsx": null,
        "index.tsx": null
      },
      "package.json": null
    },
    "server": {
      "main.js": null,
      "package.json": null
    }
  }
}

Quick Start

# 1. Set up Gemini API key (one-time, get free key at https://aistudio.google.com/app/apikey)
export GEMINI_API_KEY='your-key-here'

# 2. Analyze existing project to extract template
chassis analyze ./my-project > template.txt

# 3. Create new projects from template
chassis build template.txt ./new-project

Examples

Complete Workflow

# Extract template from an existing Express.js app
chassis analyze ./my-express-app > express-template.txt

# app/
#   # Core application files
#   server.js
#   app.js
#   # Route definitions
#   routes/
#     api.js
#   # Data models
#   models/
#     model.js
#   # Middleware functions
#   middleware/
#     auth.js
#   # Configuration
#   config/
#     config.js
#   package.json

# Create new projects from this template
chassis build express-template.txt project-1

Quick Examples

Go Microservice

api:
  cmd:
    server:
      main.go: null
  internal:
    handlers:
      auth.go: null
      user.go: null
    models:
      user.go: null
  go.mod: null
  Dockerfile: null
  README.md: null

Save as microservice.yaml and run:

chassis build microservice.yaml my-service

Python Package

{
  "my_package": {
    "src": {
      "my_package": {
        "__init__.py": null,
        "core.py": null,
        "utils.py": null
      }
    },
    "tests": {
      "test_core.py": null,
      "test_utils.py": null
    },
    "setup.py": null,
    "requirements.txt": null,
    "README.md": null
  }
}

Save as python-package.json and run:

chassis build python-package.json

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.