# cookiecutter/cookiecutter

A cross-platform command-line utility that creates projects from cookiecutters (project templates), e.g. Python package projects, C projects.

Repository: https://github.com/cookiecutter/cookiecutter
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/cookiecutter
Homepage: https://pypi.org/project/cookiecutter/
Language: Python
License: BSD-3-Clause
License Family: permissive
Topics: python, cookiecutter
Last push: 2026-04-01T17:46:44+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 79/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 75, release rhythm 73, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4798, "days_push": 154, "days_rel": 182, "gap_med": 1, "n_releases_24m": 2}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 25065, forks 2275 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:37.823282+00:00)

## What it is
Cookiecutter is a cross-platform command-line utility that generates new project directories from project templates called 'cookiecutters', which can be hosted on GitHub, local paths, or fetched from any source. It uses Jinja2 for templating, prompts users for variables interactively, works with any programming language or markup format, and can also be used programmatically as a Python library.

## Use cases
- scaffold a new python package project from a template
- generate a project skeleton or boilerplate directory from a github repo
- bootstrap a new c or c++ project from a template on the command line
- create starter projects from templates without writing python code
- turn a repository into a reusable project template with prompts for custom values

## When to choose
- you want to stamp out new project directories from reusable templates with interactive prompts
- you need language-agnostic scaffolding that works with any file format or markup
- you want to generate projects from github-hosted or local template directories with a single command

## When to avoid
- you need a full package manager or dependency manager - cookiecutter only generates files once and does not manage the created project
- you need templates that stay synced with generated projects for later updates - output is decoupled from the template after generation
- you need an ide-integrated project wizard rather than a command-line or python api workflow

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: stable
- function: cli, boilerplate, templating, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools
- platform: cross-platform, cli, python
- tags: project-scaffolding, project-templates, jinja2, code-generation, skeleton-generator, command-line

## Member repositories
- cookiecutter/cookiecutter (main) score 79

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:37.823282+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T16:56:06.835077+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/cookiecutter/cookiecutter (fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:37.823282+00:00, sha 01cd39c3574a)
  - homepage: https://pypi.org/project/cookiecutter/ (fetched 2026-08-29T07:53:10.806920+00:00, sha 4b4e8fead74a)
  - registry_pypi: https://pypi.org/pypi/cookiecutter/json (fetched 2026-08-29T07:53:10.809412+00:00, sha bb6a3482e5c9)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.