Mason allows developers to create and consume reusable templates called bricks.

# Activate from pub.dev
$ dart pub global activate mason

# Or install using Homebrew
$ brew tap felangel/mason
$ brew install mason

$ mason init

mason init initializes the Mason CLI in the current directory.

Running mason init generates a mason.yaml and an example brick so that you can get started immediately.

bricks:
  hello:
    path: bricks/hello

To get all bricks registered in mason.yaml run:

$ mason get

Then you can use mason make to generate your first file:

$ mason make hello

Any variables can be passed as command line args.

$ mason make hello --name Felix

Any variables which aren't specified as command line args will be prompted.

$ mason make hello
name: Felix

Any variables can be passed via json file:

$ mason make hello --json hello.json

where hello.json is:

{
  "name": "Felix"
}

The above commands will all generate HELLO.md in the current directory with the following content:

Hello Felix!

Create a new brick using the mason new command.

$ mason new <BRICK_NAME>

The above command will generate a new brick in the bricks directory with a brick.yaml and __brick__ template directory.

The brick.yaml contains metadata for a brick template.

name: example
description: An example brick
vars:
  - name

Write your brick template in the __brick__ directory using mustache templates. See the mustache manual for detailed usage information.

__brick__/example.md

# Hello {{name}}!

❗ Note: __brick__ can contain multiple files and subdirectories

❗ Note: use {{{variable}}} instead of {{variable}} when you want the value of variable to be unescaped

It is possible to resolve files based on path input variables using the {{% %}} tag.

For example, given the following brick.yaml:

name: app_icon
description: Create an app_icon file from a URL
vars:
  - url

And the following brick template:

__brick__/{{% url %}}

Running mason make app_icon -- --url path/to/icon.png will generate icon.png with the contents of path/to/icon.png where the path/to/icon.png can be either a local or remote path. Check out the app icon example brick to try it out.

The install command allows developers to install brick templates globally on their machines from either a local path or git url. Then developers can use globally installed brick templates anywhere (regardless of whether there is an existing mason.yaml).

# install from path
$ mason install --source path ./path/to/brick

# install from git url
$ mason install --source git https://github.com/user/repo

# install from git url with path
$ mason install --source git https://github.com/user/repo --path path/to/brick

# install from git url with path and ref
$ mason install --source git https://github.com/user/repo --path path/to/brick --ref tag-name

# use alias "i" instead of "install" for a shorthand syntax
# since git is the default source we don't need to specify a source.
$ mason i https://github.com/user/repo

Once a brick is installed globally it can be used from anywhere via the mason make command:

$ mason make <NAME-OF-GLOBAL-BRICK>

Bricks can be uninstalled by using the uninstall (un for short) command.

# uninstall brick
$ mason uninstall <BRICK_NAME>

# use alias "un" instead of "uninstall" for a shorthand syntax
$ mason un <BRICK_NAME>

All available brick templates (local and global) can be seen via the list (ls for short) command.

# list all available bricks
$ mason list

# use alias "ls" instead of "list" for a shorthand syntax
$ mason ls

You can use mason to generate a bundle for an existing template. Bundles are convenient for cases where you want to include your template as part of a standalone CLI. Very Good CLI is a great example.

There are currently two types of bundles:

1. Universal - a platform-agnostic bundle
2. Dart - a Dart specific bundle

To generate a bundle:

# Universal Bundle
mason bundle ./path/to/brick -d ./path/to/destination

# Dart Bundle
mason bundle ./path/to/brick -t dart -d ./path/to/destination

$ mason
⛏️  mason • lay the foundation!

Usage: mason <command> [arguments]

Global options:
-h, --help       Print this usage information.
    --version    Print the current version.

Available commands:
  bundle      Generates a bundle from a brick template.
  cache       Interact with mason cache.
  get         Gets all bricks.
  init        Initialize mason in the current directory.
  install     Installs a brick globally.
  list        Lists all available bricks.
  make        Generate code using an existing brick template.
  new         Creates a new brick template.
  uninstall   Uninstalls a brick globally.

Run "mason help <command>" for more information about a command.