Welcome to copier-py’s documentation!¶

copier-py

🐍 Modern Python project copier template

Each time you start a new Python project, you shouldn’t start from scratch. Ideally, you’d start with a standard project structure and set of tools and integrations to help facilitate writing quality Python code.

This modern Python copier template is the tool that will help you do just that. It is the copier equivalent of cookiecutter-py.

✨ Features¶

uv to manage dependencies
structlog for logging
mypy for static typing
pytest, hypothesis, mutmut for testing
- pytest-cov for coverage reports
- pytest-mock for mocks
- pytest-xdist for distributed testing
- pytest-randomly to randomly order tests
tox for testing automation
sphinx for docs
- myst-parser for markdown docs
- selectable theme
pdbp for debugging
konch for shell configuration w/ ipython support
pre-commit hooks with comprehensive tooling:
- uv-lock for dependency management
- mypy for type checking
- ruff for linting, formatting, and import sorting
- bashate for shell script linting
- commitlint for commit message standards
- detect-secrets for secret detection
- typos for spell checking
- deptry for dependency validation
dockerfile for development, testing, and production
dunamai for versioning
custom Justfile (run just)
stay up-to-date w/ configured dependabot
github-actions with ci, publish to pypi workflows w/ release-drafter integration
- ci workflow (leveraging tox)
  - optional codecov integration for code coverage
- publish workflow with configurable publishing to:
  - TestPyPI (optional, disabled by default)
  - PyPI (optional, disabled by default)
  - GitHub Packages (optional, disabled by default)
  - GitHub Release artifacts (optional, disabled by default)
  - Always builds and uploads artifacts to GitHub Actions for manual inspection
  - Integrated with release-drafter
- auto approve / merge workflow
- with these additional workflows:
  - codeql for security analysis
  - hadolint for Dockerfile linting
  - pr-size-labeling for PR size classification
  - pr-labeler for automated PR labeling
  - commitlint for commit message validation
  - trufflehog for secret scanning
  - docs for documentation publishing
  - release-drafter for automated release notes
optional direnv .envrc (with use uv layout)
built-in template updates via copier update

🚀 Getting Started¶

Prerequisites¶

Install copier

uv tool install copier
# pip install copier
# pipx install copier

🛠️ Usage¶

Copier¶

copier copy gh:ryankanno/copier-py /path/to/destination

Or with uv (no install needed):

uvx copier copy gh:ryankanno/copier-py /path/to/destination

Add --trust to allow the post-generation git init task to run automatically.

Note: If you want to use the auto approve / merge Dependabot workflow, make sure to create tags major, minor, patch so that Dependabot can tag its PRs. The workflow won’t merge anything with a major tag.

Updating Projects¶

Projects created with this template can be updated when the template evolves:

copier update /path/to/project

🔍 Details¶

Justfile Commands¶

The template includes a comprehensive Justfile with the following commands:

Development:

just install - Install dependencies using uv
just clean - Remove all build, test, and documentation artifacts

Testing & Quality:

just tests - Run all tests (fast, no coverage)
just tests -- path/to/test.py - Run specific tests
just tests -- --durations=10 - Show slow test durations
just coverage - Run tests with comprehensive coverage analysis
just lint - Run all linting checks via tox
just lint --fix - Auto-fix linting issues where possible
just pre-commit - Run pre-commit hooks

Documentation & Distribution:

just docs - Build Sphinx documentation
just dist - Build distribution packages

Utilities:

just tox -- <args> - Run tox with custom arguments
just watch <recipe> - Watch files and re-run commands on changes (with desktop notifications)

All commands use uv as the package manager and integrate with tox environments for consistency.

Docker¶

To build the container:

DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1 docker build .

To run the container (if you’ve installed the defaults):

docker run <image_id or tag> python -m foobar.foobar

Versioning¶

If you enable the PyPI workflow, versioning will happen via dunamai within the GitHub pipeline.

If instead, you prefer to version your package, please do it via uv version $(dunamai from any) as recommended in their documentation.

Configuration Variables¶

When you run copier, you’ll be prompted for various configuration options. Here are the key variables:

Project Information:

author_name - Your full name
author_email - Your email address
project_name - Human-readable project name
project_short_description - Brief description of your project
project_url - Project repository URL
project_license - License type (default: MIT)
github_repository_owner - GitHub username or organization
package_name - Python package name (snake_case)
version - Initial version number (default: 0.0.0)

Python & Dependencies:

python_version - Minimum Python version (default: 3.12)
supported_python_versions - Comma-separated list of supported versions
uv_version - Version of uv to use
tox_version - Version of tox to use
sphinx_theme - Documentation theme (select from multiple options)

Optional Features:

should_use_direnv - Include .envrc for direnv (default: true)
should_create_author_files - Include AUTHORS.rst (default: true)
should_install_github_dependabot - Enable Dependabot (default: true)
should_automerge_autoapprove_github_dependabot - Auto-approve/merge Dependabot PRs (default: true)
should_install_github_actions - Include GitHub Actions workflows (default: true)
should_upload_coverage_to_codecov - Upload coverage to Codecov (default: false)

Publishing Options:

should_publish_to_testpypi - Publish to TestPyPI on every main push (default: false)
should_publish_to_pypi - Publish to PyPI on release (default: false)
should_publish_to_github_packages - Publish to GitHub Packages on release (default: false)
should_attach_to_github_release - Attach build artifacts to GitHub releases (default: false)

Note: Even if all publishing options are disabled, the build job still runs and uploads artifacts to GitHub Actions for manual inspection.

🚧 Roadmap¶

See the open issues for a list of proposed features (and known issues).

🤝 Contributing¶

Contributions are very much appreciated.

Fork the project
Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/new-copier-feature)
Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Added a new feature')
Push to the feature branch (git push origin feature/new-copier-feature)
Open a PR! 🎆

📝 License¶

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

📫 Contact¶

Ryan Kanno - @ryankanno

Project Link: https://github.com/ryankanno/copier-py

Tutorial

Tutorial: Create Your First Python Project

Reference

Explanation

Why These Tools?

The MIT License (MIT)

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.