The templates command manages project templates, allowing you to create new projects from pre-configured templates or install community templates.
Usage fern templates < comman d > [options]
Commands list List all available templates:
Available Templates ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Installed templates: 📦 game 📦 dashboard Official templates: 📦 basic - Basic Fern application 📦 game - Game development template 📦 dashboard - Dashboard/admin template 📦 mobile - Mobile-style UI template
install Install a template from a name or URL:
fern templates install < template_name_or_ur l >
Official template name or Git repository URL
Examples:
# Install official template fern templates install game # Install from GitHub URL fern templates install https://github.com/user/fern-template
create Create a new project from a template:
fern templates create < template_nam e > < project_nam e >
Name of installed template
Example:
fern templates create game my_game cd my_game fern fire
Official Templates basic Simple Fern application template with minimal setup:
fern templates install basic fern templates create basic my_app
Features:
Clean starter code
Basic rendering setup
Minimal dependencies
Good for learning
game Game development template with player movement and input:
fern templates install game fern templates create game my_game
Creating 'my_game' from template 'game' ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Project 'my_game' created from template 'game'! cd my_game fern fire
Features:
Player entity with keyboard controls
Game loop with update/draw separation
Input handling example
Sprite rendering
Starter code:
#include <fern/fern.hpp> #include <iostream> #include <cmath> using namespace Fern ; // Game state struct Player { float x = 400 ; float y = 300 ; float speed = 200 ; }; Player player; void update ( float deltaTime ) { // Simple player movement if ( Input :: isKeyPressed ( KeyCode ::Left)) { player . x -= player . speed * deltaTime; } if ( Input :: isKeyPressed ( KeyCode ::Right)) { player . x += player . speed * deltaTime; } if ( Input :: isKeyPressed ( KeyCode ::Up)) { player . y -= player . speed * deltaTime; } if ( Input :: isKeyPressed ( KeyCode ::Down)) { player . y += player . speed * deltaTime; } } void draw () { Draw :: fill ( Colors ::DarkBlue); Draw :: circle ( player . x , player . y , 20 , Colors ::Yellow); DrawText :: drawText ( "Use arrow keys to move" , 10 , 10 , 1 , Colors ::White); } int main () { std ::cout << "🎮 Starting Fern Game..." << std ::endl; Fern :: initialize (); Fern :: setUpdateCallback (update); Fern :: setDrawCallback (draw); Fern :: startRenderLoop (); return 0 ; }
dashboard Dashboard and admin UI template:
fern templates install dashboard fern templates create dashboard admin_panel
Features:
Panel layout system
Chart/graph examples
Navigation components
Data visualization ready
mobile Mobile-style interface template:
fern templates install mobile fern templates create mobile my_app
Features:
Touch-friendly UI
Responsive layout
Mobile navigation patterns
Gesture support
Installing Custom Templates From Git URL fern templates install https://github.com/username/fern-template-custom
This clones the repository to ~/.fern/templates/fern-template-custom.
Template Structure Custom templates should have this structure:
my-template/ ├── lib/ │ └── main.cpp ├── assets/ ├── template.yaml # Optional metadata └── README.md
Optional template.yaml:
name : My Custom Template description : A custom Fern project template author : Your Name version : 1.0.0 tags : - game - multiplayer features : - Networking support - Custom physics - Save/load system
Template Locations Templates are stored in:
~/.fern/templates/ ├── basic/ ├── game/ ├── dashboard/ └── custom-template/
Examples Create Game from Template # Install the game template fern templates install game # Create a new game project fern templates create game space_shooter # Navigate and run cd space_shooter fern fire
Use Custom Template # Install custom template from GitHub fern templates install https://github.com/ferncommunity/platformer-template # Create project from it fern templates create platformer-template my_platformer # Run it cd my_platformer fern fire
List and Install # See what's available fern templates list # Install what you need fern templates install dashboard fern templates install mobile # List again to confirm fern templates list
Workflow
Install template
fern templates install game
Create project
fern templates create game my_game
Creating Your Own Template To create a template others can use:
Create template project
fern sprout my-template cd my-template
Customize code
Edit lib/main.cpp and add your template code, assets, and structure.
Add metadata
Create template.yaml: name : My Template description : Description of what it does author : Your Name version : 1.0.0
Publish to Git
git init git add . git commit -m "Initial template" git remote add origin https://github.com/you/fern-template-name git push -u origin main
Share with others
Others can install it: fern templates install https://github.com/you/fern-template-name
Common Issues
fern templates create game my_game # Error: Template 'game' not found
Solution: Install the template first: fern templates install game fern templates create game my_game
fern templates create game my_game # Error: Directory 'my_game' already exists
Solution: Choose a different name or remove the existing directory.
When installing from URL: fern templates install https://github.com/invalid/repo # Error: Failed to clone template
Solution: Verify the URL is correct and you have internet access. Template vs Sprout Feature fern sproutfern templates createCode Basic starter Template-specific Setup Minimal Pre-configured Use Case Blank slate Specific project type Customization Full freedom Template starting point
Use sprout for general projects, templates for specific project types.