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What is Archetect?

Archetect is a code-centric, language-agnostic content generator. Point it at an archetype — a templated blueprint hosted in a git repository or local directory — answer a few prompts, and it renders anything from a single file to a complete, ready-to-build project.

archetect render https://github.com/your-org/rust-grpc-service.git my-service

Why it exists​

Every team eventually accumulates a "way we do things": project layout, build configuration, CI pipelines, lint rules, logging conventions, license headers. The usual ways of propagating that knowledge all have problems:

  • Copy-paste from the last project drags along stale dependencies, leftover business logic, and yesterday's mistakes.
  • Static template repositories ("click Use this template on GitHub") can't adapt — every placeholder still has to be found and renamed by hand, and there is exactly one variant.
  • Wiki checklists rot the moment they're written.

Archetect treats project generation as a first-class, programmable activity:

  • Prompts capture intent. An archetype asks for what it needs — a project name, a database flavor, which features to include — with sensible defaults and validation.
  • Scripts make decisions. A Lua script orchestrates the render: conditionally including files, deriving values, composing other archetypes, even initializing a git repository.
  • Templates do the typing. Every file in the archetype is a template. Type a name once, and casing filters spread it correctly across file names, struct names, package declarations, and configuration.
  • Git is the distribution system. Archetypes and catalogs are plain git repositories. Publishing an update is a git push; consumers get it on their next render.

What makes Archetect different​

It's fast. Archetect is a single native binary written in Rust. Rendering even a large multi-module project is effectively instantaneous — fast enough to regenerate scaffolding as part of tight feedback loops.

It's language-agnostic. Archetect doesn't know or care what it's generating: Rust, Java, TypeScript, Terraform, documentation, dotfiles. If it's text, Archetect can template it.

It scales from files to architectures. A single archetype can render one .gitignore file. A catalog of composed archetypes can scaffold an entire microservice architecture — services, frontends, infrastructure — with shared prompts and conventions across all of them.

It's built for both humans and machines. The same archetype that prompts a developer interactively can run fully headless in CI with answers supplied from files or flags — and can even be driven by AI agents through Archetect's MCP server.

When to use it​

Reach for Archetect when:

  • You create the same kind of thing repeatedly — services, libraries, components, modules.
  • You want new projects to start from your organization's current best practices, not a snapshot of them.
  • You need consistent naming and structure derived from a few inputs.
  • You want one blueprint to serve many variations (with prompts, switches, and composition) instead of maintaining a fleet of diverging template repos.

Next step​

Install Archetect and generate your first project.