Templates

Templates define reusable setup steps. Bivvy includes 45+ built-in templates covering system package managers, version managers, language-specific dependency tools, database migrations, containers, infrastructure as code, and monorepo tools. You can also create custom templates.

Using Templates

Reference a template in your step configuration:

steps:
  deps:
    template: yarn

When you run bivvy init, templates are auto-detected based on files in your project (e.g., Gemfile triggers the bundler template, package-lock.json triggers npm).

Available Built-in Templates

Category	Templates
System	`brew`, `apt`, `yum`, `pacman`
Windows	`chocolatey`, `scoop`
Version managers	`mise`, `asdf`, `volta`, `nvm`, `fnm`, `rbenv`, `pyenv`
Ruby	`bundler`, `rails-db`
Node.js	`yarn`, `npm`, `pnpm`, `bun`, `next`, `vite`, `remix`
Python	`pip`, `poetry`, `uv`, `django`, `alembic`
Rust	`cargo`, `diesel`
Go	`go`
Swift	`swift`
Java	`maven`, `spring-boot`
.NET	`dotnet`
Dart / Flutter	`dart`, `flutter`
Deno	`deno`
Database migrations	`rails-db`, `prisma`, `diesel`, `alembic`
Containers	`docker-compose`, `helm`
Infrastructure as Code	`pulumi`, `ansible`
Cross-cutting	`env-copy`, `pre-commit`
Monorepo / Workspace	`nx`, `turborepo`, `lerna`

See Built-in Templates for full details on each template.

Template Resolution Order

Templates are resolved in this order (first match wins):

Project templates - .bivvy/templates/steps/
User templates - ~/.bivvy/templates/steps/
Remote templates - Fetched from configured sources
Built-in templates - Bundled with Bivvy

Overriding Template Values

Override any template field in your step config:

steps:
  deps:
    template: yarn
    command: "yarn install --frozen-lockfile"  # override default command

Template Inputs

Some templates accept inputs for customization:

steps:
  db:
    template: postgres
    inputs:
      database_name: myapp_dev
      port: 5433

Creating Custom Templates

Create .bivvy/templates/steps/<name>.yml:

name: my-template
description: "My custom setup step"
category: custom

inputs:
  env:
    description: "Environment name"
    type: string
    default: development

step:
  title: "Run my setup"
  command: "my-setup --env ${env}"
  completed_check:
    type: file_exists
    path: ".setup-complete"