README.md

March 17, 2026 · View on GitHub

scaf is a template manager that simplifies bootstrapping and updating projects.

Features:

📥 Installs any template from any GitHub repo
🔄 Updates existing projects installed from Copier templates

Currently available templates:

🏗️ Six Feet Up Full Stack Template
🪶 Six Feet Up AWS Lambda App Template

Installation

Installation is supported on Linux and macOS:

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sixfeetup/scaf/main/install.sh | bash

The installation script will install kubectl, kind, Tilt and uv if it can't be found on your system.

Nix

If you are a Nix user, you can install scaf using the following commands.

Permanent Installation

To install scaf into your user profile so it is available in all your shell sessions, run:

nix-env -if https://github.com/sixfeetup/scaf/archive/v1.26.2.zip

Temporary Shell

To use scaf in a temporary shell session without modifying your user profile, run:

nix-shell -p "(with import <nixpkgs> {}; callPackage (builtins.fetchTarball https://github.com/sixfeetup/scaf/archive/v1.26.2.zip) {})"

Creating a new project using this repo

First, copy (& optionally customize) the .envrc.example file to .envrc!

Run scaf myproject, answer all the questions, and you'll have your new project!

Refer to the documentation of the template you installed.

Usage

Usage: scaf project_slug [OPTIONS] [TEMPLATE]

Scaf - Project scaffolding CLI tool

Arguments:
  project_slug           The name of your new project (alphanumeric, -, _)

Options:
  --help, -h             Show this help message and exit
  --uninstall            Uninstall Scaf CLI from the system
  --upgrade              Upgrade Scaf to the latest version

Template:
  TEMPLATE               (Optional) Template source. Must be one of the following:
                          - https://github.com/sixfeetup/scaf-fullstack-template.git
                          - https://github.com/sixfeetup/scaf-aws-lambda-app-template.git
                          - Or a local path (e.g. ./my-template)
                          If omitted, you will be prompted to choose.

Advanced Copier Options:
  --defaults             Use default answers to template questions
  --vcs-ref <branch>     Use a specific Git branch/tag/commit from the template repo

Examples:
  scaf my-app
      # Creates a project named "my-app" and prompts to choose a template interactively.

  scaf my-app https://github.com/sixfeetup/scaf-fullstack-template.git
      # Creates "my-app" using the Fullstack template directly from GitHub.

  scaf my-app --defaults --vcs-ref main https://github.com/sixfeetup/scaf-aws-lambda-app-template.git
      # Creates "my-app" using the AWS Lambda template with defaults and from the 'main' branch.

  scaf my-app --defaults --vcs-ref main \$REPO_URL
      # Example with full path to CLI, using defaults and specific VCS reference.
      # REPO_URL must be one of the allowed template URLs above.

Contributing

Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for details on how to contribute.