# Start from a boilerplate

> Copy a working controlroom app and change it, instead of starting from an empty file.

Source: https://burgee.interlace.tools/docs/boilerplates

Each boilerplate is a directory under
[`examples/`](https://github.com/ofri-peretz/burgee/tree/main/examples) that runs as it is, is
tested by this repository's CI in a pipe, under `--json` and on a terminal, and has a README
that says what to change first. Copy one; there is no generator to install.

| Boilerplate | What it is | Copy it |
| :-- | :-- | :-- |
| [`chat-cli`](https://github.com/ofri-peretz/burgee/tree/main/examples/chat-cli) | A chat CLI in the shape of Claude Code, inline: a streamed markdown reply, slash commands with completion, a permission prompt, a status line, Esc to interrupt | `npx degit ofri-peretz/burgee/examples/chat-cli my-chat` |
| [`chat-cli-ink`](https://github.com/ofri-peretz/burgee/tree/main/examples/chat-cli-ink) | The same chat written for Ink (`ink`, `react`, `ink-text-input`), run on `controlroom/ink` through one `package.json` line | `npx degit ofri-peretz/burgee/examples/chat-cli-ink my-chat` |
| [`dashboard`](https://github.com/ofri-peretz/burgee/tree/main/examples/dashboard) | A full-screen dashboard: tabs, a checklist with progress, a log tail and a status line that collapses | `npx degit ofri-peretz/burgee/examples/dashboard my-dashboard` |

`chat-cli-ink` runs unchanged on ink itself when that one line points back at ink: it is the
proof that a whole Ink app, not just its components, moves by changing a dependency.

## Every caller, from one program

Each boilerplate draws its screen only for a person at a terminal. A pipe, CI and a screen
reader get clean lines, and an agent gets NDJSON on stderr under `--json`. Nothing waits for a
key that nobody can press: piped input is read a line at a time, and a closed stdin ends the
program.

```bash
node chat.mjs                              # a terminal
printf 'hello\n' | node chat.mjs           # a pipe
printf 'hello\n' | node chat.mjs --json    # an agent
```

## Why there is no create-* package

A generator would be an eleventh package against the family's cap of ten (D-158), for what
`degit` already does. It is reopened if copying a directory is measured to be the friction.