uuid: - value: 8f2bed8f-56cb-4269-8e1d-082af6201775 langcode: - value: en type: - target_id: daily_email target_type: node_type target_uuid: 8bde1f2f-eef9-4f2d-ae9c-96921f8193d7 revision_timestamp: - value: '2025-05-11T09:00:46+00:00' revision_uid: - target_type: user target_uuid: b8966985-d4b2-42a7-a319-2e94ccfbb849 revision_log: { } status: - value: true uid: - target_type: user target_uuid: b8966985-d4b2-42a7-a319-2e94ccfbb849 title: - value: | Why I built a tool to generate configuration files created: - value: '2023-03-04T00:00:00+00:00' changed: - value: '2025-05-11T09:00:46+00:00' promote: - value: false sticky: - value: false default_langcode: - value: true revision_translation_affected: - value: true path: - alias: /daily/2023/03/04/why-i-built-a-tool-to-generate-configuration-files langcode: en body: - value: |

I'm always working on various personal and client projects, and they contain a lot of the same configuration files. I exclusively use Docker and Docker Compose on all projects, I use a justfile for running tasks, and for PHP projects, I need configuration files for tools like PHPStan, PHPCS and PHPUnit.

The majority of those files are the same with some slight configuration for each project - such as whether it uses web or docroot, or which paths are checked with static analysis or for coding standards issues.

I've given a talk called Working with Workspace - a tool that we used at an agency I worked at. It had two functions - to execute project tasks and to generate configuration files from templates.

I use a justfile to execute tasks and commands but needed to write my own tool to generate the configuration files.

The result is that I can add one YAML file to a project, enter the values that it needs and when I run the CLI tool, it will generate all of the files the project needs.

As well as being faster to set up a project, like a LocalGov Drupal Docker example, having a canonical set of templated configuration files I can enhance and maintain by adding new features and fixes and they'll be added to every project when I next generate its files.

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I'm always working on various personal and client projects, and they contain a lot of the same configuration files. I exclusively use Docker and Docker Compose on all projects, I use a justfile for running tasks, and for PHP projects, I need configuration files for tools like PHPStan, PHPCS and PHPUnit.

The majority of those files are the same with some slight configuration for each project - such as whether it uses web or docroot, or which paths are checked with static analysis or for coding standards issues.

I've given a talk called Working with Workspace - a tool that we used at an agency I worked at. It had two functions - to execute project tasks and to generate configuration files from templates.

I use a justfile to execute tasks and commands but needed to write my own tool to generate the configuration files.

The result is that I can add one YAML file to a project, enter the values that it needs and when I run the CLI tool, it will generate all of the files the project needs.

As well as being faster to set up a project, like a LocalGov Drupal Docker example, having a canonical set of templated configuration files I can enhance and maintain by adding new features and fixes and they'll be added to every project when I next generate its files.

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