intent driven development

Templates

Chant uses markdown templates for specs and prompts with simple variable substitution.

Template Syntax

{{variable}}     # Variable substitution
${ENV_VAR}       # Environment variable

Spec Templates

Default spec template for chant add:

# .chant/templates/spec.md
---
status: pending
---

# {{description}}

## Context

<!-- Why is this spec needed? -->

## Acceptance Criteria

- [ ]

## Notes

<!-- Optional: additional context -->

Usage:

chant add "Fix authentication bug"
# Creates spec with {{description}} = "Fix authentication bug"

Spec Template Variables

Variable	Description
`{{description}}`	From `chant add` argument
`{{date}}`	Current date (YYYY-MM-DD)
`{{project}}`	Project name from config
`{{id}}`	Generated spec ID

Prompt Templates

Prompts use the same substitution:

# .chant/prompts/standard.md
---
name: standard
---

You are implementing a spec for {{project.name}}.

**{{spec.title}}**

{{spec.description}}

Prompt Template Variables

Variable	Description
`{{project.name}}`	Project name from config
`{{spec.id}}`	Full spec identifier
`{{spec.title}}`	Spec title (first heading)
`{{spec.description}}`	Full spec body content
`{{spec.target_files}}`	Target files from frontmatter
`{{worktree.path}}`	Worktree path (parallel execution)
`{{worktree.branch}}`	Branch name (parallel execution)

Custom Templates

Override defaults in config:

# config.md
templates:
  spec: .chant/templates/my-spec.md

Or use --template flag:

chant add "Add feature" --template spec-tdd

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