cobo: copy boilerplates from configurable git repositories

cobo (short for copy boilerplates) is a command-line tool for fetching boilerplate files from configurable git repositories. It ships with five sources baked in:

• gitignore — GitHub's github/gitignore templates
• gitattributes — community gitattributes/gitattributes templates
• editorconfig — vinibrsl/editorconfig-templates
• mise — mise-cookbooks configs
• licenses — SPDX license texts from spdx/license-list-data

You can add your own sources via a single TOML config file.

cobo is the successor to micoo, which is now deprecated.

Installation

uv tool install cobo

or

pipx install cobo

or

mise install pipx:cobo

Quick start

Fetch the baked sources once:

cobo update

List boilerplates in a source:

cobo gitignore list
cobo mise list

Dump one to stdout:

cobo mise dump python > mise.local.toml
cobo gitignore dump Python Node > .gitignore
cobo gitattributes dump Python > .gitattributes
cobo editorconfig dump Python > .editorconfig

Configuration

A user config file at ~/.cobo/config.toml can override baked sources or add new ones.

Suppose you maintain a repo of reusable Dockerfile snippets laid out like this:

example/dockerfiles  (https://example.invalid/you/dockerfiles)
└── templates/
    ├── python.Dockerfile
    ├── node.Dockerfile
    └── rust.Dockerfile

The matching source entry:

[sources.dockerfiles]
description = "My Dockerfile snippets"
url = "https://example.invalid/you/dockerfiles"
branch = "main"
extension = ".Dockerfile"
subpath = "templates"
multi_dump = false
inject_header = true
comment_prefix = "#"

Field semantics:

• extension — suffix used to discover boilerplates. A file templates/python.Dockerfile is exposed as the name python.
• subpath — only scan this subdirectory of the clone (omit to scan the whole repo).
• branch — branch to track; pin to whatever the upstream default is.
• multi_dump — when true, dump accepts multiple names and concatenates them (used by gitignore and gitattributes).
• inject_header / comment_prefix — prepend a provenance comment block on dump using the given line prefix.

Once added, the source becomes a first-class subcommand:

cobo dockerfiles list             # python, node, rust
cobo dockerfiles dump python      # contents of templates/python.Dockerfile

Trust boundary. The config file is a trust boundary: url and branch values are passed directly to git. Only add sources you trust.

Branch drift. Baked-in sources pin the upstream default branch (some main, others master). If an upstream renames its default branch, override the branch field in your user config until the baked default is updated.

Disposable cache. Source clones under the cache root (cobo root / cobo <source> root) are managed by cobo update, which performs fetch + hard reset + clean -fdx. Any local edits, untracked files, or commits inside those clones are discarded on the next update — never use the cache as a working tree.

Command reference

cobo
├── update              (clone/pull all sources)
├── version
├── info
├── list-sources
├── root                (cache directory path)
├── config              (resolved merged config)
├── config-path         (user config file path)
└── <source>            (one subcommand per configured source)
    ├── update
    ├── list
    ├── search <term>
    ├── dump <name>...
    ├── root            (this source's clone path)
    └── remote          (this source's git URL)

Keeping fragments up to date

cobo can track dumped boilerplates and alert you when upstream templates change — the same Dependabot/Renovate pattern applied to boilerplates.

Record a dump:

cobo gitignore dump Python Node --out .gitignore --lock

--lock writes a cobo.lock file: cobo walks up from the current working directory for the nearest existing cobo.lock and updates it, or creates one in the current working directory if none is found. Re-run after cobo gitignore update to refresh the pin. (--lock requires --out.)

Already have dumped files from before the lockfile? Adopt them from their provenance headers:

cobo lock import .gitignore .editorconfig   # reconstruct lock entries from headers

Check for drift:

cobo check          # Rich table; exits 0 (clean), 1 (updates available), 2 (no/invalid lock)
cobo check --strict # also exit non-zero when a fragment errored (CI gate)
cobo check --json   # machine-readable JSON with outdated_count, error_count, fragments
cobo check --exclude '.github/*'  # skip fragments whose path matches a glob

Apply updates:

cobo sync           # re-renders outdated fragments and advances cobo.lock
cobo sync --dry-run # shows changes without writing
cobo sync --exclude '.github/*'  # leave matching fragments untouched

Commit the updated output files and cobo.lock together.

Hold a fragment back: set update = false in its [[fragment]] block in cobo.lock; check and sync skip it and show it as "held".

Automate with GitHub Actions: add hasansezertasan/cobo@v0.2.0 to a weekly workflow — it runs cobo sync and opens a PR when fragments drift. Requires permissions: contents: write and pull-requests: write. A pre-built Docker variant (hasansezertasan/cobo/docker@v0.2.0) is also available for faster cold-starts. Pin to a released tag (or a commit SHA); a moving @v1 major tag will follow the 1.0 release.

See docs/fragment-updates.md for the full guide: lockfile format, exit-code tables, provenance headers, and a ready-to-paste consuming workflow.

Author

Maintained by Hasan Sezer Taşan.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.