scitex-template 0.6.6

Project template cloner + code snippet library for the SciTeX ecosystem — six templates vendored, shallow-cloned on demand to ~/.scitex/template/cache/

scitex-template

uv pip install scitex-template[all] · pip install scitex[template]

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Problem and Solution

#	Problem	Solution
1	Six template repos evolving independently — minimal scitex-* package, research project, cloud-module plugin, pip project, LaTeX manuscript, singularity container	One vendored monorepo + cloner — pip install scitex-template ships every clone_* function, plus a code-snippet library for scitex idioms (session decorator, io save/load, plt subplots)
2	Cloner code buried in scitex-python — release cadence didn't match the templates'	Standalone cloner — independent versioning, lazy umbrella imports, MCP server that exposes the same ops to agents

Installation

pip install scitex-template              # core (lazy imports for scitex.git / scitex.logging / scitex.scholar)
pip install scitex-template[mcp]         # MCP server deps (fastmcp)
pip install scitex-template[dev]         # pytest + coverage

The umbrella route also works — pip install scitex[template] pulls this package transitively.

Demo

# Clone any of the 6 vendored templates into a fresh dir
scitex-template clone scitex-pkg my-new-pkg     # minimal scitex-* package
scitex-template clone research-project paper-2026
scitex-template clone latex-manuscript thesis
scitex-template clone singularity-container apptainer-rig

# List available templates + code snippets
scitex-template list-templates
scitex-template list-snippets

graph LR
    Vendored["scitex_template/templates/<br/>(6 vendored template repos)"] --> Cloner["scitex-template clone"]
    Snippets["scitex_template/snippets/<br/>(session, io, plt, ...)"] --> CLI["scitex-template list/get"]
    Cloner --> Out1["fresh project dir"]
    CLI --> Out2["copy-paste idioms"]

Architecture

scitex_template/
├── templates/                ← 6 vendored template repos (kept in sync)
│   ├── scitex-pkg/           ← minimal scitex-* package skeleton
│   ├── research-project/     ← @stx.session-driven analysis layout
│   ├── cloud-module-plugin/  ← scitex-cloud plugin scaffold
│   ├── pip-project/          ← bare-bones PyPI package
│   ├── latex-manuscript/     ← scitex-writer-compatible paper
│   └── singularity/          ← apptainer container recipe
├── snippets/                 ← copy-paste idioms (session, io, plt, ...)
├── _cli/                     ← `scitex-template clone` / list / get
└── _mcp/                     ← MCP server exposing the same ops to agents

Each template ships as plain files; cloning is a recursive copy with optional {name} substitution, no Cookiecutter-style runtime templating engine. The MCP server re-exports the CLI surface 1:1.

Quick Start

pip install scitex-template
scitex-template list-templates
scitex-template clone research ./my-experiment

from scitex_template import clone_research, get_code_template

clone_research(target="my-experiment", project_name="my-experiment")
print(get_code_template("session"))

3 Interfaces

Python API

import scitex  # noqa: F401 — ensures scitex.git / .logging are importable

from scitex_template import (
    clone_research,
    clone_pip_project,
    clone_scitex_minimal,
    get_available_templates_info,
    get_code_template,
)

# Clone a research project template
clone_research(target="my-experiment", project_name="my-experiment")

# Discover available templates
for info in get_available_templates_info():
    print(f"{info['id']:>10}  {info['description']}")

# Pull a code snippet for a scitex session script
print(get_code_template("session"))

The legacy import path from scitex.template import … also still works via a compatibility shim in scitex-python.

CLI

Entry point: scitex-template (also python -m scitex_template).

scitex-template list-templates             # enumerate templates
scitex-template show-info research         # template metadata
scitex-template clone research ./my-proj   # populate from cache
scitex-template refresh-cache              # force re-clone

MCP Server — for AI Agents

Install with pip install scitex-template[mcp] and the package exposes async handlers (template_list, template_info, template_clone, template_cache_refresh) over MCP — agents can scaffold projects without running Python themselves.

Template repos

scitex-template clones from these external repositories:

Template id	Repo
research	scitex-research-template
app / pip	pip-project-template
cloud-module	scitex-template-cloud-module
minimal	scitex-minimal-template
singularity	singularity_template
paper	paper-template

A future revision may vendor these as templates/<id>/ subdirs in this repo so the cloner and the templates ship in lockstep.

Dependency notes

Per the SciTeX downstream dependency rule (general/01_arch_02), this package aims to avoid a hard runtime dep on the scitex umbrella. At present three submodules are still imported lazily inside clone_* functions: scitex.git, scitex.logging, scitex.scholar.ensure_workspace. Once scitex-git is extracted as a standalone, those imports will move to the standalone equivalents (scitex_git, scitex_logging, scitex_scholar). Users running pip install scitex[template] pick up the umbrella transitively, so there is no current breakage.

License

AGPL-3.0-only.

Part of SciTeX

scitex-template is part of SciTeX. Install via the umbrella with pip install scitex[template] to use as scitex.template (Python) or scitex template ... (CLI).

Four Freedoms for Research

0. The freedom to run your research anywhere — your machine, your terms.
1. The freedom to study how every step works — from raw data to final manuscript.
2. The freedom to redistribute your workflows, not just your papers.
3. The freedom to modify any module and share improvements with the community.

AGPL-3.0 — because we believe research infrastructure deserves the same freedoms as the software it runs on.

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