jinja-cli

What it is and what it does

jinja-cli is a thin command-line wrapper around Jinja2 that lets you render templates without writing Python code. You provide a template file (or stdin), data in one of several formats (JSON, YAML, XML, INI), and the tool outputs the rendered result to stdout or a file. Data can come from a file, environment variables, command-line key-value pairs, or regex-matched environment variables, with clear precedence rules for how sources are merged.

It's useful for scripting, build pipelines, and configuration generation where you want template rendering without a full application framework. The tool is small and straightforward—it depends on Jinja2, PyYAML, xmltodict, and argparse-ext. It has not been actively maintained since late 2021, though the codebase is stable and has no known security issues.

Use it for:

• Generate configuration files from templates and environment variables in CI/CD pipelines
• Render HTML or text templates with data from JSON or YAML files in shell scripts
• Populate template-based code generators or scaffolding tools from command-line arguments
• Transform XML or INI data into formatted output using Jinja2 syntax
• Build static site generators or documentation tools that need template rendering without a framework

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

A command-line tool that renders Jinja2 templates with data from files, environment variables, or command-line arguments, supporting JSON, YAML, XML, and INI formats.

Yes, if you need lightweight command-line template rendering and don't mind a dormant project. The package is stable, has low install friction, no vulnerabilities, and a small dependency footprint. GPLv3 licensing is a consideration if you're building proprietary tools. The lack of recent maintenance is not a blocker for simple use cases, but don't expect bug fixes or new features.

Install

jinja-cli on PyPI

pip install jinja-cli

uv add jinja-cli

poetry add jinja-cli

Installing jinja-cli

Before you install

Low install friction with a pure Python wheel. The package is dormant (last release 2021-12-25, last commit 2023-11-13) but has no known vulnerabilities and depends on stable, widely-used libraries.

License in practice

Licensed under GPLv3 (copyleft). Any derivative work or distribution must also be GPLv3; using this as a library in proprietary code requires careful review of your license obligations.

Quickstart

pip install jinja-cli

# Render template with JSON data file
jinja -d data.json template.j2

# Or pass data via command line
jinja -D key value template.j2

Verify before relying

• Whether the package works reliably with Python versions beyond those listed in classifiers (3.6–3.10)
• Performance characteristics when rendering large templates or processing large data files
• Whether argparse-ext introduces any undocumented dependencies or compatibility issues

Package facts

Evidence: jinja_cli-1.2.2-py3-none-any.whl

Keywords: jinja, engine, interface, template

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