---
id: jinja-cli
version: "1.2.2"
license: unclear
license_treatment: copyleft
maintenance: dormant
---

# jinja-cli — a command line interface to jinja;

License: copyleft · Maintenance: dormant · Downloads: 195.8K/mo

## 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 above — 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

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

- License: not declared (copyleft)
- Python support: unspecified
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: dormant
- Downloads: 195.8K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

jinja template rendering cli, command line template engine, jinja2 command line tool, template rendering from json yaml, cli jinja data binding, template-rendering, cli-tool, jinja2

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/jinja-cli) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/jinja-cli/)