Core Concepts

Before diving into creating your own templates and bundles, it's important to understand the core concepts that make Conjure powerful and flexible.

Conjure is a template-driven configuration generator that helps you create consistent, reusable infrastructure and application configurations. At its core, Conjure works with three main concepts:

1. Templates - Individual file generators
2. Bundles - Collections of related templates
3. Variables - Dynamic values that customize your outputs

A template is a single file generator that produces one output file. Think of it as a blueprint for a specific configuration file.

Use templates when you need to:

• Generate a single configuration file
• Create standalone artifacts
• Have fine-grained control over individual files
• Reuse the same pattern across different projects

Example template:

templates/
└── k8s-deployment/
    └── 1.0.0/
        ├── conjure.json       # Metadata file
        └── template.tmpl      # Template file

Generates: One Kubernetes Deployment manifest

A bundle is a collection of related templates that work together as a cohesive unit. Bundles generate multiple files at once with shared context.

Use bundles when you need to:

• Generate multiple related configuration files
• Maintain consistency across related files
• Deploy complete solutions (app + database + networking)
• Share variables across multiple templates

Example bundle:

bundles/
└── web-app/
    └── 1.0.0/
        ├── conjure.json              # Bundle metadata
        ├── deployment.yaml.tmpl      # Deployment template
        ├── service.yaml.tmpl         # Service template
        └── ingress.yaml.tmpl         # Ingress template

Generates: Complete Kubernetes application stack (3 files)

Feature	Template	Bundle
Output	Single file	Multiple files
Variables	Template-specific	Shared + template-specific
Use case	Individual configs	Complete solutions
Complexity	Simple	Moderate to complex
Reusability	High	Medium
Command	conjure template	conjure bundle

# Generate a single Kubernetes deployment
conjure template k8s-deployment -o deployment.yaml

# Generate a Terraform variable file
conjure template terraform-variables -o variables.tf

# Generate a Docker Compose file
conjure template docker-compose -o docker-compose.yaml

Scenarios:

• You need just one configuration file
• You're customizing a single component
• You want maximum flexibility
• You're building a library of reusable pieces

# Generate complete web app infrastructure
conjure bundle web-app -o ./output

# Generate microservices stack
conjure bundle k8s-microservice -o ./k8s

Scenarios:

• You're deploying a complete application
• Multiple files need to share the same configuration
• You want to ensure consistency across related files
• You're standardizing deployments across teams

Now that you understand the core concepts: