Install gomplate with Homebrew, apk, MacPorts, Nix, scoop

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository

Commands and aliases

• gomplate

Project history

The public GitHub repository was created in January 2016 by Dave Henderson. The README describes gomplate as a template renderer with datasources such as JSON, encrypted JSON, YAML, AWS EC2 metadata, HashiCorp Consul, and HashiCorp Vault secrets, while the documentation frames datasources as central to rendering templates from external data.

gomplate grew beyond simple environment substitution into a broad template-processing utility. The official docs cover command-line rendering from stdin, files, inline templates, directories, output maps, plugins, datasource headers, context data, and a large function library layered on top of Go's text/template syntax.

The changelog shows continued expansion through the 5.x series, including datasource work, crypto and environment functions, and JSON Schema support for .gomplate.yaml configuration in the 5.1.0 release notes dated April 2026.

Adoption history

The README advertises GitHub release downloads, installation documentation, Docker Hub images, Chocolatey packaging, GitHub Discussions, and a Gophers Slack channel. The batch package metadata also records packaging in Homebrew, Alpine, MacPorts, Nix, and Scoop, showing the tool's cross-platform packaging footprint.

gomplate's adoption tracks the rise of configuration-as-code workflows: it is small enough to run in a container entrypoint, CI job, or shell pipeline, while being featureful enough to replace piles of sed, envsubst, jq, and custom scripts when templates need structured data.

How it is used

At its simplest, gomplate reads a template from stdin and writes rendered output to stdout. The docs and README show examples using environment variables, inline expressions, file datasources, stdin datasources, HTTP datasources, and multiple named datasources.

For larger workflows, users define inputs, outputs, datasources, contexts, templates, and plugins with command-line flags or .gomplate.yaml. The default config filename is .gomplate.yaml, and the GOMPLATE_CONFIG environment variable or --config flag can point elsewhere or disable config loading.

The datasource system is the distinguishing feature: gomplate can fetch structured data from files, env, HTTP, Git, S3, Google Cloud Storage, AWS Parameter Store and Secrets Manager, Consul, Vault, merge datasources, and more, then feed that data into Go templates.

Why package nerds care

Package nerds care about gomplate because it packages an entire configuration-rendering pattern as a single CLI. It is more capable than envsubst but lighter to deploy than a full configuration-management framework, so it fits Docker images, CI pipelines, and Unix package collections well.

It also demonstrates a common Go CLI success pattern: one binary, extensive cross-platform release assets, docs-first distribution, Docker images, and package-manager entries across macOS, Linux, and Windows ecosystems.

Timeline

• 2016: GitHub repository created.
• 2016: README copyright period begins and early v0 tags appear in Git tag history.
• 2026-04: Changelog entry for v5.1.0 documents new functions, datasource work, and JSON Schema support for .gomplate.yaml.
• 2026: Official docs describe .gomplate.yaml configuration, command-line rendering, datasources, and function namespaces.

Related projects

• Go's text/template package supplies the template language underneath gomplate.
• envsubst, Helm templates, consul-template, and ytt sit near gomplate in the configuration-rendering landscape, though each makes different tradeoffs around data sources, Kubernetes focus, and runtime model.
• HashiCorp Consul and Vault, AWS services, Git, HTTP, environment variables, and local files are important datasource ecosystems for gomplate users.

Sources

• https://api.github.com/repos/hairyhenderson/gomplate
• https://docs.gomplate.ca/
• https://docs.gomplate.ca/datasources/
• https://docs.gomplate.ca/functions/
• https://docs.gomplate.ca/usage/
• https://github.com/hairyhenderson/gomplate
• https://hub.docker.com/r/hairyhenderson/gomplate
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hairyhenderson/gomplate/main/CHANGELOG.md
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hairyhenderson/gomplate/main/README.md