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Using GitHub Copilot To Migrate Cookiecutter from Python to Node.js
It’s the weekendand while my wife is busy playing on the Switch 2, taking turns with me on Pokopia, I decided to finally try something I have been thinking about for a while: migrating Cookiecutter, a project templating tool with more than 215 million downloads, from Python to TypeScript.
The idea came from a gap I had noticed in the ecosystem. There is a wrapper called Cruft that builds on top of Cookiecutter, but it appears to have be no longer in development. Rather than building yet another wrapper and inheriting the limitations of Cookiecutter itself, I decided to explore a different approach: creating a single tool that supports the functionality I need from the ground up.
To make the experiment even more interesting, I decided to use GitHub Copilot to help with the migration and document the process as I went.
Naming the project
The first step was coming up with a name for the new tool. Since this project is effectively a Node.js and TypeScript take on Cookiecutter, I wanted the name to feel like a clear nod to the original without being identical to it.
That led me to biscuitcutter. It keeps the tongue-in-cheek connection to Cookiecutter, with the added benefit that it makes a reference to my own Britishness.
