🧱 Structure of a Brick

🚀 Overview

If we take a closer look at the example brick we just generated, it should look like:

├── CHANGELOG.md
├── LICENSE
├── README.md
├── __brick__
└── brick.yaml

The CHANGELOG, LICENSE, and README are all standard files found across many projects so we won't focus on them. The two important entities are the __brick__ directory and the brick.yaml file.

brick.yaml

The brick.yaml file is a manifest which contains metadata for the current brick. The newly generated brick.yaml should look something like:

name: example
description: A new brick created with the Mason CLI.

# The following defines the brick repository url.
# Uncomment and update the following line before publishing the brick.
# repository: https://github.com/my_org/my_repo

# The following defines the version and build number for your brick.
# A version number is three numbers separated by dots, like 1.2.34
# followed by an optional build number (separated by a +).
version: 0.1.0+1

# The following defines the environment for the current brick.
# It includes the version of mason that the brick requires.
environment:
  mason: ^0.1.0

# Variables specify dynamic values that your brick depends on.
# Zero or more variables can be specified for a given brick.
# Each variable has:
#  * a type (string, number, boolean, enum, or array)
#  * an optional short description
#  * an optional default value
#  * an optional list of default values (array only)
#  * an optional prompt phrase used when asking for the variable
#  * a list of values (enums only)
vars:
  name:
    type: string
    description: Your name
    default: Dash
    prompt: What is your name?

Variable Types

Variables defined in your brick.yaml can be one of the following types:

Type	Description	Example
string	A primitive string	"Dash" (sample)
number	A primitive number	42 (sample)
boolean	A primitive boolean	true/false (sample)
enum	An enumeration (single choice)	["red", "green", "blue"] -> "red" (sample)
array	An array of strings (multiple choices)	["red", "green", "blue"] -> ["red", "blue"] (sample)
list	A dynamic list of strings (open ended)	["c++", "dart", "python"] (sample)

__brick__

The __brick__ directory contains the template for your brick. Any files, directories within the __brick__ will be generated when the brick is used via mason make.

In the example brick, our __brick__ directory contains a single file called HELLO.md with the following content:

# Hello {{name}}!

note

Templates currently support mustache but support for additional templating specifications is on the roadmap.

tip

Refer to the mustache specification for more information about mustache and its capabilities.