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Building Templates

The problem​

You have a document that works well — an invoice, a contract, a report — and you want to reuse it with different data each time.

The solution​

Take any .it file, replace the specific values with {{variables}}, and it becomes a template.

Before: a document​

title: Invoice #2026-0042
summary: Cloud migration services for GlobalTech Industries

section: Parties
contact: Acme Corp | role: Provider | email: billing@acme.co
contact: GlobalTech Industries | role: Client | email: accounts@globaltech.co

section: Line Items
| Description | Qty | Price | Total |
| Cloud setup | 1 | $15,000 | $15,000 |
| Data migration | 1 | $8,000 | $8,000 |

section: Payment
metric: Total Due | value: 23000 | unit: USD
deadline: Payment due | due: 2026-04-15

After: a template​

title: Invoice #{{invoice_number}}
summary: {{description}} for {{client_name}}
meta: | type: template | domain: finance

section: Parties
contact: {{provider_name}} | role: Provider | email: {{provider_email}}
contact: {{client_name}} | role: Client | email: {{client_email}}

section: Line Items
| Description | Qty | Price | Total | each: items |
| {{item.description}} | {{item.qty}} | {{item.price}} | {{item.total}} |

section: Payment
metric: Total Due | value: {{total}} | unit: {{currency}}
deadline: Payment due | due: {{payment_due}}

The data​

{
  "invoice_number": "2026-0043",
  "description": "Security audit services",
  "client_name": "NextGen Corp",
  "client_email": "ap@nextgen.co",
  "provider_name": "Acme Corp",
  "provider_email": "billing@acme.co",
  "items": [
    {
      "description": "Penetration testing",
      "qty": "1",
      "price": "$12,000",
      "total": "$12,000"
    },
    {
      "description": "Vulnerability report",
      "qty": "1",
      "price": "$3,000",
      "total": "$3,000"
    }
  ],
  "total": "15000",
  "currency": "USD",
  "payment_due": "2026-05-01"
}

Step by step​

  1. Start with a working document — make sure it renders correctly before converting
  2. Identify the variable parts — client names, dates, amounts, line items
  3. Replace with {{variables}} — use descriptive names: {{client_name}} not {{cn}}
  4. Add each: to tables — for repeating rows, add each: arrayName as the last column header
  5. Add meta: | type: template — marks it as a template in queries
  6. Test with data — merge and check the output

Merge​

CLI​

# Parse merged document (JSON output)
intenttext template.it --data data.json

# Render to HTML
intenttext template.it --data data.json --html --theme corporate

# Render to PDF
intenttext template.it --data data.json --pdf --theme corporate

JavaScript​

import { parseAndMerge, render } from "intenttext";

const doc = parseAndMerge(templateSource, data);
const html = render(doc, { theme: "corporate" });

What happens to missing variables​

If a variable has no matching data, the {{variable}} text stays visible in the output and the block gets an unresolved: 1 property. No crash, no silent removal.

# Find blocks with missing data
intenttext template.it --data partial-data.json --query "unresolved=1"

Publish to the Hub​

# Upload to the IntentText Hub
intenttext hub publish invoice-template.it --domain finance

The template becomes available for anyone to browse, fork, and use.

Next steps​