Nautobot ChatOps Cookiecutter

One of the biggest challenges when working on any project occurs right at the beginning—from getting the base framework to work all the way to the CI process once the main code is written. It can be daunting to have this on top of writing the actual code that is accomplishing the intended goal. Cookiecutter is a well-known project that can get you past this initial conundrum of “where should I begin?” It effectively creates a templated code repository that adheres to standards and best practices. This gives you a repeatable experience each time you start a new project.

Today we introduce the first NTC publicly available Cookiecutter project to help with the structure and framework for Nautobot ChatOps capabilities. Cookiecutter templates can help you get started writing code much faster, and the Nautobot ChatOps Cookiecutter project is a great example.

Nautobot Plugin ChatOps Cookiecutter

What is the value of this project? It is meant to get you started on your way of creating Nautobot ChatOps commands quickly. When running through the Cookiecutter template, there are a few questions that will help dynamically create content within the final “baked cookie” project. This will create a new repository that will be the new chatbot that you can then install into your Nautobot instance. For more on building your own chatbot, take a look at the blog post on Creating Custom Chat Commands.

What Is a Cookiecutter?

So, what is this Cookiecutter? It is a Python method of creating new projects/files from a templated base. Cookiecutter is an open-source command line tool to create projects from a project template. You can learn more on the Cookiecutter GitHub and ReadTheDocs.