stx

A Blade-like template engine plugin for Bun, enabling simple and powerful templating with .stx files.

Features

🦋 Laravel Blade-like syntax
🚀 Fast and lightweight
📦 Zero config

Installation

bun add bun-plugin-stx

Setup

Add the plugin to your bunfig.toml:

preload = [ "bun-plugin-stx" ]

# or as a serve plugin
[serve.static]
plugins = [ "bun-plugin-stx" ]

Or register the plugin in your build script:

import { build } from "bun";
import stxPlugin from "bun-plugin-stx";

await build({
  entrypoints: ["./src/index.ts", "./templates/home.stx"],
  outdir: "./dist",
  plugins: [stxPlugin],
});

Usage with ESM

1. Configure Bun to use the plugin

In your build script or Bun configuration:

// build.js
import { build } from "bun";
import stxPlugin from "bun-plugin-stx";

await build({
  entrypoints: ["./src/index.ts", "./templates/home.stx"],
  outdir: "./dist",
  plugins: [stxPlugin],
});

2. Import and use .stx files directly

You can import .stx files directly in your ESM code:

// app.js
import homeTemplate from "./templates/home.stx";

// Use the processed HTML content
document.body.innerHTML = homeTemplate;

3. Use with Bun's server

You can serve .stx files directly with Bun's server:

// server.js
import { serve } from "bun";
import homeTemplate from "./home.stx";

serve({
  port: 3000,
  fetch(req) {
    return new Response(homeTemplate, {
      headers: { "Content-Type": "text/html" },
    });
  },
});

Or use as route handlers:

import about from "./about.stx";
// server.js
import home from "./home.stx";

export default {
  port: 3000,
  routes: {
    "/": home,
    "/about": about,
  },
};

stx Template Syntax

stx templates use a syntax inspired by Laravel Blade. Templates can contain HTML with special directives for rendering dynamic content.

Basic Example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>stx Example</title>
    <script>
      // Define your data as an ESM export
      export const title = "Hello World";
      export const items = ["Apple", "Banana", "Cherry"];
      export const showFooter = true;
    </script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>{{ title }}</h1>

    <ul>
      @foreach (items as item)
      <li>{{ item }}</li>
      @endforeach
    </ul>

    @if (showFooter)
    <footer>Copyright 2023</footer>
    @endif
  </body>
</html>

Data Export Options

There are two ways to expose data in your stx templates:

1. ESM exports (recommended)

<script>
  // Modern ESM named exports
  export const title = "Hello World";
  export const count = 42;

  // Export functions
  export function getFullName(first, last) {
    return `${first} ${last}`;
  }

  // Export default object
  export default {
    items: ["Apple", "Banana", "Cherry"],
    showDetails: true,
  };
</script>

2. Legacy CommonJS (module.exports)

<script>
  // Legacy CommonJS exports
  module.exports = {
    title: "Hello World",
    items: ["Apple", "Banana", "Cherry"],
    showFooter: true,
  };
</script>

Template Directives

Custom Directives

stx supports defining your own custom directives for template processing:

import type { CustomDirective } from "bun-plugin-stx";
// Configure custom directives
import stxPlugin from "bun-plugin-stx";

// Create custom directives
const uppercaseDirective: CustomDirective = {
  name: "uppercase",
  handler: (content, params) => {
    return params[0] ? params[0].toUpperCase() : content.toUpperCase();
  },
  // No hasEndTag needed for single-parameter directives
};

const wrapDirective: CustomDirective = {
  name: "wrap",
  handler: (content, params) => {
    const className = params[0] || "default-wrapper";
    return `<div class="${className}">${content}</div>`;
  },
  hasEndTag: true, // This directive requires an end tag (@wrap...@endwrap)
};

// Register custom directives
await build({
  entrypoints: ["./src/index.ts", "./templates/home.stx"],
  outdir: "./dist",
  plugins: [stxPlugin],
  stx: {
    customDirectives: [uppercaseDirective, wrapDirective],
  },
});

Then use them in your templates:

<!-- Single-parameter directive -->
<p>@uppercase('hello world')</p>

<!-- Block directive with content and optional parameter -->
@wrap(highlight)
<p>This content will be wrapped in a div with class "highlight"</p>
@endwrap

Custom directives have access to:

content: The content between start and end tags (for block directives)
params: Array of parameters passed to the directive
context: The template data context (all variables)
filePath: The current template file path

Variables

Display content with double curly braces:

<h1>{{ title }}</h1>
<p>{{ user.name }}</p>

Conditionals

Use @if, @elseif, and @else for conditional rendering:

@if (user.isAdmin)
<div class="admin-panel">Admin content</div>
@elseif (user.isEditor)
<div class="editor-tools">Editor tools</div>
@else
<div class="user-view">Regular user view</div>
@endif

Loops

Iterate over arrays with @foreach:

<ul>
  @foreach (items as item)
  <li>{{ item }}</li>
  @endforeach
</ul>

Use @for for numeric loops:

<ol>
  @for (let i = 1; i <= 5; i++)
  <li>Item {{ i }}</li>
  @endfor
</ol>

Raw HTML

Output unescaped HTML content:

{!! rawHtmlContent !!}

Server-Side JavaScript and TypeScript

stx allows you to execute JavaScript or TypeScript code directly on the server during template processing. This code runs only on the server and is removed from the final HTML output.

JavaScript (@js)

Use @js to execute JavaScript code on the server:

<script>
  module.exports = {
    initialValue: 5,
  };
</script>

<p>Before: {{ result }}</p>

@js // This code runs on the server and is not included in the output HTML
global.result = initialValue * 10; // You can access Node.js APIs here if
(typeof process !== 'undefined') { global.nodeVersion = process.version; }
@endjs

<p>After: {{ result }}</p>
<p>Node.js Version: {{ nodeVersion }}</p>

TypeScript (@ts)

Use @ts to execute TypeScript code on the server:

<script>
  module.exports = {
    users: [
      { id: 1, name: "Alice" },
      { id: 2, name: "Bob" },
    ],
  };
</script>

<h1>User List</h1>

@ts // Define TypeScript interfaces interface User { id: number; name: string;
displayName?: string; } // Process data with TypeScript function
processUsers(users: User[]): User[] { return users.map(user => ({ ...user,
displayName: `User ${user.id}: ${user.name}` })); } // Store the processed data
in the context global.processedUsers = processUsers(users); @endts

<ul>
  @foreach (processedUsers as user)
  <li>{{ user.displayName }}</li>
  @endforeach
</ul>

Markdown Support

stx supports rendering Markdown content directly in your templates using the @markdown directive:

<div class="content">
  @markdown # Heading 1 This is a paragraph with **bold text** and *italic
  text*. - List item 1 - List item 2 - List item 3 ```js // Code block function
  hello() { console.log('Hello world'); }
</div>

@endmarkdown

```

You can also pass options to the markdown renderer:

<!-- Enable line breaks (converts single line breaks to <br>) -->
@markdown(breaks) Line 1 Line 2 @endmarkdown

<!-- Disable GitHub Flavored Markdown -->
@markdown(no-gfm) Content here @endmarkdown

Internationalization (i18n)

stx supports internationalization to help you build multilingual applications. Translation files are stored in YAML format (JSON also supported) and support nested keys and parameter replacements.

Configuration

Configure i18n in your build script:

import stxPlugin from "bun-plugin-stx";

await build({
  entrypoints: ["./templates/home.stx"],
  outdir: "./dist",
  plugins: [stxPlugin],
  stx: {
    i18n: {
      locale: "en", // Current locale
      defaultLocale: "en", // Fallback locale
      translationsDir: "translations", // Directory containing translations
      format: "yaml", // Format of translation files (yaml, yml, json, or js)
      fallbackToKey: true, // Use key as fallback when translation not found
      cache: true, // Cache translations in memory
    },
  },
});

Translation Files

Create translation files in your translationsDir:

# translations/en.yaml
welcome: Welcome to `stx`
greeting: Hello, :name!
nav:
  home: Home
  about: About
  contact: Contact

# translations/de.yaml
welcome: Willkommen bei `stx`
greeting: Hallo, :name!
nav:
  home: Startseite
  about: Über uns
  contact: Kontakt

Using Translations

stx provides multiple ways to use translations in your templates:

@translate Directive

<!-- Basic translation -->
<p>@translate('welcome')</p>

<!-- With parameters -->
<p>@translate('greeting', { "name": "John" })</p>

<!-- Nested keys -->
<p>@translate('nav.home')</p>

<!-- With fallback content -->
<p>@translate('missing.key')Fallback Content@endtranslate</p>

Filter Syntax

<!-- Basic translation as filter -->
<p>{{ 'welcome' | translate }}</p>

<!-- With parameters -->
<p>{{ 'greeting' | translate({ "name": "Alice" }) }}</p>

<!-- Short alias -->
<p>{{ 'nav.home' | t }}</p>

Parameters in translations use the :param syntax, similar to Laravel:

greeting: Hello, :name!
items: You have :count items in your cart.

Then in your template:

<p>@translate('greeting', { "name": "John" })</p>
<p>@translate('items', { "count": 5 })</p>

Web Components Integration

stx now provides seamless integration with Web Components, allowing you to automatically build and use custom elements from your stx components.

Configuration

Enable web component integration in your build configuration:

import { build } from "bun";
import stxPlugin from "bun-plugin-stx";

await build({
  entrypoints: ["./templates/home.stx"],
  outdir: "./dist",
  plugins: [stxPlugin],
  config: {
    stx: {
      webComponents: {
        enabled: true,
        outputDir: "dist/web-components",
        components: [
          {
            name: "MyButton", // Class name for the component
            tag: "my-button", // HTML tag name (must contain a hyphen)
            file: "components/button.stx", // Path to the stx component
            attributes: ["type", "text", "disabled"], // Observed attributes
          },
          {
            name: "MyCard",
            tag: "my-card",
            file: "components/card.stx",
            shadowDOM: true, // Use Shadow DOM (default: true)
            template: true, // Use template element (default: true)
            styleSource: "styles/card.css", // Optional external stylesheet
            attributes: ["title", "footer"],
          },
        ],
      },
    },
  },
});

Using Web Components in Templates

Include web components in your templates with the @webcomponent directive:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Web Component Demo</title>

    <!-- Include the web components -->
    @webcomponent('my-button') @webcomponent('my-card')
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Web Components Demo</h1>

    <!-- Use the custom elements -->
    <my-button type="primary" text="Click Me"></my-button>

    <my-card title="Card Title" footer="Card Footer">
      This is the card content
    </my-card>
  </body>
</html>

Source `stx` Components

The original stx components can be simple:

<!-- components/button.stx -->
<button class="btn {{ type ? 'btn-' + type : '' }}" {{ disabled ? 'disabled' : '' }}>
  {{ text || slot }}
</button>

<!-- components/card.stx -->
<div class="card">
  <div class="card-header">{{ title }}</div>
  <div class="card-body">
    {{ slot }}
  </div>
  <div class="card-footer">{{ footer }}</div>
</div>

Advanced Options

Web components support several configuration options:

shadowDOM: Enable/disable Shadow DOM (default: true)
template: Use template element for better performance (default: true)
extends: Extend a specific HTML element class
styleSource: Path to external stylesheet
attributes: List of attributes to observe for changes

TypeScript Support

stx includes TypeScript declarations for importing .stx files. Make sure your tsconfig.json includes the necessary configuration:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    // ... your other options
    "types": ["bun"],
  },
  "files": ["src/stx.d.ts"],
  "include": ["**/*.ts", "**/*.d.ts", "*.stx", "./**/*.stx"],
}

Create a declaration file (src/stx.d.ts):

// Allow importing .stx files
declare module "*.stx";

Example Server

Run a development server with your stx templates:

// serve.ts
import home from "./home.stx";

const server = Bun.serve({
  routes: {
    "/": home,
  },
  development: true,

  fetch(req) {
    return new Response("Not Found", { status: 404 });
  },
});

console.log(`Listening on ${server.url}`);

Testing This Plugin

To test the plugin with the included examples:

Build the test file:

bun run test-build.ts

Run the test server:

bun run serve-test.ts

Open your browser to the displayed URL (typically http://localhost:3000).

How It Works

The plugin works by:

Extracting script tags from .stx files
Creating an execution context with variables from the script
Processing Blade-like directives (@if, @foreach, etc.) into HTML
Processing variable tags ({{ var }}) with their values
Returning the processed HTML content

Documentation Generation

stx can automatically generate documentation for your components, templates, and directives. This helps developers understand your UI components and how to use them.

Command Line

Generate documentation using the CLI:

# Generate markdown documentation (default)
stx docs

# Generate HTML documentation
stx docs --format html

# Generate JSON documentation
stx docs --format json

# Specify output directory
stx docs --output my-docs

# Only generate specific sections
stx docs --no-components
stx docs --no-templates
stx docs --no-directives

# Specify custom directories
stx docs --components-dir src/components --templates-dir src/views

Configuration

You can configure documentation generation in your stx.config.ts file:

export default {
  // ...other config options
  docs: {
    enabled: true,
    outputDir: "docs",
    format: "markdown", // 'markdown', 'html', or 'json'
    components: true,
    templates: true,
    directives: true,
    extraContent:
      "## Getting Started\n\nThis is additional content to include in the documentation.",
  },
};

Component Documentation

stx can extract component metadata from JSDoc comments in your component files:

<!--
  Alert component for displaying messages to the user.
  This component supports different types (success, warning, error).
-->
<div class="alert alert-{{ type }}">
  <div class="alert-title">{{ title }}</div>
  <div class="alert-body">{{ message }}</div>
</div>

<script>
  /**
   * The type of alert to display
   * @type {string}
   * @default "info"
   */
  const type = module.exports.type || "info";

  /**
   * The alert title
   * @type {string}
   * @required
   */
  const title = module.exports.title;

  /**
   * The alert message
   * @type {string}
   */
  const message = module.exports.message || "";

  // Prepare the component's context
  module.exports = {
    type,
    title,
    message,
  };
</script>

This component will be documented with all its properties, types, default values, and requirements.

Web Component Documentation

stx will automatically document web components defined in your configuration:

export default {
  // ... other config
  webComponents: {
    enabled: true,
    outputDir: "dist/web-components",
    components: [
      {
        name: "MyButton",
        tag: "my-button",
        file: "components/button.stx",
        attributes: ["type", "text", "disabled"],
        description: "A customizable button component",
      },
    ],
  },
};

The documentation will include:

Component name and description
Custom element tag
Observed attributes
Usage examples

This makes it easy for developers to understand how to use your web components in their HTML.

Other Familiar Features

stx includes several convenient features inspired by Laravel's Blade templating engine:

View Composers

Register callbacks to be executed when specific views are rendered:

import { composer, composerPattern } from "stx";

// Register for specific view
composer("dashboard", (context) => {
  context.menuItems = ["Home", "Settings", "Profile"];
});

// Register for any view matching a pattern
composerPattern(/user/, (context) => {
  context.section = "User Management";
});

CSRF Protection

Built-in CSRF token generation and verification:

<form method="POST" action="/submit">
  @csrf
  <!-- Creates a hidden input with the CSRF token -->

  <!-- Custom field name -->
  @csrf("my_token")
</form>

Form Method Spoofing

Support for RESTful routes with HTML forms:

<form method="POST" action="/users/1">
  @method('PUT')
  <!-- Creates a hidden input for PUT method -->

  <!-- Custom field name -->
  @method('DELETE', 'http_method')
</form>

Named Routes

Generate URLs based on named routes:

import { defineRoute, route } from 'stx';

// Define routes
defineRoute('users.profile', '/users/:id/profile');
defineRoute('dashboard', '/dashboard');

// In templates
<a href="@route('users.profile', {id: 1})">User Profile</a>
<a href="@route('dashboard')">Dashboard</a>

// Generate URLs in server code
const url = route('users.profile', {id: 1}); // => '/users/1/profile'

Environment-Specific Directives

Conditionally render content based on environment:

@production
<script src="/js/analytics.min.js"></script>
@else
<!-- Development tools -->
<script src="/js/debug.js"></script>
@endproduction @development
<div class="dev-banner">Development Mode</div>
@enddevelopment @env('staging')
<div class="staging-notice">Staging Environment</div>
@endenv

Icon Components

stx includes a powerful icon component system powered by Iconify, giving you access to over 200,000 icons from 150+ icon sets as ready-to-use components.

Available Icon Collections

All icons are available as PascalCase components. For example, the Material Symbols collection includes icons like:

<DraftsIcon size="24" />
<HomeIcon size="24" />
<SettingsIcon size="24" />
<SearchIcon size="24" />

Browse all available collections:

Material Symbols (2,500+ icons)
Heroicons (300+ icons)
Lucide (1,000+ icons)
And 150+ more...

Usage

Icon components work seamlessly in your .stx templates:

<!-- Basic usage -->
<HomeIcon />

<!-- With size -->
<HomeIcon size="24" />
<HomeIcon height="1em" />

<!-- With color -->
<HomeIcon size="24" color="red" />
<HomeIcon size="24" color="#4a90e2" />

<!-- With transformations -->
<ArrowRightIcon hFlip="true" />
<ArrowDownIcon rotate="1" />  <!-- 90° rotation -->

<!-- With CSS classes -->
<SettingsIcon size="20" className="nav-icon" />

<!-- Inline in text -->
<p>Welcome <WavingHandIcon height="1em" /> to our app!</p>

Component Props

All icon components support these props:

Prop	Type	Default	Description
`size`	`string \| number`	`24`	Sets both width and height
`width`	`string \| number`	-	Icon width
`height`	`string \| number`	-	Icon height
`color`	`string`	`currentColor`	Icon color (hex, rgb, or CSS color name)
`hFlip`	`boolean`	`false`	Flip horizontally
`vFlip`	`boolean`	`false`	Flip vertically
`rotate`	`0 \| 1 \| 2 \| 3 \| number`	`0`	Rotation (0-3 = multiples of 90°, or degrees)
`className`	`string`	-	CSS classes to apply
`style`	`string`	-	Inline styles

Generating Icon Packages

To generate icon packages from any Iconify collection:

# List available collections
bun stx iconify list

# Generate a specific collection
bun stx iconify generate material-symbols
bun stx iconify generate heroicons
bun stx iconify generate lucide

# Generate specific icons only
bun stx iconify generate lucide --icons home,settings,user

This creates a package with:

TypeScript icon data files (.ts)
stx component files (.stx)
Full TypeScript types
Component documentation

Example: Navigation Menu

<nav>
  <a href="/"><HomeIcon size="20" className="nav-icon" /> Home</a>
  <a href="/about"><InfoIcon size="20" className="nav-icon" /> About</a>
  <a href="/contact"><MailIcon size="20" className="nav-icon" /> Contact</a>
  <a href="/settings"><SettingsIcon size="20" className="nav-icon" /> Settings</a>
</nav>

<style>
  .nav-icon {
    vertical-align: middle;
    margin-right: 0.5rem;
  }
</style>

Example: Status Indicators

<div class="status">
  <CheckCircleIcon size="16" color="green" /> Success
</div>
<div class="status">
  <AlertCircleIcon size="16" color="orange" /> Warning
</div>
<div class="status">
  <XCircleIcon size="16" color="red" /> Error
</div>

For more details, see the icon collections documentation.

Testing

bun test

Changelog

Please see our releases page for more information on what has changed recently.

Contributing

Please review the Contributing Guide for details.

Community

For help, discussion about best practices, or any other conversation that would benefit from being searchable:

Discussions on GitHub

For casual chit-chat with others using this package:

Join the Stacks Discord Server

Postcardware

You will always be free to use any of the Stacks OSS software. We would also love to see which parts of the world Stacks ends up in. Receiving postcards makes us happy—and we will publish them on our website.

Our address: Stacks.js, 12665 Village Ln #2306, Playa Vista, CA 90094, United States 🌎

Credits

Many thanks to the following core technologies & people who have contributed to this package:

Laravel Blade - for the initial inspiration
Chris Breuer
All Contributors

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see LICENSE for more information.

Made with 💙

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 203 Commits
.cursor		.cursor
.github		.github
.vscode		.vscode
.zed		.zed
docs		docs
examples		examples
packages		packages
scripts		scripts
test-utils		test-utils
translations		translations
.editorconfig		.editorconfig
.gitattributes		.gitattributes
.gitignore		.gitignore
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
LICENSE.md		LICENSE.md
README.md		README.md
buddy-bot.config.ts		buddy-bot.config.ts
bun.lock		bun.lock
bunfig.toml		bunfig.toml
deps.yaml		deps.yaml
eslint.config.ts		eslint.config.ts
gitlint.config.ts		gitlint.config.ts
package.json		package.json
screenshot.png		screenshot.png
stx		stx
stx.config.ts		stx.config.ts
tsconfig.json		tsconfig.json

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License

stacksjs/stx

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stx

Features

Installation

Setup

Usage with ESM

1. Configure Bun to use the plugin

2. Import and use .stx files directly

3. Use with Bun's server

stx Template Syntax

Basic Example

Data Export Options

1. ESM exports (recommended)

2. Legacy CommonJS (module.exports)

Template Directives

Custom Directives

Variables

Conditionals

Loops

Raw HTML

Server-Side JavaScript and TypeScript

JavaScript (@js)

TypeScript (@ts)

Markdown Support

Internationalization (i18n)

Configuration

Translation Files

Using Translations

Web Components Integration

Configuration

Using Web Components in Templates

Source stx Components

Advanced Options

TypeScript Support

Example Server

Testing This Plugin

How It Works

Documentation Generation

Command Line

Configuration

Component Documentation

Web Component Documentation

Other Familiar Features

View Composers

CSRF Protection

Form Method Spoofing

Named Routes

Environment-Specific Directives

Icon Components

Available Icon Collections

Usage

Component Props

Generating Icon Packages

Example: Navigation Menu

Example: Status Indicators

Testing

Changelog

Contributing

Community

Postcardware

Sponsors

Credits

License

About

Topics

Resources

License

Code of conduct

Contributing

Security policy

Uh oh!

Stars

Watchers

Forks

Source `stx` Components