Creating script templates¶

Godot provides a way to use script templates as seen in the Script Create Dialog while creating a new script:

../../_images/script_create_dialog_templates.png

A set of default script templates is provided by default, but it’s also possible to modify existing and create new ones, both per project and the editor.

Locating the templates¶

There are two places where templates can be managed.

Editor-defined templates¶

These are available globally throughout any project. The location of these templates are determined per each OS:

Windows: %APPDATA%\Godot\script_templates\
Linux: $HOME/.local/share/godot/script_templates/
macOS: $HOME/Library/Application Support/Godot/script_templates/

If no script_templates is detected, Godot will create a default set of built-in templates automatically, so this logic can be used to reset the default templates in case you’ve accidentally overwritten them.

Project-defined templates¶

The default path to search for templates is the res://script_templates/ directory. The path can be changed by configuring the editor/script_templates_search_path setting in the ProjectSettings, both via code and the editor.

If no script_templates directory is found within a project, it is simply ignored.

Language support and overriding behavior¶

Depending on whether a particular language implements a way to generate scripts out of templates, it’s possible to create a template which can be recognized by that language according to template’s file extension. For GDScript and C#, the extensions must be gd and cs respectively.

Note

The script templates have the same extension as the regular script files. This may lead to an issue of a script parser treating those templates as actual scripts within a project. To avoid this, make sure to ignore the directory containing them by creating a .gdignore file. The directory won’t be visible throughout the project’s filesystem anymore, yet the templates can be modified by an external text editor anytime.

The built-in editor templates are automatically shadowed by the project-specific templates given both scripts have the same filename.

Default template¶

The Default template is always generated dynamically per language and cannot be configured nor overridden, but you can use these as the base for creating other templates.

extends %BASE%


# Declare member variables here. Examples:
# var a%INT_TYPE% = 2
# var b%STRING_TYPE% = "text"


# Called when the node enters the scene tree for the first time.
func _ready()%VOID_RETURN%:
    pass # Replace with function body.


# Called every frame. 'delta' is the elapsed time since the previous frame.
#func _process(delta%FLOAT_TYPE%)%VOID_RETURN%:
#   pass

using Godot;
using System;

public class %CLASS% : %BASE%
{
    // Declare member variables here. Examples:
    // private int a = 2;
    // private string b = "text";

    // Called when the node enters the scene tree for the first time.
    public override void _Ready()
    {

    }

//  // Called every frame. 'delta' is the elapsed time since the previous frame.
//  public override void _Process(float delta)
//  {
//
//  }
}

List of template placeholders¶

The following describes the complete list of built-in template placeholders which are currently implemented.

Base placeholders¶

Placeholder	Description
`%CLASS%`	The name of the new class (used in C# only).
`%BASE%`	The base type a new script inherits from.
`%TS%`	Indentation placeholder. The exact type and number of whitespace characters used for indentation is determined by the `text_editor/indent/type` and `text_editor/indent/size` settings in the EditorSettings respectively.

Type placeholders¶

These are only relevant for GDScript with static typing. Whether these placeholders are actually replaced is determined by the text_editor/completion/add_type_hints setting in the EditorSettings.

Placeholder	Value
`%INT_TYPE%`	`: int`
`%STRING_TYPE%`	`: String`
`%FLOAT_TYPE%`	`: float`
`%VOID_RETURN%`	`-> void`