Variables

Remote files can contain placeholders that obtain fills in before saving. There are two kinds, both namespaced with obtain. so they never clash with other {{ }} syntax. Anything else, such as a GitHub Actions ${{ secrets.X }}, is left untouched.

Placeholder	Source
{{ obtain.NAME }}	Your own variable, from --var or vars: in the config
{{ obtain.std.NAME }}	A builtin computed by obtain

Whitespace inside the braces is optional: {{obtain.NAME}} works too.

Example

A LICENSE template hosted at https://example.com/templates/MIT:

MIT License

Copyright (c) {{ obtain.std.YEAR }} {{ obtain.NAME }}
...

Config:

vars:
  NAME: Ada Lovelace

files:
  license:
    filename: LICENSE
    url: https://example.com/templates/MIT

  readme:
    filename: README.md
    url: https://example.com/templates/README.md
    vars:
      NAME: Ada's Team

$ obtain file license
$ head -3 LICENSE
MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 Ada Lovelace

$ obtain -f -v NAME="Grace Hopper" file license   # override for one run

Precedence

Values for {{ obtain.NAME }} are resolved in this order, first match wins:

1. --var / -v NAME=value (repeatable, placed before the subcommand)
2. vars: on the file entry
3. top-level vars:

obtain -v NAME=Grace -v EMAIL=grace@example.com pack new-project

A placeholder with no value is an error, and nothing is written for that file. In a pack, the run stops there as usual.

Variable names use letters, digits and _. Values must be strings. Files without placeholders are saved byte for byte.

Builtins

{{ obtain.std.NAME }} values are computed by obtain and cannot be overridden by --var or vars:.

Name	Value	Example
YEAR	Current year	2026
MONTH	Current month, zero-padded	03
DAY	Current day of month, zero-padded	09
DATE	Current date, YYYY-MM-DD	2026-03-09
USER	OS username of whoever runs obtain	ada
DIRNAME	Name of the directory being saved into (--dir)	my-project

An unknown builtin is an error that lists the available ones.

Opting out with raw

If a file legitimately contains {{ obtain.NAME }} (for example, a template for another tool that uses the same syntax), set raw: true on its entry:

files:
  template:
    filename: template.txt
    url: https://example.com/template.txt
    raw: true

It is saved exactly as downloaded, and --var has no effect on it. obtain doctor reports vars: on a raw entry, since they would never be used.