Comparisons¶

See below how pyrig compares to other tools.

Legend: ✅ yes · ➖ partial (see cell for how) · ❌ no · — not applicable (no such mechanism exists at all)

Feature	pyrig	Cookiecutter	Copier	cruft	PyScaffold	Nitpick	projen
Keeps itself in sync automatically — no manifest or template file to maintain, nothing to remember to re-run	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Never overwrites or removes what you've already changed	➖ resets values it declares as required if you hand-edit them	—	➖ 3-way merge; unresolved conflicts need manual fixing	➖ diff-merge with `skip` globs; leftovers become `.rej` files	➖ untouched files only; can't remove a feature once added	➖ only touches keys declared in the style file	➖ direct edits are disallowed by design, not preserved
Ships linting, formatting, type checking, and tests configured out of the box	✅	➖ only if the chosen template includes it	➖ only if the chosen template includes it	➖ inherits whatever the underlying Cookiecutter template includes	➖ ships tox/pre-commit scaffolding, not preconfigured linters	➖ via opt-in presets (black, flake8, isort, mypy, …)	➖ depends on the project type and components chosen
Generates CI/CD pipelines	✅	➖ only if the chosen template includes it	➖ only if the chosen template includes it	➖ inherits whatever the underlying Cookiecutter template includes	➖ via an opt-in extension (e.g. `--cirrus`), not by default	➖ has a GitHub Actions preset, but only enforces declared keys	➖ for supported project types only
Generates GitHub repo protection rules	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Gives your project a working CLI, maintained automatically	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Generates and maintains test-file skeletons that mirror your source code	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Customized by writing code, not flags, prompts, or template edits	✅	➖ hook scripts run at generation time, not ongoing	➖ hook/migration scripts run at generation time, not ongoing	➖ inherits Cookiecutter's hook scripts, still one-shot	❌	❌	✅
Has a plugin/extension ecosystem for adding new capabilities, not just per-project tweaks	✅	➖ custom Jinja extensions only, no formal package ecosystem	➖ custom Jinja extensions only, no formal package ecosystem	❌	✅	❌	✅
Takes input (prompts or flags) to customize content at generation time	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅	—	❌
Shows what changed as part of updating an existing project	❌	—	✅	➖ as a git-style merge diff, not a structured 3-way summary	❌	✅	❌
Removes settings that become obsolete between versions	❌	—	✅	➖ via diff/merge, unless the file is in the `skip` list	❌	❌	✅

Ratings reflect each tool's built-in, documented mechanisms — a template author using a first-class feature like a hook script or preset counts — not a hypothetical amount of custom scripting layered on top to route around a tool's actual limits.

For the full story behind pyrig's own "➖", see How Merging Works.

For pyrig's own trade-offs, see Drawbacks.