Your own templates

When the answers cannot express what every plugin of yours needs, keep it in a directory of your own and pass --customTemplate=<dir>. The directory mirrors the generator’s templates/default and is searched ahead of it, so it uses the same EJS templates and the same partials:

my-obsidian-template/
  overlay.json
  README.md@support_mine.ejs   # adds a section at an existing render('support') seam
  LICENSE.ejs                  # replaces the built-in LICENSE
  docs/NOTES.md.ejs            # a file the built-ins do not have

{
  "partials": ["mine"],
  "files": ["docs/NOTES.md"],
  "packages": ["type-fest"],
  "badges": ["[![Docs](https://img.shields.io/badge/docs-here-blue)](https://example.com)"]
}

• A template at a built-in’s path replaces it, but only when your answers emit that file: a vite.config.ts.ejs does nothing on an esbuild project.
• A folder whose name is in parentheses, such as the built-ins’ scripts/(build)/, only groups templates and is not part of their path. So scripts/build.ts.ejs and scripts/(build)/build.ts.ejs are the same template, and you may group your own files the same way or not at all.
• partials names what your partial files contribute. The names share one namespace with the built-in partials, so a name the generator already uses is refused. Your partials render after the built-in ones at every seam.
• files lists the paths you add, without .ejs. A built-in path is refused there; to replace one, just place its template.
• packages are added to devDependencies, and their versions are resolved when you generate, as the built-in ones are.
• badges go after the built-in badges, on the same README line.

The directory is checked before any question is asked. A template that nothing would ever emit, a partial nobody declared, a section no template renders, or any other file (except overlay.json and a README.md of its own) stops the run with the reason.

The directory is recorded in .create-obsidian-plugin.json, relative to the project, and an update applies it again. That keeps the files it produced updating cleanly rather than looking hand-edited. Pass --customTemplate=<dir> on an update to point at a moved directory, or --customTemplate= to stop using one. A recorded directory that is missing stops the update instead of quietly reverting your files to the built-ins.

To use one when creating a plugin:

npm create @mnaoumov/obsidian-plugin "--" --customTemplate=../my-obsidian-template

Keep the quotes around "--"; see The – separator in PowerShell.