Rename your project

You'll get

A renamed copy that builds and passes tests

Time

A few minutes

Touches

Every project, plus config and infra names

Before you start

.NET 10 SDK; Docker and Node to run

Generate a renamed project

Install the template, run dotnet new appointme -n <Name>, and commit the output before you change anything.

1. Install the template. Pin the version so you can generate the same output again later.

   dotnet new install BravoDev.AppointMe.Templates::1.2.1

2. Generate. -n is the only option the template takes. The output goes into a new Contoso.Booking/ folder. Pass -o <dir> to put it somewhere else.

   dotnet new appointme -n Contoso.Booking

3. Commit the untouched output. The template doesn’t create a git repository, and nothing in the generated files records which version made them. Commit right away and put the version in the message, because taking updates later starts from this commit.

   cd Contoso.Booking
   git init
   git add -A
   git commit -m "Generate from BravoDev.AppointMe.Templates 1.2.1"

4. Build and test. Both pass on a fresh copy, with no code changes.

   dotnet build Contoso.Booking.sln
   dotnet test Contoso.Booking.sln

5. Run it. Trust the dev certificate once per machine, then start the Aspire host. The quick start covers what comes up and where.

   dotnet dev-certs https --trust
   cd src/Contoso.Booking.Aspire && dotnet run

nuget.org has 1.2.1; these docs describe main

Two of main’s unreleased changes show up straight away. A 1.2.1 project builds with NU1902 and NU1903 warnings about System.Security.Cryptography.Pkcs and .Xml, which main fixes, and 1.2.1 names the generated API client src/api/contoso.booking.ts where main uses src/api/client.ts. To generate from main, pack the template yourself, as shown in If you cloned instead.

What -n renames

Every brand token becomes your name, in whichever form the place it sits in allows.

What	In AppointMe	With -n Contoso.Booking	Form
Namespaces, projects, folders, solution	AppointMe.Crm, AppointMe.sln	Contoso.Booking.Crm, Contoso.Booking.sln	As typed
SQL database	Database=AppointMe	Database=Contoso.Booking	As typed
Connection string name	AppointMeSql	ContosoBookingSql	Separators removed
Keycloak realm and its file	appointme, appointme-realm.json	contoso.booking, contoso.booking-realm.json	Lowercase
Cookies and the demo login	appointme.auth, demo@appointme.dev	contoso.booking.auth, demo@contoso.booking.dev	Lowercase
Aspire resources, Compose containers	appointme-sql, appointme-api	contoso-booking-sql, contoso-booking-api	Kebab-case
Aspire project type in Program.cs	AppointMe_Api	Contoso_Booking_Api	Underscores
Azure names in infra/main.bicep	acrappointme…, stappointme…	acrcontosobooking…, stcontosobooking…	Lowercase letters and digits

Each form exists because the target rejects the others. Aspire resource names can’t contain dots or underscores (its ASPIRE006 check), C# identifiers can’t contain dots, and Azure registry and storage account names allow only lowercase letters and digits.

The template picks the form from the character that follows each match. This symbol handles the dotted form, and it fires only before one of nine characters:

.template.config/template.jsonView source ↗

"identityBucket": {
  "type": "derived",
  "valueSource": "name",
  "valueTransform": "identity",
  "replaces": "AppointMe",
  "fileRename": "AppointMe",
  "onlyIf": [
    { "before": "." }, { "before": " " }, { "before": "\"" }, { "before": "'" },
    { "before": "\n" }, { "before": "\r" }, { "before": ";" }, { "before": "-" }, { "before": "<" }
  ]
},

templates/README.md in the upstream repo lists every symbol and why it exists. If you add an identifier that contains AppointMe and the character after it isn’t on any list (AddAppointMeBilling is followed by B), the template won’t rename it.

What it leaves alone

The lowercase brand token appointme is the first nine letters of appointment. A plain find-and-replace would also rewrite the Appointment aggregate, the /appointments route and the appointments.statistics:view permission.

So the template never matches the lowercase token on its own. It matches guarded forms such as appointme-, appointme. and appointme", and appointmen… matches none of them. The PascalCase AppointMe can’t collide, because Appointment has a lowercase m.

Left as it is	Why
Appointment, /appointments, appointments.statistics:view	Domain vocabulary, not the brand. CI’s template smoke test counts every Appointment before and after the rename.
Module names Identity, Organizations, Crm, Booking	They aren’t brand tokens, so -n Contoso.Booking gives you Contoso.Booking.Booking.
Company and Authors in Directory.Build.props	Still BravoDev. Only the repository name inside RepositoryUrl changes.
LICENSE	MIT requires you to keep BravoDev’s copyright notice. Add your own line next to it.
Password1 and the Keycloak client secrets in appsettings.Development.json	Every generated project starts with the same local values.

Fix the metadata and placeholders before you deploy: What to change first has the list.

Why is the name the only option?1 min · optional

The modules are wired together through events. Booking builds its own copies of CRM customers and of Organizations companies and employees from their domain events, so a switch that dropped a module would generate code that doesn’t compile.

With one parameter there’s one combination to test. .github/workflows/template.yml runs templates/smoke-test.sh on every pull request: it packs the template, generates Contoso.Booking, builds and tests it, lints its frontend and checks that no brand token is left. To drop a module, generate first and then follow Remove a module.

Naming rules for -n

Use a valid C# namespace such as Contoso.Booking. dotnet new accepts any name, so a bad one only shows up when you build.

Name	What happens
Contoso.Booking	Builds. The documented form: company, then product.
Contoso	Builds. A single segment is a valid namespace too.
my-booking-app	dotnet new reports success. The build then fails with hundreds of CS1022 and CS0116 errors, because the code now says namespace my-booking-app.Shared….

• Each dot-separated segment must be a C# identifier: letters, digits and underscores, not starting with a digit. No hyphens and no spaces.
• Use PascalCase segments. Namespaces take the name exactly as typed, so contoso.booking gives you lowercase namespaces.
• Keep it short if anyone builds on Windows without long-path support. The name appears in nearly every path, often twice: src/CRM/Contoso.Booking.Crm/Contoso.Booking.Crm.csproj.

The generated README and demo login

A generated project gets its own README, written for your copy, with the demo login already renamed.

It comes from templates/overlay/README.md, not from the repo’s marketing README. It covers running the stack, the demo user, and a “Change these before deploying” list. The local Keycloak realm ships with a demo account, which Authentication:SuperAdmins in appsettings.Development.json makes a super admin. Its credentials follow your name:

Demo login	Rule	For Contoso.Booking
Email	demo@<name, lowercased>.dev	demo@contoso.booking.dev
Password	<name without separators>1	ContosoBooking1

To skip the login form, open https://localhost:5173/api/v1/login/demo. Demo:Enabled switches it. It’s on in appsettings.Development.json, and also in appsettings.Devtest.example.json.

The package also leaves out files that belong to upstream:

Not in a generated project	Why
CHANGELOG.md, the root README.md, docs/images/	Upstream release material
src/AppointMe.Api/appsettings.Devtest.json	BravoDev’s deployment config. You get appsettings.Devtest.example.json to fill in.
templates/, .template.config/, .github/workflows/template.yml	The packaging project, and the job that publishes BravoDev’s NuGet package
.claude/settings.json, docs/superpowers/	Upstream’s own tooling settings and plans

Everything else ships, renamed: CLAUDE.md and the agent skills, the Bicep files in infra/, and the devtest.yml, codeql.yml and secret-scan.yml workflows.

If you cloned instead

There’s no rename script in the repo. To rename a clone, pack the template from it and generate from the package.

You want	Do this
The easiest upstream merges	Keep the AppointMe names. A clone with upstream’s names can merge release tags directly.
Your own names, and you haven’t changed anything yet	Use dotnet new from nuget.org, as above
Your own names, keeping work you’ve already done in the clone	Pack the clone, then generate from the package

1. Pack the template from the clone’s root. The package takes your working tree, minus build output and the withheld files above. Its version comes from <Version> in templates/AppointMe.Templates.csproj, which is still 1.2.1 on main.

   dotnet pack templates/AppointMe.Templates.csproj -c Release -o ../appointme-pack

2. Install the package and generate. If another copy of the template is installed, uninstall it first, because both use the same package id.

   dotnet new uninstall BravoDev.AppointMe.Templates
   dotnet new install ../appointme-pack/BravoDev.AppointMe.Templates.1.2.1.nupkg
   dotnet new appointme -n Contoso.Booking -o ../Contoso.Booking

3. Look for brand tokens the template didn’t know. These are the smoke test’s own leftover checks, and both should print nothing. A hit in your own code needs a rename by hand.

   cd ../Contoso.Booking
   grep -rIl "AppointMe" . --exclude-dir=node_modules --exclude-dir=obj --exclude-dir=bin --exclude-dir=dist
   grep -rIoE 'appointme([^n]|$)' . --exclude-dir=node_modules --exclude-dir=obj --exclude-dir=bin --exclude-dir=dist

4. Start a new repository, and uninstall the template. The generated folder has no git history: your history stays in the clone. Commit the output as in step 3 at the top of this page, then run dotnet new uninstall BravoDev.AppointMe.Templates.

Gotcha

Don’t run dotnet new install ./ on the clone itself. It installs, but the package’s exclusions don’t apply to a folder. The output then gets the clone’s .git folder, which the rename corrupts (git status fails with fatal: unknown index entry format), plus CHANGELOG.md, appsettings.Devtest.json and template.yml. Install the .nupkg instead.

Verify it works

A good rename builds, passes its tests and leaves no brand token behind.

Check	Command	Expect
The backend builds	dotnet build Contoso.Booking.sln	0 Error(s)
The tests pass	dotnet test Contoso.Booking.sln	No failures: 217 tests from 1.2.1, 221 from main
No brand token is left	The two grep commands above	No output
The frontend passes its checks	npm ci && npm run check in src/Contoso.Booking.Frontend	No errors
The stack starts	dotnet run in src/Contoso.Booking.Aspire	You can sign in as demo@contoso.booking.dev

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Hundreds of CS1022 and CS0116 errors in a fresh project	-n isn’t a valid namespace, for example my-booking-app	Generate again with a dotted PascalCase name
dotnet new doesn’t know appointme	The template isn’t installed	dotnet new install BravoDev.AppointMe.Templates::1.2.1
The output contains .git, CHANGELOG.md or appsettings.Devtest.json	You installed the clone folder, not a package	dotnet new uninstall <folder>, then pack and install the .nupkg
AppointMe still appears in your own code	The character after it isn’t one the template routes	Rename it by hand
Keycloak won’t import the realm after you renamed it by hand	Keycloak requires the file to be named <realm>-realm.json (“File name / realm name mismatch”)	Keep the file name and its "realm" value in step

Next

GuideWhat to change first →GuideTake updates from upstream →TutorialQuick start →