control4-driver-template

Copier template for Control4 driver projects. Contains shared infrastructure, build tooling, and common Lua libraries used across all Finite Labs drivers.

The toolchain is Python + a few standalone binaries — no Node/npm. make init creates a local .venv with everything the build needs (docs, formatters, and the driver packager's crypto/XML libs).

What's Included

Build Tooling (tools/)

• preprocess.py — C preprocessor-style #ifdef/#ifndef for Lua, XML, and Markdown. Supports variant expansion for generating multiple driver configurations from a single source.
• docs.py — documentation generation: Markdown → HTML (markdown-it-py + Pygments) → PDF (WeasyPrint, a CSS Paged Media engine — no browser), plus the repo README.
• package.py — packaging helpers: driver.xml version/modified stamping and zip bundling (stdlib).
• gen-squishy.lua — Auto-generates squishy files for squish (Lua module bundler) from driver.c4zproj.
• github-markdown.css — Vendored stylesheet for the rendered documentation.
• github-setup — Checks the GitHub repository against the standard settings and prints the drift; with --apply it creates the repository if needed and fixes the drift.

Common Libraries (src/lib/, selected via lib_modules)

• bindings.lua — Binding management (add/remove/query Control4 driver bindings)
• conditionals.lua — Conditional/programming UI management
• events.lua — Event firing and management
• http.lua — HTTP client wrapper around C4:urlGet/urlPost/urlPut/urlDelete
• lru.lua — LRU cache utility
• persist.lua — Persistent storage abstraction over C4 PersistData
• values.lua — Value parsing, coercion, and formatting utilities
• logging.lua / utils.lua — Structured logging and general utilities (always included)
• github-updater.lua — GitHub Releases-based self-updater for non-DriverCentral (oss) builds

Vendor Libraries (vendor/, selected via vendor_modules)

• JSON.lua — JSON encoder/decoder
• deferred.lua — Promise/deferred implementation for async workflows
• version.lua — Semantic version comparison
• cloud-client-byte.lua — DriverCentral cloud client
• drivers-common-public/ — Control4's official shared libraries (handlers, lib, timer, url)
• xml/ — XML parser (xml2lua)
• bitn.lua — bit manipulation library
• crypto.lua — cryptographic primitives (core build; requires bitn)
• bthome.lua — BTHome protocol support
• noiseprotocol.lua — Noise Protocol encryption
• protobuf.lua — Protocol Buffers

Test Support (test/)

• c4_shim.lua — Shim layer replacing C4 API calls with native Lua equivalents for local testing
• run_test.sh — Test runner script with LuaJIT

Project Files

• Makefile — build, format, docs, package, and clean targets
• CONTRIBUTING.md — explains how the template system works
• .gitignore, LICENSE, CHANGELOG.md, README.md

Build Prerequisites

• Python 3.9+ (docs, formatters, preprocess, and the driver packager)
• LuaJIT (brew install luajit) — squish and tests
• stylua (brew install stylua) — Lua formatter
• Pango (brew install pango) — WeasyPrint's PDF rendering engine

make init provisions the rest into a local .venv (WeasyPrint, markdown-it-py, Pygments, mdformat, black, and the packager's M2Crypto + lxml).

Usage

Create a New Driver Project

uvx copier copy --trust gh:finitelabs/control4-driver-template my-new-driver

Set Up the GitHub Repository

After scaffolding, create the GitHub repository and apply the standard settings:

cd my-new-driver
./tools/github-setup           # dry run: prints the changes it would make
./tools/github-setup --apply   # make the changes (add --public for a public repo)

The repository is <github_org>/<project_name> from the copier answers, so the script works against whatever organization or personal account the project was scaffolded for. It is idempotent and can be re-run on existing repositories to check for or fix drift. The standard is:

• Projects and wiki disabled
• Squash merges only, auto-merge allowed, head branches deleted on merge
• Default branch main (an existing master gets renamed)
• Branch ruleset named Default on the default branch: no deletions or force pushes, PRs require one approval and a passing build check, squash merges only, org admins can bypass
• Dependabot alerts and security updates enabled

One step stays manual: add the repository to the project's VCS integration in YouTrack so the webhook gets installed. YouTrack generates the webhook endpoint, so it cannot be scripted from the GitHub side.

Update an Existing Driver with Latest Template

Copier is only needed for this occasional sync — it is not a build dependency. Run it without installing anything:

cd my-existing-driver
uvx copier update --trust        # using uv
# or: pipx run copier update --trust

Copier will show diffs for any files that changed in the template and let you resolve conflicts.

Template Variables

Variable	Description	Default
project_name	Project name (e.g., control4-esphome)	—
project_description	Short description	A Control4 driver
github_org	GitHub organization	—
distributions	Space-separated build targets	drivercentral oss
readme_driver_slug	Driver slug for README generation (root for a suite README)	—
readme_build	Build distribution for README	oss
primary_color	Accent color for generated docs	#109EFF
lib_modules	Space-separated src/lib modules to include	—
vendor_modules	Space-separated vendor modules to include	json deferred drivers-common-public xml