From e2f92b951528421bc3737f84bbaada8918e499a0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Ed Zynda <ezynda3@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2026 14:51:52 +0300
Subject: [PATCH] Unify the two {{variable}} template engines

internal/skills and pkg/kit/template_bridge each had their own grammar:
skills rejected '{{ name }}' (whitespace) but allowed digit-first names;
the bridge was the opposite. A template behaved differently depending on
whether it was loaded as a skill prompt or via the extension API.

internal/skills is now the single engine using the superset grammar
(\{\{\s*(\w+)\s*\}\}); pkg/kit ParseTemplate/RenderTemplate are thin
adapters over it. Expand is now regex-based so whitespace placeholders
expand consistently; missing variables are still left as-is.
---
 internal/skills/templates.go | 19 +++++++++++-------
 pkg/kit/template_bridge.go   | 37 +++++++++++++-----------------------
 2 files changed, 25 insertions(+), 31 deletions(-)

diff --git a/internal/skills/templates.go b/internal/skills/templates.go
index 7902d662..b3c5c963 100644
--- a/internal/skills/templates.go
+++ b/internal/skills/templates.go
@@ -18,8 +18,11 @@ type PromptTemplate struct {
 	Variables []string
 }
 
-// variableRe matches {{variable_name}} placeholders.
-var variableRe = regexp.MustCompile(`\{\{(\w+)\}\}`)
+// variableRe matches {{variable_name}} placeholders, tolerating surrounding
+// whitespace inside the braces (e.g. {{ name }}). This is the canonical
+// template grammar shared by skill prompts and the extension template API
+// (pkg/kit ParseTemplate/RenderTemplate delegate here).
+var variableRe = regexp.MustCompile(`\{\{\s*(\w+)\s*\}\}`)
 
 // NewPromptTemplate creates a PromptTemplate, automatically extracting
 // variable names from {{...}} placeholders in content.
@@ -50,11 +53,13 @@ func LoadPromptTemplate(path string) (*PromptTemplate, error) {
 // Expand replaces all {{variable}} placeholders with values from the
 // provided map.  Missing variables are left as-is (no error).
 func (t *PromptTemplate) Expand(values map[string]string) string {
-	result := t.Content
-	for k, v := range values {
-		result = strings.ReplaceAll(result, "{{"+k+"}}", v)
-	}
-	return result
+	return variableRe.ReplaceAllStringFunc(t.Content, func(m string) string {
+		name := variableRe.FindStringSubmatch(m)[1]
+		if v, ok := values[name]; ok {
+			return v
+		}
+		return m
+	})
 }
 
 // ExpandStrict replaces all {{variable}} placeholders and returns an error
diff --git a/pkg/kit/template_bridge.go b/pkg/kit/template_bridge.go
index 9373dcf3..048c1a15 100644
--- a/pkg/kit/template_bridge.go
+++ b/pkg/kit/template_bridge.go
@@ -8,45 +8,34 @@ import (
 	"github.com/mark3labs/kit/internal/extensions"
 	"github.com/mark3labs/kit/internal/models"
 	"github.com/mark3labs/kit/internal/prompts"
+	"github.com/mark3labs/kit/internal/skills"
 )
 
 // ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 // Template Parsing Bridge for Extensions (Phase 3)
 // ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-// varRegex matches {{variable}} placeholders in templates.
-var varRegex = regexp.MustCompile(`\{\{\s*([a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*)\s*\}\}`)
-
-// ParseTemplate extracts {{variables}} from template content.
+// ParseTemplate extracts {{variables}} from template content. The template
+// grammar is shared with skill prompt templates (see internal/skills).
 func ParseTemplate(name, content string) extensions.PromptTemplate {
-	matches := varRegex.FindAllStringSubmatch(content, -1)
-	vars := make([]string, 0, len(matches))
-	seen := make(map[string]bool)
-	for _, m := range matches {
-		if len(m) > 1 && !seen[m[1]] {
-			seen[m[1]] = true
-			vars = append(vars, m[1])
-		}
+	tpl := skills.NewPromptTemplate(name, content)
+	vars := tpl.Variables
+	if vars == nil {
+		vars = []string{}
 	}
 	return extensions.PromptTemplate{
-		Name:      name,
-		Content:   content,
+		Name:      tpl.Name,
+		Content:   tpl.Content,
 		Variables: vars,
 	}
 }
 
 // RenderTemplate substitutes variables into template content.
-// Handles {{name}} and {{ name }} (any whitespace) placeholders.
+// Handles {{name}} and {{ name }} (any whitespace) placeholders; missing
+// variables are left as-is.
 func RenderTemplate(tpl extensions.PromptTemplate, vars map[string]string) string {
-	return varRegex.ReplaceAllStringFunc(tpl.Content, func(m string) string {
-		sub := varRegex.FindStringSubmatch(m)
-		if len(sub) > 1 {
-			if v, ok := vars[sub[1]]; ok {
-				return v
-			}
-		}
-		return m
-	})
+	t := skills.PromptTemplate{Content: tpl.Content}
+	return t.Expand(vars)
 }
 
 // ParseArguments parses command-line style arguments.