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A light, crispy, and delicious template engine 🍤

Features

Extremely lightweight
Everything is 2.26 kB (gzip) – even less with tree-shaking!
Super Performant
Significantly faster than the big names; and the small ones.
Familiar Syntax
Tempura templates look great with Handlebars syntax highlighting.
Custom Directives
Easily define custom blocks, via the API, to extend functionality.

Install

$ npm install --save tempura

Tempura is an ES Module for Node 22+ and Bun. Load it with import, or with require() in Node 22.12+ and Bun.

Usage

Visit the /examples and Syntax Cheatsheet for more info!

example.hbs

{{! expected props to receive }}
{{#expect title, items }}

{{! inline variables }}
{{#var count = items.length }}
{{#var suffix = count === 1 ? 'task' : 'tasks' }}

{{#if count == 0}}
  <p>You're done! 🎉</p>
{{#else}}
  <p>You have {{{ count }}} {{{ suffix }}} remaining!</p>

  {{#if count == 1}}
    <small>Almost there!</small>
  {{#elif count > 10}}
    <small>... you must be <em>fried</em> 😔</small>
  {{#else}}
    <small>You've got this 💪🏼</small>
  {{/if}}

  <ul>
    {{#each items as todo}}
      <li>{{ todo.text }}</li>
    {{/each}}
  </ul>
{{/if}}

render.js

import { readFile } from 'fs/promises';
import { transform, compile } from 'tempura';

const template = await readFile('example.hbs', 'utf8');

// Transform the template into a function
// NOTE: Produces a string; ideal for build/bundlers
// ---

let toESM = transform(template);
console.log(typeof toESM); //=> "string"
console.log(toESM);
//=> `import{esc as $$1}from"tempura";export default function($$3,$$2){...}`


// Convert the template into a live function
// NOTE: Produces a `Function`; ideal for runtime/servers
// ---

let render = compile(template);
console.log(typeof render); //=> "function"
render({
  title: 'Reminders',
  items: [
    { id: 1, text: 'Feed the doggo' },
    { id: 2, text: 'Buy groceries' },
    { id: 3, text: 'Exercise, ok' },
  ]
});
//=> "<p>You have 3 tasks remaining!</p>\n"
//=> + "<small>You've got this 💪🏼</small>\n\n"
//=> + "<ul>\n"
//=> + "  <li>Feed the doggo</li>\n"
//=> + "  <li>Buy groceries</li>\n"
//=> + "  <li>Exercise, ok</li>\n"
//=> + "</ul>"

Syntax

Please refer to the Syntax Cheatsheet.

API

Visit the API, Custom Blocks, and Plugins for documentation.

Benchmarks

Running via Node v26.11.1 and Bun v1.4.3, on an Apple M1 Max

Please visit the /bench directory for complete, reproducible benchmarks.

The following is a subset of the full results, presented without context. Again, please visit /bench for explanations, comparisons, and/or differences.

Benchmark: Render w/ raw values (no escape), Node
  pug                x 54,320 ops/sec ±1.12% (98 runs sampled)
  handlebars         x 13,553 ops/sec ±0.12% (98 runs sampled)
  ejs                x  1,372 ops/sec ±0.21% (100 runs sampled)
  dot                x 71,294 ops/sec ±0.61% (101 runs sampled)
  art-template       x 73,490 ops/sec ±0.25% (95 runs sampled)
  tempura            x 66,696 ops/sec ±0.51% (92 runs sampled)

Benchmark: Render w/ raw values (no escape), Bun
  pug                x 43,482 ops/sec ±0.85% (95 runs sampled)
  handlebars         x 13,978 ops/sec ±0.48% (96 runs sampled)
  ejs                x  1,890 ops/sec ±0.35% (95 runs sampled)
  dot                x 84,336 ops/sec ±4.68% (96 runs sampled)
  art-template       x 50,749 ops/sec ±0.88% (93 runs sampled)
  tempura            x 92,825 ops/sec ±0.38% (94 runs sampled)

Benchmark: Render w/ escaped values, Node
  pug                x 4,641 ops/sec ±0.31% (98 runs sampled)
  handlebars         x 2,135 ops/sec ±0.28% (98 runs sampled)
  ejs                x   808 ops/sec ±0.17% (96 runs sampled)
  dot                x 1,967 ops/sec ±0.28% (97 runs sampled)
  art-template       x 4,550 ops/sec ±2.33% (97 runs sampled)
  tempura            x 5,191 ops/sec ±1.41% (99 runs sampled)

Benchmark: Render w/ escaped values, Bun
  pug                x 5,560 ops/sec ±0.60% (94 runs sampled)
  handlebars         x 2,494 ops/sec ±0.29% (98 runs sampled)
  ejs                x 1,081 ops/sec ±0.40% (96 runs sampled)
  dot                x 2,176 ops/sec ±0.13% (99 runs sampled)
  art-template       x 5,937 ops/sec ±0.45% (95 runs sampled)
  tempura            x 6,402 ops/sec ±0.62% (93 runs sampled)