---
title: Templates
description: mint, rapide, black — and what a template actually owns.
---

`template` is required and picks the visual design your site renders through.

## The three

<ParamField name="mint" type="template">
  The fully-featured design system. Everything Reed's component catalog can express is
  designed here.
</ParamField>

<ParamField name="rapide" type="template">
  A minimal in-repo template. Baseline sidebar width 260px.
</ParamField>

<ParamField name="black" type="template">
  A minimal in-repo template. Baseline sidebar width 300px.
</ParamField>

`rapide` and `black` conform to the same `ReedTemplate` interface `mint` does. They exist
partly as alternatives and partly as proof that the interface is real — a design system
with exactly one implementation has an untested contract.

## A template owns its own baseline

Each template carries a baseline stylesheet with its own values for every dimension. That
is why omitting a `layout` field is not the same as setting it to the schema default: an
omitted field leaves the template's baseline in control.

Set `layout.sidebar-width` explicitly and all three templates obey you. Leave it out and
`rapide` renders 260px, `black` 300px, `mint` 280px — each its own design, not a shared
fallback.

## What `reed init` scaffolds

`--template mint` produces a full starter taxonomy with real prose per category.
`--template rapide` and `--template black` produce a minimal two-page stub. This is a
difference in scaffolding only — all three build the same content equally well.

## Switching templates

Change the field and rebuild. Your content does not change: the component catalog is
identical across templates, so every page renders under all three. What changes is the
baseline styling, and any `layout` dimension you left unset.