Support for non-public `init` templates

[dsteeley]

I'd like to use the typespec tsp init <template> functionality to provide some users with a generated typespec definition.

I do not want this template to be publicly accessible due to its contents. I'd also like users to be able to get started quickly so would prefer to avoid downloading templates and then mounting them onto localhost.

As far as I can tell the <template> argument to tsp init must be an unathenticated url, would it be possible to enhance this to support authenticated urls or local directories?

[allenjzhang]

At this point, you have a couple of options:

1. "security through obscurity",
2. URL token auth. For example, you can access private GitHub repo with an access token in the URL.
3. 1 + 2. You can store the link in an internal secured site. The URL contains an access token for a successful download.

Supporting complex auth for init template is a lower priority. Having said that, what type of authentication are you interested in? Microsoft.Identity? General OAuth 2.0?

[dsteeley]

Thanks for getting back to me, I'd be interested in using Microsoft.Identity (AAD) Authentication.
I've worked around the limitation for now using a different templating engine.

[allenjzhang]

Closing old issues. What I didn't mention above is you can also securely distribute the init template via other authenticated means to download to local path and tsp init [path to local file].