.ejs File — Embedded JavaScript Template

EJS (Embedded JavaScript) is a simple templating language that generates HTML markup with plain JavaScript. EJS files contain HTML with embedded JavaScript code blocks using <% %> tags — <% %> for control flow, <%= %> for escaped output, and <%- %> for unescaped output. Created in 2010, EJS follows a philosophy of minimal abstraction — rather than inventing a new template syntax, it uses JavaScript directly, making it instantly familiar to JavaScript developers. EJS supports includes for template composition, layouts through wrapper templates, and custom delimiters. The format is widely used in Express.js server-side applications for rendering dynamic HTML pages, email templates, and static site generation. EJS compiles templates to JavaScript functions that can be cached for performance. The simplicity of EJS makes it a popular choice for server-side rendering in Node.js when full SPA frameworks are unnecessary — it requires no learning curve beyond HTML and JavaScript. EJS templates can access any JavaScript expression, import modules, and use async/await for data fetching. The format remains one of the most downloaded template engines on npm.