It would be nice if the following could be done eg. mvn archetype:create -DgroupId=com.myComp -DartifactId=myApp -DarchetypeGroupId=.... -DarchetypeArtifactId=.... with META-INF/archetype.xml <sources> <source>src/main/java/HelloWorldAction.java</source> </sources> <resources> <resource>src/main/resources/someProperty.properties</resource> </resources> The generated template will have src/main/java/com/myComp/HelloWorldAction.java src/main/resources/someProperty.properties A nice improvement would be to be able to allow (selectively) eg. someProperty.properties to be "package" aware as well, maybe with <resources> <resource packageAware="true">src/main/resources/someProperty.properties</resource> </resources> someProperty.properties coudl be generated at src/main/resources/com/myComp/someProperty.properties