diff --git a/client/client.go b/client/client.go
index bbe2949..e4ccc71 100644
--- a/client/client.go
+++ b/client/client.go
@@ -203,21 +203,18 @@ func (c *Client) requestWrapper(ctx context.Context, method, path string, in, ou
 	return nil
 }
 
-func (c *Client) request(ctx context.Context, method, path string, in, out interface{}) error {
-	var r io.Reader = http.NoBody
-
-	if in != nil { // encode body
-		b, err := json.Marshal(in)
-		if err != nil {
-			return err
-		}
-
-		r = bytes.NewReader(b)
+// Request sends a HTTP request to the Server. The optional request body is read
+// from r, and any response body is read and returned. Clients can use this
+// low-level method to make arbitrary requests and avoid marshaling and
+// unmarshaling JSON.
+func (c *Client) Request(ctx context.Context, method, path string, r io.Reader) (*bytes.Buffer, error) {
+	if r == nil {
+		r = http.NoBody
 	}
 
 	req, err := http.NewRequestWithContext(ctx, method, c.url(path), r)
 	if err != nil {
-		return err
+		return nil, err
 	}
 
 	req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+c.Token)
@@ -227,8 +224,7 @@ func (c *Client) request(ctx context.Context, method, path string, in, out inter
 
 	resp, err := c.Do(req)
 	if err != nil {
-		fmt.Printf("do error:%v\n", err)
-		return err
+		return nil, err
 	}
 
 	defer resp.Body.Close()
@@ -236,18 +232,44 @@ func (c *Client) request(ctx context.Context, method, path string, in, out inter
 	if c.Debug {
 		b, err := httputil.DumpResponse(resp, true)
 		if err != nil {
-			return err
+			return nil, err
 		}
 
 		fmt.Printf("RESPONSE:\n%s", string(b))
 	}
 
 	if resp.StatusCode < http.StatusOK || resp.StatusCode > 299 {
-		return c.ErrorParser(resp.StatusCode, resp.Body)
+		return nil, c.ErrorParser(resp.StatusCode, resp.Body)
+	}
+
+	var buf bytes.Buffer
+
+	if _, err = buf.ReadFrom(resp.Body); err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+
+	return &buf, nil
+}
+
+func (c *Client) request(ctx context.Context, method, path string, in, out interface{}) error {
+	var r io.Reader = http.NoBody
+
+	if in != nil { // encode body
+		b, err := json.Marshal(in)
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+
+		r = bytes.NewReader(b)
+	}
+
+	resp, err := c.Request(ctx, method, path, r)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
 	}
 
 	if out != nil { // parse response
-		if err := json.NewDecoder(resp.Body).Decode(out); err != nil {
+		if err := json.NewDecoder(resp).Decode(out); err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
 	}
diff --git a/cloud/instance/instance.go b/cloud/instance/instance.go
index cf75455..e9dae67 100644
--- a/cloud/instance/instance.go
+++ b/cloud/instance/instance.go
@@ -114,8 +114,8 @@ type Template struct {
 	HypervOptions             string
 	Imported                  string
 	Input                     string
-	InstanceGroup             []string
-	InstanceID                int
+	InstanceGroup             []string `template:"VMGROUP"`
+	InstanceID                int      `template:"VMID"`
 	Memory                    int
 	MemoryCost                string
 	MemoryMax                 string
diff --git a/cloud/instance/template.go b/cloud/instance/template.go
index f105c2b..00da444 100644
--- a/cloud/instance/template.go
+++ b/cloud/instance/template.go
@@ -14,6 +14,13 @@ func ParseTemplate(m map[string]any) (*Template, error) { // nolint:gocognit
 
 	for key, value := range m {
 		switch v := value.(type) {
+		case []string:
+			switch key {
+			case "SECURITY_GROUP_RULE":
+				copy(dst.SecurityGroupRule, v)
+			case "VMGROUP":
+				copy(dst.InstanceGroup, v)
+			}
 		case string:
 			switch key {
 			case "AUTOMATIC_DS_REQUIREMENTS":
diff --git a/cloud/template.go b/cloud/template.go
index a84519e..7a19de7 100644
--- a/cloud/template.go
+++ b/cloud/template.go
@@ -1,10 +1,13 @@
 package cloud
 
 import (
+	"bytes"
 	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
+	"reflect"
 	"sort"
 	"strings"
+	"unicode"
 )
 
 // Template is nested map of string key x value pairs.
@@ -101,13 +104,24 @@ func pad(s string, length int) string {
 func templateString(indent, ljust int, delim, key string, value any) string {
 	var templates []map[string]any
 
+	lhs := fmt.Sprintf("%s%s= ", strings.Repeat("\t", indent), pad(key, ljust))
+
 	switch v := value.(type) {
-	case string:
-		return fmt.Sprintf("%s%s = %q%s", strings.Repeat("\t", indent), pad(key, ljust), v, delim)
 	case map[string]any:
 		templates = []map[string]any{v}
 	case []map[string]any:
 		templates = v
+	case string, fmt.Stringer:
+		return lhs + fmt.Sprintf("%q", v) + delim
+	case int, int8, int16, int32, int64, uint, uint8, uint16, uint32, uint64, float32, float64:
+		return lhs + fmt.Sprintf("%v", v) + delim
+	case bool:
+		if v {
+			return lhs + "YES" + delim
+		}
+		return lhs + "NO" + delim
+	default:
+		return lhs + fmt.Sprintf("\"unknown value type: %v\"", v) + delim
 	}
 
 	var buf strings.Builder
@@ -144,3 +158,172 @@ func templateString(indent, ljust int, delim, key string, value any) string {
 
 	return buf.String()
 }
+
+// NewTemplate returns a new Template from the struct t. If t is not a struct
+// (or a pointer to one) it panics.
+func NewTemplate(t any) Template {
+	rv := reflect.ValueOf(t)
+
+	if rv.Kind() == reflect.Pointer {
+		rv = rv.Elem()
+	}
+
+	if rv.Kind() != reflect.Struct {
+		panic("NewTemplate: expected struct, got " + rv.Kind().String())
+	}
+
+	return newTemplate(rv.Interface())
+}
+
+// newTemplate returns a new map[string]any from the struct t. This exists so we
+// can recursively call it and always return a map[string]any. And only deal
+// with the Template type alias at the top level. This is done to simplify the
+// constructed nested map, which keeps the Template String method "simple".
+//
+// This is not intended to be general purpose and only needs to handle types the
+// are used in the Template structs (which we create).
+func newTemplate(t any) map[string]any { //nolint:gocognit
+	template := make(map[string]any)
+	rv := reflect.ValueOf(t)
+	rt := reflect.TypeOf(t)
+
+	for i := 0; i < rv.NumField(); i++ {
+		var options tagOptions
+
+		field := rt.Field(i)
+		fieldName := camelToSnake(field.Name)
+
+		if tag := field.Tag.Get("template"); tag != "" {
+			fieldName, options = parseTag(tag)
+		}
+
+		fv := rv.Field(i)
+
+		switch field.Type.Kind() {
+		case reflect.Struct:
+			m := newTemplate(rv.Field(i).Interface())
+			if len(m) > 0 || options.Contains(always) {
+				template[fieldName] = newTemplate(rv.Field(i).Interface())
+			}
+		case reflect.Slice, reflect.Array:
+			if fv.Len() == 0 && !options.Contains(always) {
+				continue
+			}
+
+			m := make([]map[string]any, fv.Len())
+			for i := 0; i < fv.Len(); i++ {
+				m[i] = newTemplate(fv.Index(i).Interface())
+			}
+			template[fieldName] = m
+		case reflect.Pointer:
+			if fv.IsNil() { // only handles pointers to structs or simple types
+				continue
+			}
+
+			fv = fv.Elem()
+			if fv.Kind() == reflect.Struct {
+				template[fieldName] = newTemplate(fv.Interface())
+				continue
+			}
+
+			fallthrough
+
+		default:
+			if fv.IsZero() && !options.Contains(always) {
+				continue
+			}
+
+			v := simpleValue(fv)
+
+			if options.Contains("string") { // not sure about this, might not be needed or might want for other types
+				template[fieldName] = fmt.Sprint(v)
+				continue
+			}
+
+			template[fieldName] = v
+		}
+	}
+
+	return template
+}
+
+func simpleValue(v reflect.Value) any {
+	if v.Kind() == reflect.Ptr {
+		if v.IsNil() {
+			return nil
+		}
+		v = v.Elem()
+	}
+
+	switch v.Kind() {
+	case reflect.String:
+		return v.String()
+	case reflect.Bool:
+		return v.Bool()
+	case reflect.Int, reflect.Int8, reflect.Int16, reflect.Int32, reflect.Int64:
+		return v.Int()
+	case reflect.Uint, reflect.Uint8, reflect.Uint16, reflect.Uint32, reflect.Uint64:
+		return v.Uint()
+	case reflect.Float32, reflect.Float64:
+		return v.Float()
+	}
+
+	return "<nil>"
+}
+
+const always = "always" // opposite of omitempty, default is to omit empty fields
+
+// camelToSnake converts a camelCase string to SNAKE_CASE.
+func camelToSnake(s string) string {
+	var buffer bytes.Buffer
+
+	for i, char := range s {
+		if i > 0 && unicode.IsUpper(char) {
+			var next rune
+
+			if i+1 < len(s) {
+				next = rune(s[i+1])
+			}
+			prev := rune(s[i-1])
+
+			if (unicode.IsDigit(prev) || unicode.IsLower(prev)) || unicode.IsLower(next) {
+				buffer.WriteRune('_')
+			}
+		}
+		buffer.WriteRune(unicode.ToUpper(char))
+	}
+
+	return buffer.String()
+}
+
+// The following code is from the Go standard library and is licensed under a
+// BSD-style license. Specifically, this is from the encoding/json package.
+
+// tagOptions is the string following a comma in a struct field's "json" tag, or
+// the empty string. It does not include the leading comma.
+type tagOptions string
+
+// parseTag splits a struct field's json tag into its name and comma-separated
+// options.
+func parseTag(tag string) (string, tagOptions) {
+	tag, opt, _ := strings.Cut(tag, ",")
+	return tag, tagOptions(opt)
+}
+
+// Contains reports whether a comma-separated list of options contains a
+// particular substr flag. substr must be surrounded by a string boundary or
+// commas.
+func (o tagOptions) Contains(optionName string) bool {
+	if len(o) == 0 {
+		return false
+	}
+	s := string(o)
+	for s != "" {
+		var name string
+		name, s, _ = strings.Cut(s, ",")
+		if name == optionName {
+			return true
+		}
+	}
+	return false
+}