diff --git a/templates/silent/README.md b/templates/silent/README.md
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+OVERVIEW
+========
+
+The `silent` template outputs nothing at all.  Why would that be useful?  Primarily for running JSDoc as a linter to check for syntax errors and unrecognized tags in documentation comments, although it may also be useful for testing or benchmarking purposes.
+
+USAGE
+=====
+
+    ./jsdoc myscript.js -t templates/silent -a all --pedantic
+
+This command exits with a non-zero exit code if any errors are encountered.  It writes nothing to disk and the only output it produces is any error messages written to `stderr`.  This command can also be used to warn about tags which are unknown to JSDoc by setting `"allowUnknownTags": false` in a configuration file.
diff --git a/templates/silent/publish.js b/templates/silent/publish.js
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+++ b/templates/silent/publish.js
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+'use strict';
+
+/**
+    @param {TAFFY} taffyData See <http://taffydb.com/>.
+    @param {object} opts
+    @param {Tutorial} tutorials
+ */
+exports.publish = function(taffyData, opts, tutorials) {};