How to use stand alone templates with components

I am trying to build a component out of a stand alone template (fed to a requirejs component using the text! plugin). But the documentation implies that the component´s template has to be inline and be named in the form component/name.

I am also open to hearing about alternative ways to do what I am trying to do, which is to create sort of a plugin for the navbar header and sidebar links for an app that react according to the selection of items in the header.

Thanks in advane.