Stacksmith

The full-stack scaffolding tool that doesn't lock you in.

Stacksmith is an interactive CLI that generates production-grade, full-stack boilerplates — personalized to your stack, your database, your auth provider, and your deployment target. No more starting every project by copy-pasting your last one and deleting half of it.

Project status

Stacksmith is in early access (v0.1.x). The plugin architecture and the long-term vision below are real, but only one stack ships end-to-end today:

• ✅ Shipping now: the MERN preset (Express + React + MongoDB + Mongoose + JWT + Docker) generates a complete, production-shaped project — full server, client, auth, Docker, and config.
• 🚧 In progress / planned: every other frontend, backend, database, ORM, auth provider, preset, and the add / ai / update commands. See the Roadmap.

If you run Stacksmith with a stack that isn't implemented yet, you'll get a minimal base project (not a full scaffold). We'd rather be upfront about that than surprise you. Contributions that fill in the matrix are very welcome — that's exactly what the plugin system is for.

Why Stacksmith?

Most generators give you one opinionated stack and call it a day. Stacksmith is being built so your stack is a set of composable choices. The target matrix (✅ = available today, 🚧 = planned):

• Frontend: React ✅ · Next.js 🚧 · Vue/Nuxt 🚧 · SvelteKit 🚧 · Astro 🚧
• Backend: Express ✅ · Fastify 🚧 · NestJS 🚧 · Hono 🚧 · tRPC 🚧
• Database: MongoDB ✅ · PostgreSQL 🚧 · MySQL 🚧 · SQLite 🚧 · Supabase 🚧 · PlanetScale 🚧
• ORM/ODM: Mongoose ✅ · Prisma 🚧 · Drizzle 🚧
• Auth: JWT (custom) ✅ · Auth.js 🚧 · Better Auth 🚧 · Lucia 🚧 · Clerk 🚧 · Supabase Auth 🚧
• Deployment target: Docker ✅ · Vercel 🚧 · Railway 🚧 · Render 🚧 · Fly.io 🚧 · AWS 🚧

MERN is the friendly default that works today; the rest is the roadmap we're building toward.

Quick Start

The MERN stack works end-to-end right now:

npx @adhikareeprayush/stacksmith create my-app --preset mern

Or skip the prompts entirely:

npx @adhikareeprayush/stacksmith create my-app --preset mern -y

Prefer a shorter command? Install it globally once — npm i -g @adhikareeprayush/stacksmith — and then use the stacksmith command directly (e.g. stacksmith create my-app --preset mern).

This generates a complete project: an Express server (controllers, services, models, JWT auth, validation, error handling, logging), a React + Vite client (auth context, pages, UI components, API layer), docker-compose.yml, a pre-filled .env, and a stacksmith.config.json.

Presets

| Preset | Status | Description | |-------------|--------|---------------------------------------------------| | mern | ✅ available | Express + React + MongoDB (Mongoose) + JWT + Docker | | next-full | 🚧 planned | Next.js App Router + Server Actions + Prisma | | saas | 🚧 planned | Next.js + Postgres + Drizzle + auth + billing | | api | 🚧 planned | Minimal backend-only API | | portfolio | 🚧 planned | Static/SSG frontend, no backend | | education | 🚧 planned | Simplified structure for learning, with docs |

Selecting a planned preset today produces a minimal base project, not the full stack described above.

What the MERN scaffold gives you

🎛️ Interactive wizard

A guided CLI experience (@inquirer/prompts + Chalk + Ora) walks you through project name, package choices, and environment variables, then pre-fills your .env.

🗄️ Real database integration

Choosing MongoDB does more than drop in a config file. Stacksmith generates connection setup, a User model, auth controllers/services, and validation.

🚀 Docker-ready

docker-compose.yml plus per-service Dockerfiles for the client and server.

✅ Production-quality defaults

• TypeScript across client and server
• Structured logging, centralized error handling, async handlers
• JWT auth with middleware and validators
• .env.example with documented variables

Planned features

These are part of the vision but not implemented yet — tracked on the Roadmap:

• 🧩 Plugin-based templates for every category (the loader exists; most plugins don't)
• 🤖 stacksmith ai "<description>" — AI-assisted module generation
• 🔄 stacksmith add <feature> — add auth/payments/file-upload after the fact
• 🧪 stacksmith update — update generated boilerplate to latest patterns

Commands

stacksmith create <name> --preset mern   # ✅ full MERN scaffold (interactive)
stacksmith create <name> [flags]         # ✅ non-interactive with --preset mern -y
stacksmith setup                         # ✅ post-generation: install deps, git init, env setup
stacksmith doctor                        # ✅ diagnose config/env issues
stacksmith add <feature>                 # 🚧 not yet implemented
stacksmith update                        # 🚧 not yet implemented
stacksmith ai <description>              # 🚧 not yet implemented

Project Structure (generated MERN app)

my-app/
├── client/              # React + Vite frontend
├── server/              # Express + Mongoose backend
├── docker-compose.yml
├── stacksmith.config.json
├── .env / .env.example
└── README.md

Roadmap

• [ ] Additional presets (next-full, saas, api, portfolio, education)
• [ ] More frontends (Next.js, Vue/Nuxt, SvelteKit, Astro)
• [ ] More backends (Fastify, NestJS, Hono, tRPC)
• [ ] More databases & ORMs (Postgres, MySQL, SQLite + Prisma, Drizzle)
• [ ] More auth providers (Auth.js, Better Auth, Lucia, Clerk, Supabase)
• [ ] More deployment targets (Vercel, Railway, Render, Fly.io, AWS)
• [ ] add, ai, and update commands
• [ ] Monorepo (Turborepo) output
• [ ] Plugin marketplace / community template registry

Contributing

Stacksmith is built to be extended, and the most valuable contributions right now are new plugins that fill in the stack matrix above. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the plugin API and submission guidelines.

License

MIT © Stacksmith Contributors