🚀 Backend Template Generator

A powerful CLI tool to generate production-ready Node.js backend applications with Express.js. Supports both TypeScript and JavaScript, with monolith and microservice architectures, and optional features like authentication, CORS, rate limiting, and more.

✨ Features

• 🎯 TypeScript & JavaScript Support - Choose your preferred language
• 🏗️ Dual Architecture - Monolith or Microservice
• 🐳 Docker Ready - Containerized microservices
• ⚡ PM2 Support - Process management for production
• 🔐 JWT Authentication - Built-in auth with MongoDB
• 🛡️ Security First - CORS, Helmet, Rate Limiting
• 📝 Professional Logging - Morgan + Winston
• 🎨 Colored CLI - Beautiful Vite-like terminal output
• 📋 Project Metadata - Description, author, and keywords support

📦 Installation & Usage

Quick Start

npx @ifecodes/backend-template my-project

Or install globally:

npm install -g @ifecodes/backend-template
ifecodes-template my-project

With Arguments

# Create a monolith
npx @ifecodes/backend-template my-api mono

# Create a microservice
npx @ifecodes/backend-template my-project micro

🧠 Interactive Setup

When you run the CLI, you'll be prompted to choose:

1. Language

• TypeScript (default) - Full type safety and modern tooling
• JavaScript - Transpiled from TypeScript for simplicity

2. Project Metadata

• Description - Project description for package.json
• Author - Your name or organization
• Keywords - Comma-separated keywords for discoverability

3. Project Type

• Monolith API - Traditional single-server architecture
• Microservice - Distributed services with API Gateway

4. Deployment Mode (Microservices only)

• Docker - Container-based deployment with docker-compose
• PM2 - Process manager for Node.js applications

5. Optional Features

• ✅ CORS - Cross-Origin Resource Sharing
• ✅ Helmet - Security headers middleware
• ✅ Rate Limiting - API request throttling
• ✅ Morgan - HTTP request logger

6. Authentication

• ✅ JWT Authentication with MongoDB
• Choose between bcrypt (recommended for Windows) or argon2 for password hashing

🗂 Project Structure

Monolith

my-backend/
├── src/
│   ├── config/         # Configuration files
│   ├── middlewares/    # Custom middlewares
│   ├── modules/        # Feature modules
│   │   └── v1/         # API version 1
│   │       ├── auth/   # Auth module (if enabled)
│   │       └── health/ # Health check
│   ├── models/         # Database models (if auth)
│   ├── utils/          # Utility functions
│   ├── app.ts          # Express app setup
│   ├── routes.ts       # Route definitions
│   └── server.ts       # Server entry point
├── .husky/             # Git hooks
├── .env                # Environment variables
├── package.json
└── tsconfig.json

Microservice

my-project/
├── shared/              # Shared utilities across services
│   ├── config/         # Environment configs (db.ts only if auth enabled)
│   └── utils/          # Logger, error handlers
├── services/
│   ├── gateway/        # API Gateway (port 4000)
│   ├── health-service/ # Health checks (port 4001)
│   └── auth-service/   # Authentication (port 4002, if enabled)
├── docker-compose.yml  # Docker setup (if selected)
├── pm2.config.js       # PM2 setup (if selected)
├── .env                # Root environment variables
├── .gitignore          # Git ignore (includes .env and node_modules)
├── tsconfig.json       # Root TypeScript config with project references
├── .husky/             # Git hooks
└── package.json        # Root package.json

Note: Each microservice does NOT have its own .env file. Environment variables are managed at the root level through docker-compose.yml or pm2.config.js.

▶️ Running the Application

Monolith

cd my-backend

# Development
npm run dev

# Production
npm run build
npm start

Microservice (Docker)

cd my-project

# Start all services
docker-compose up

# Start in detached mode
docker-compose up -d

# View logs
docker-compose logs -f

# Stop all services
docker-compose down

Microservice (PM2)

cd my-project

# Start all services
pm2 start pm2.config.js

# View logs
pm2 logs

# Monitor services
pm2 monit

# Stop all services
pm2 stop all

🛠 Tech Stack

• Runtime: Node.js (v18+)
• Language: TypeScript or JavaScript
• Framework: Express.js
• Database: MongoDB (with Mongoose, if auth enabled)
• Authentication: JWT + bcrypt/argon2
• Security: Helmet, CORS, Rate Limiting
• Logging: Morgan, Custom Logger
• Git Hooks: Husky
• Deployment: Docker or PM2

TypeScript vs JavaScript

This CLI generates TypeScript projects by default but also includes explicit JavaScript templates. There is no fragile, on-the-fly TypeScript → JavaScript transform at runtime — the project templates include language-specific variants so the output is predictable and parseable in Node.js.

TypeScript (Default)

• Full type safety and IntelliSense
• Modern ECMAScript features
• Compile-time error checking
• Better tooling and refactoring support

JavaScript

• Pre-authored JavaScript (CommonJS) templates are included
• No TypeScript annotations remain in generated .js files
• DevDependencies that are TypeScript-only are omitted for JS projects
• Same functionality with simpler runtime setup

🌟 Features

✅ Smart Defaults

• Auto-generates README with project-specific instructions
• Creates .env from .env.example with default values
• Configures TypeScript paths for clean imports (@/config, @/utils)
• Project metadata (description, author, keywords) in package.json

✅ Microservice Architecture

• API Gateway on port 4000 (single entry point)
• Service Discovery - Automatically routes to correct service
• Shared Folder - Common utilities across all services
• Health Checks - Built-in monitoring endpoints

✅ Developer Experience

• Hot Reload - Development server with nodemon
• ESLint - Code quality enforcement
• Git Hooks - Pre-commit linting with Husky
• Type Safety - Full TypeScript support

📡 API Endpoints

Monolith

GET  /                  - API information
GET  /api/v1/health     - Health check
POST /api/v1/auth/register - Register user (if auth enabled)
POST /api/v1/auth/login    - Login user (if auth enabled)

Microservice

All requests go through the API Gateway at http://localhost:4000

GET  /health            - Gateway health check
GET  /api/v1/health     - Health service check
POST /api/v1/auth/register - Auth service (if enabled)
POST /api/v1/auth/login    - Auth service (if enabled)

🔧 Environment Variables

Monolith

PORT=4000
NODE_ENV=development

Microservice (Root .env)

NODE_ENV=development

# Gateway Service
GATEWAY_PORT=4000

# Health Service  
HEALTH_SERVICE_PORT=4001

# Auth Service (if enabled)
AUTH_SERVICE_PORT=4002

Note: Microservices use environment variables from docker-compose.yml or pm2.config.js. Individual services don't have .env files.

With CORS

ALLOWED_ORIGIN=http://localhost:3000

With Authentication

MONGO_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/your-database-name
JWT_SECRET=your-super-secret-jwt-key-change-this-in-production

🚀 Adding Services (Microservice)

You can add more services to an existing microservice project:

cd my-project
npx @ifecodes/backend-template

# You'll be prompted to name the new service
# Example: user-service, order-service, etc.

The CLI will:

• Create the new service
• Update docker-compose.yml or pm2.config.js
• Configure routing in the API Gateway

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for details.

Development

git clone https://github.com/ALADETAN-IFE/backend-template.git
cd backend-template
npm install
npm link

📄 License

Apache License 2.0

Copyright © 2026 Aladetan Fortune Ifeloju (IfeCodes)

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this project except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at:

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

✨ Author

Aladetan Fortune Ifeloju (IfeCodes)
Full-Stack Developer & TechPreneur

• GitHub: @ALADETAN-IFE
• Portfolio: IFECODES
• Twitter/X: @IfeCodes
• LinkedIn: Aladetan Fortune Ife

🙏 Acknowledgments

Built with ❤️ for the developer community to accelerate backend development.

Special thanks to contributors and organizations who adopt, extend, and support this project while respecting its license and attribution.