🚀 CleanInit CLI (archinit)

Scaffold a production-ready Node.js Express backend in seconds with a clean, modular architecture that keeps your project simple, readable, and easy to scale.

CleanInit is a lightweight CLI that generates a modern Express backend structure from a real template located in the repository. It asks for a project name and an auth preference, then creates a new project folder with a clean root-level layout and a ready-to-run baseline.

This README reflects the actual CLI implementation and generated scaffold in the current repository.

✨ What This CLI Actually Does

When you run the tool, it:

• prompts for a project name
• asks whether to include basic auth infrastructure
• copies the bundled template into a new folder
• renames the generated package name to your chosen project name
• creates .env and .env.example files
• removes auth-specific files when auth is disabled

🛠️ Installation

Install it globally from GitHub:

npm install -g mena-emad/archinit

Run it from anywhere:

archinit

🧪 Interactive Prompts

The CLI currently asks for two inputs:

• Project Name — the folder name for the new backend scaffold
• Auth Infrastructure — a yes/no prompt that controls whether auth middleware and token helpers are included

If you answer yes, the scaffold includes:

• middlewares/auth.js
• utils/generateTokens.js
• JWT-related environment variables

If you answer no, those files are removed to keep the generated project lean.

🧱 Generated Project Structure

The generated project uses a root-level architecture with no src folder.

With Auth Enabled

[project-name]/
├── config/
│   └── dbConnection.js
├── data/
│   └── models/
├── middlewares/
│   ├── auth.js
│   ├── gerror.js
│   └── validation.js
├── modules/
│   └── _sample/
│       ├── sample.controller.js
│       ├── sample.routes.js
│       ├── sample.service.js
│       └── sample.validation.js
├── utils/
│   ├── AppError.js
│   ├── catchAsync.js
│   └── generateTokens.js
├── .env
├── .env.example
├── app.js
└── index.js

With Auth Disabled

[project-name]/
├── config/
│   └── dbConnection.js
├── data/
│   └── models/
├── middlewares/
│   ├── gerror.js
│   └── validation.js
├── modules/
│   └── _sample/
├── utils/
│   ├── AppError.js
│   └── catchAsync.js
├── .env
├── .env.example
├── app.js
└── index.js

🔄 Request Flow

The scaffolded app follows a simple modular flow:

graph TD
    A[index.js] --> B[app.js]
    B --> C[modules/_sample/sample.routes.js]
    C --> D[middlewares/auth.js]
    D --> E[sample.controller.js]
    E --> F[sample.service.js]
    F --> G[data/models/]
    E --> H[middlewares/gerror.js]

This gives you a clear path for request handling, business logic, persistence, and error management.

✅ Included Features

The scaffolded template already includes:

• Express.js backend foundation
• Mongoose and MongoDB connection setup
• Joi for request validation
• Cookie parsing support
• CORS support
• JWT auth helpers when enabled
• Helmet, mongo-sanitize, and dotenv support

⚡ Quick Start

After the CLI generates your project:

cd [project-name]
npm install
npm run dev

That path boots your project quickly and puts you into a production-ready development loop with minimal friction.

Pro tip: Enable auth when you want a faster route to secure, API-first applications with token-based protection.

📦 What You Get Out of the Box

Every generated project is designed to feel deliberate and scalable:

• Clean root-level organization
• Modular feature slices for long-term maintainability
• Ready-to-use API entry points
• Configured environment files
• Authentication-ready middleware layer when needed
• Database connection structure and error handling by default

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome. If you want to improve the CLI, expand the templates, or refine the scaffolding experience, open an issue or submit a pull request.