🚀 LaunchKit

Scaffold production-ready backend projects in seconds — not hours.

LaunchKit is a modern interactive CLI that generates fully configured Node.js backend projects.
Answer a few prompts. Get a production-ready backend. Ship faster.

Quick Start · Features · CLI Walkthrough · Roadmap · Contributing

🤔 Why LaunchKit?

Setting up a backend project is repetitive. Every time you start something new, you're doing the same thing — installing packages, wiring up auth, connecting a database, configuring TypeScript, structuring folders.

LaunchKit eliminates that.

npx @zaidshk04/launchkit

One command. A few prompts. A complete, configured backend — ready to run.

Instead of spending 30–60 minutes on boilerplate, you're writing real features in under a minute.

✨ Features

⚙️ Core

| Feature | Details | |---|---| | 🖥️ Interactive CLI | Friendly prompts powered by @clack/prompts | | 📝 Language Support | JavaScript & TypeScript | | 📦 Module Systems | CommonJS (CJS) & ES Modules (ESM) | | 🌐 Framework | Express.js | | 🗂️ Project Structure | Clean, scalable folder layout | | ⚡ Auto Install | Dependencies installed automatically |

🔐 Authentication

| Option | Description | |---|---| | JWT | Stateless token-based auth with jsonwebtoken | | Passport.js | Flexible, strategy-based authentication | | Express Session | Traditional server-side session auth |

🗄️ Databases

| Database | Type | |---|---| | MongoDB | NoSQL document database | | PostgreSQL | Relational SQL database | | MySQL | Relational SQL database |

🔧 ORM / ODM

| Tool | Compatible With | |---|---| | Mongoose | MongoDB | | Prisma | PostgreSQL, MySQL | | Drizzle ORM | PostgreSQL, MySQL |

✅ Validation

| Library | Style | |---|---| | Zod | TypeScript-first schema validation | | Express Validator | Middleware-based validation |

🚀 Quick Start

No global install needed. Use your preferred package manager's runner:

# npm
npx @zaidshk04/launchkit

# pnpm
pnpm dlx @zaidshk04/launchkit

# Yarn
yarn dlx @zaidshk04/launchkit

# Bun
bunx @zaidshk04/launchkit

Note: LaunchKit is designed to be run directly with npx / dlx / bunx. Global installation is not recommended, as you'll always get the latest version this way.

🎬 CLI Walkthrough

Once you run the command, LaunchKit guides you through a short interactive setup:

┌  🚀 LaunchKit — Backend Project Scaffolder
│
◇  Project name
│  my-awesome-api
│
◇  Language
│  ● TypeScript   ○ JavaScript
│
◇  Module system
│  ● ES Modules   ○ CommonJS
│
◇  Authentication
│  ● JWT   ○ Passport.js   ○ Express Session   ○ None
│
◇  Database
│  ● PostgreSQL   ○ MongoDB   ○ MySQL   ○ None
│
◇  ORM / ODM
│  ● Prisma   ○ Drizzle ORM   ○ Mongoose   ○ None
│
◇  Validation
│  ● Zod   ○ Express Validator   ○ None
│
◇  Install dependencies?
│  ● Yes   ○ No
│
└  ✅ Project created successfully! Happy shipping 🚢

After the prompts, LaunchKit generates your project and (optionally) installs all dependencies automatically.

📁 Generated Project Structure

Below is an example structure for a TypeScript + PostgreSQL + Prisma + JWT + Zod project:

my-awesome-api/
├── src/
│   ├── config/
│   │   └── db.ts            # Database connection
│   ├── controllers/
│   │   └── auth.controller.ts
│   ├── middlewares/
│   │   ├── auth.middleware.ts
│   │   └── validate.middleware.ts
│   ├── routes/
│   │   └── auth.routes.ts
│   ├── schemas/
│   │   └── auth.schema.ts   # Zod schemas
│   └── index.ts             # App entry point
├── prisma/
│   └── schema.prisma        # Prisma schema
├── .env.example
├── .gitignore
├── package.json
└── tsconfig.json

Every file is pre-configured and ready to run — no manual wiring required.

🛠️ Tech Stack

LaunchKit itself is built with:

| Technology | Purpose | |---|---| | Node.js (ESM) | Runtime | | @clack/prompts | Beautiful interactive CLI prompts | | fs-extra | File system operations | | execa | Dependency installation |

🗺️ Roadmap

LaunchKit is actively growing. Here's what's coming next:

🔜 Coming Soon

• [ ] 🐳 Docker support — Dockerfile + Compose templates
• [ ] 📖 Swagger / OpenAPI — Auto-generated API docs
• [ ] 🔴 Redis integration — Caching & session storage
• [ ] 📧 Email (Nodemailer) — Transactional email setup
• [ ] 📁 File Upload (Multer) — File handling out of the box
• [ ] 🖼️ ImageKit / Cloudinary — Cloud image management
• [ ] 📊 Logger (Winston / Pino) — Structured logging

🔮 Planned

• [ ] 🛡️ Helmet — HTTP security headers
• [ ] 🚦 Rate Limiting — API throttling
• [ ] 🧪 Testing (Jest / Vitest) — Test scaffolding
• [ ] ⚡ Fastify support — High-performance framework
• [ ] 🔥 Hono support — Ultrafast web framework
• [ ] 🏗️ NestJS support — Opinionated enterprise framework
• [ ] 🔁 CI/CD templates — GitHub Actions workflows
• [ ] 🌍 Environment presets — dev / staging / production configs
• [ ] 🚀 Deployment templates — Railway, Render, Fly.io

👥 Who Is LaunchKit For?

LaunchKit is built for developers who want to move fast without sacrificing code quality:

• 👨‍💻 Backend Developers — Skip the setup, get to the logic
• 🌐 Full Stack Developers — Spin up a backend while your frontend is still warm
• 🎓 Students & Beginners — Learn best-practice project structure from day one
• 💼 Freelancers — Deliver client projects faster
• 🚀 Startup Developers — Validate ideas before the coffee gets cold

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are what make open source thrive. Every pull request, bug report, and feature suggestion matters.

How to Contribute

1. Fork the repository
2. Clone your fork

   git clone https://github.com/your-username/launchkit.git
   cd launchkit

3. Install dependencies

   npm install

4. Create a branch for your feature or fix

   git checkout -b feat/your-feature-name

5. Make your changes and commit using Conventional Commits

   git commit -m "feat: add docker support"

6. Push and open a Pull Request

Contribution Ideas

• 🐛 Fix a bug or open an issue
• ✨ Implement a feature from the roadmap
• 📖 Improve documentation
• 🧪 Add or improve tests
• 🎨 Improve the CLI experience

Please read CONTRIBUTING.md for detailed guidelines.

⭐ Star This Repository

If LaunchKit saved you time, starring the repo is the best way to support it — it helps more developers discover the project.

Stars motivate continued development and new features. If you're using LaunchKit, let others know with a ⭐.

🐛 Issues & Support

Found a bug? Have a question? Want to request a feature?

• 🐛 Open a Bug Report
• 💡 Request a Feature
• 💬 Start a Discussion

📄 License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for full details.

👤 Author

Zaid Shaikh

Made with ❤️ by Zaid Shaikh

If LaunchKit helped you, give it a ⭐ — it means the world.