cem-cheatcode (create-express-mongo-server)

🚀 Scaffold a ready-to-use Express + MongoDB server with essential tools like CORS, JWT, dotenv, body-parser, and more — with a single command.

✨ Features

• ✅ Express.js server setup
• ✅ MongoDB (via Mongoose) integration
• ✅ JWT authentication example route
• ✅ Environment variable support with .env
• ✅ CORS enabled
• ✅ Body parser setup
• ✅ Secure password hashing via bcryptjs
• ✅ Dev-friendly with nodemon
• ✅ Clean project structure and sensible defaults

📦 Installation

Use npx to scaffold the project in any directory:

npx cem-cheatcode

Then install dependencies and start your development server:

npm install
npm run dev

🧱 Folder Structure

your-project/
├── index.js           # Main server file
├── .env                # Environment variables
├── package.json        # Installed dependencies
└── .gitignore          # Ignored files

📌 Environment Variables (.env)

Make sure to update the .env file:

PORT=5000
MONGO_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/yourdbname
JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret_key

🔐 Sample JWT Protected Route

An example /protected route is included to demonstrate token validation.

Request:

GET /protected
Authorization: Bearer <your_token>

index.js excerpt:

const token = req.headers.authorization?.split(' ')[1];
const decoded = jwt.verify(token, process.env.JWT_SECRET);

📚 Included Packages

| Package | Purpose | | ------------ | --------------------------------- | | express | Web framework | | mongoose | MongoDB object modeling | | dotenv | Environment variable management | | cors | Cross-Origin Resource Sharing | | body-parser | Parse incoming request bodies | | jsonwebtoken | JWT authentication | | bcryptjs | Password hashing | | nodemon | Dev server auto-reload (dev only) |

🛠 Scripts

| Script | Command | Description | | ------- | ------------------- | ------------------------ | | start | node index.js | Start server | | dev | nodemon index.js | Start server in dev mode |

🧪 Example Use Case

Want to quickly set up a backend for:

• A fullstack MERN app?
• A REST API?
• A practice project?

This package is for you — simple, fast, and extensible.

💡 Tips

• Consider creating routes, controllers, and models folders for larger projects.
• Integrate a frontend (React, Vue, Angular) and connect via HTTP.

📜 License

MIT © 2025 Oluwafemi Oyeniran