create-absolutejs

A CLI tool to scaffold new AbsoluteJS projects quickly and effortlessly.

Usage

Scaffold a new project called <project-name>:

bun create absolutejs my-app

Alternatively, using npm, Yarn, or pnpm:

npm create absolutejs my-app
yarn create absolutejs my-app
pnpm create absolutejs my-app

By default, the CLI will interactively prompt you for any missing configuration values. You can also supply flags to skip those prompts:

• To skip all optional prompts and use none for every optional configuration:

  bun create absolutejs my-app --skip

• To skip one optional prompt without providing a real value, pass none to that flag:

  bun create absolutejs my-app --auth none --engine none

Options

Usage: create-absolute [project-name] [options]

Arguments

• project-name
  Name of the application to create. If omitted, you'll be prompted to enter one.

Options

• --help, -h
  Show this help message and exit.

• --debug, -d
  Display a summary of the project configuration after creation.

• --angular
  Include an Angular frontend.

• --agentic Add the provider-neutral agent stack: Agency action enforcement and kill switch, agent auth, MCP Tasks, credential operations, bounded wallet spend, manifest contract 2, and the adversarial conformance harness. The scaffold creates src/backend/agent.ts with a deny-by-default policy plus an AGENTS.md execution contract.

• --angular-dir <directory>
  Specify the directory for and use the Angular frontend.

• --assets <directory>
  Directory name for your static assets.

• --auth <plugin|none>
  Pre-configured auth plugin (currently only absolute-auth) or none.

• --biome
  Use Biome for code quality and formatting.

• --build <direrctory>
  Output directory for build artifacts.

• --db <engine|none>
  Database engine (postgresql | mysql | mariadb | sqlite | mongodb | gel | singlestore | cockroachdb | mssql) or none.

• --db-dir <directory>
  Directory name for your database files.

• --db-host <provider|none>
  Database host provider (neon | planetscale | turso) or none.

• --directory <default|custom>
  Directory-naming strategy: default or custom.

• --eslint+prettier
  Use ESLint + Prettier for code quality and formatting.

• --git
  Initialize a Git repository.

• --html
  Include a plain HTML frontend.

• --html-dir <directory>
  Specify the directory for and use the HTML frontend.

• --html-scripts
  Enable HTML scripting with TypeScript.

• --htmx
  Include an HTMX frontend.

• --htmx-dir <directory>
  Specify the directory for and use the HTMX frontend.

• --install
  Use the same package manager to install dependencies.

• --lts
  Use LTS versions of required packages.

• --orm <drizzle|prisma|none> ORM to configure: drizzle | prisma | none. Drizzle 1 no longer includes the Gel dialect; choose no ORM for Gel. Prisma supports PostgreSQL (local, Neon, PlanetScale), CockroachDB, MySQL (local, PlanetScale), MariaDB, SQLite (local, Turso), SQL Server and MongoDB; Gel and SingleStore are rejected before files are written. A Prisma project ships prisma.config.ts, db/schema.prisma and a committed initial migration; postinstall / db:generate run prisma generate into src/generated/prisma (git-ignored), and db:migrate applies the migrations (prisma migrate deploy; Turso through db/migrate.ts, since Prisma Migrate cannot reach libSQL URLs; MongoDB through prisma db push). db:migrate:dev authors new migrations.

• --plugin <plugin>
  Elysia plugin(s) to include (repeatable); none skips plugin setup. Select @absolutejs/observability to mount the credential-safe error, Replay, vitals, and Support Mode relay from environment configuration.

bun create absolutejs my-app \
  --plugin @absolutejs/observability

• --react
  Include a React frontend.

• --react-dir <directory>
  Specify the directory for and use the React frontend.

• --skip
  Skip non-required prompts; uses none for all optional configs.

• --svelte
  Include a Svelte frontend.

• --svelte-dir <directory>
  Specify the directory for and use the Svelte frontend.

• --tailwind
  Include Tailwind CSS setup.

• --tailwind-input <file>
  Path to your Tailwind CSS entry file.

• --tailwind-output <file>
  Path for the generated Tailwind CSS bundle.

• --vue
  Include a Vue frontend.

• --vue-dir <directory>
  Specify the directory for and use the Vue frontend.

Directory Configuration

Choose between the default layout (pre-configured folder names) or custom, which prompts you to specify each directory name yourself:

bun create absolutejs my-app --directory custom

Debug & LTS Flags

• --debug, -d
  After scaffolding, prints a detailed summary of your configuration (language, frontends, directories, etc.).
• --lts
  Instructs the CLI to fetch and pin the latest published versions of your dependencies instead of its default pinned versions.

Getting Started

Once the scaffold completes, you’re ready to go:

cd my-app
# (If you skipped automated install)
bun install
# Then start the dev server
bun run dev

If you downloaded this repository to test or make changes you can use bun run test to start the created dev server without having to change directories back and forth.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open issues or submit pull requests to improve the CLI.

License

Business Source License 1.1 (BSL-1.1) – see LICENSE for details.

Scaffold compatibility and verification

The CLI pins published registry versions; it does not install local package links. The compatibility policy in src/utils/registryChannel.ts also applies when resolving versions at creation time, so npm's older latest tag cannot silently switch a generated server back to Elysia 1.

• AbsoluteJS uses its current 0.20 beta channel.
• Elysia remains at 2.0.0-beta.6 and OpenAPI at 2.0.0-beta.2: the published authentication/plugin contracts still rely on ElysiaStatus.code, which later Elysia betas changed. Upgrading these requires a coordinated SDK migration.
• TypeScript 5.9.3 and Angular's current 21 LTS patches match the framework's compiler peer dependencies. Newer incompatible compiler majors are not selected.
• Drizzle ORM and Kit use the coordinated 1.0 release-candidate channel.
• Prisma uses 7.10 (the prisma-client generator with driver adapters) for every SQL database. MongoDB projects pin Prisma 6.19.3, because Prisma 7 does not support MongoDB yet (Prisma's documentation directs MongoDB users to v6.19). They need a replica set, which the generated Docker database provides. The npm latest tag for prisma currently points at an 8.0 release candidate, so Prisma is always pinned, including under --lts.
• All other pins are checked against their latest published release channel.

Automatic authentication setup currently supplies a complete Google configuration and requires a persistent database. Configure other login providers explicitly using @absolutejs/auth after creation; the CLI rejects unsupported automatic provider configurations instead of silently omitting them. Auth sessions are in-memory by default; configure a shared session store for multi-instance hosting.

bun run check-versions checks every scaffold pin against that policy. bun run check:package runs typechecking, unit tests, compilation and release metadata validation. bun run test:starters scaffolds representative frontend, plugin, database and agentic combinations into a temporary directory, installs real registry dependencies, and checks TypeScript and ESLint. SQLite cases also exercise generated HTTP validation and persistence using an isolated database. The matrix creates Docker configuration files but does not start containers or connect to paid providers. Use SCAFFOLD_CHECK_CASES=sqlite-auth,all-frontends to select cases. Hosted database credentials and real OAuth acceptance are separate integration checks, not implied by this matrix.