🌐 Official Site · Templates · Extensions · Docs · GitHub

⚡ Get started in 30 seconds

npm create awesome-node-app@latest my-app

That's it. The interactive wizard walks you through picking a template, addons, and package manager — you're done before your coffee gets cold.

Want to go fully non-interactive? Specify everything up front:

npx create-awesome-node-app my-app \
  --template react-vite-boilerplate \
  --addons material-ui github-setup \
  --no-interactive

✨ Why Create Awesome Node App?

Most scaffolding tools lock you into a single opinionated stack. CNA is different — it's a composable scaffolding engine built around the idea that your stack should be yours.

| | CNA | Traditional scaffolders | | ----------------------------- | --- | ----------------------- | | Mix templates + addons | ✅ | ❌ | | Bring your own template URL | ✅ | ❌ | | Interactive and CI-friendly | ✅ | Partial | | AGENTS.md for AI assistants | ✅ | ❌ | | Extension ecosystem | ✅ | ❌ | | Node 22 native | ✅ | Varies |

One CLI. Any stack.

🚀 What you get out of the box

Every project bootstrapped with CNA includes:

• 🧱 Production-ready structure — no empty folders or placeholder files
• 🔷 TypeScript — strict mode, ready to go
• 🧹 ESLint + Prettier — framework-specific rules pre-configured
• 🧪 Testing setup — vitest, jest, playwright, or cypress (depends on template)
• 🤖 AGENTS.md — a contract file so your AI coding assistant understands your project conventions
• 🔄 GitHub Actions workflows — CI, linting, and releases via addons
• 📦 Your choice of package manager — npm, yarn, or pnpm

🌐 Explore the Catalog

Visit create-awesome-node-app.vercel.app to visually browse the full ecosystem:

• 🗂 Templates organized by category (Frontend, Backend, Full Stack, Monorepo, Web Extension, UAT)
• 🧩 Extensions filterable by compatibility
• 📖 Guides on how the generation pipeline works

Or discover everything from your terminal:

# List all available templates
create-awesome-node-app --list-templates

# List addons compatible with a specific template
create-awesome-node-app --template react-vite-boilerplate --list-addons

🧱 Template Ecosystem

| Category | Example Templates | | ---------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- | | 🖥 Frontend | react-vite-boilerplate — React 18 + Vite + TS + ESLint + Vitest | | 🔧 Backend | nestjs-boilerplate — NestJS + TS + ESLint + Jest | | 🌐 Full Stack | nextjs-starter — Next.js + SSR + TS + Prettier | | 🗂 Monorepo | turborepo-boilerplate — Turborepo + Changesets + TS | | 🧩 Web Extension | web-extension-react-boilerplate — Cross-browser + React | | 🧪 UAT / Testing | webdriverio-boilerplate — E2E automation scaffold |

→ Full catalog at create-awesome-node-app.vercel.app/templates

🧩 Addons / Extensions

Think of addons as lego bricks — snap them onto any template to add exactly what you need:

| Category | Examples | | --------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | | 🎨 UI Libraries | Material UI, Tailwind CSS, component libraries | | 📊 State & Data | Jotai, tRPC, React Query, Zustand | | 🔧 Tooling | GitHub Actions workflows, changesets, release automation | | ✅ Code Quality | ESLint configs, Prettier, TypeScript strictness | | 🧪 Testing | Playwright, Cypress, Vitest setups | | 🛠 DX | Commit linting, conventional commits, environment setup |

Add any extension by slug or URL:

npx create-awesome-node-app my-app \
  --template react-vite-boilerplate \
  --addons material-ui github-setup commitlint \
  --extend https://github.com/your-org/your-custom-extension

🤖 AI-Ready with AGENTS.md

CNA generates an AGENTS.md file in supported templates — a structured document that tells AI coding assistants (GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude, etc.) about:

• Project purpose and conventions
• Directory layout and naming rules
• Scripts and how to use them
• Testing strategy and linting rules

This dramatically improves AI suggestion quality and speeds up onboarding for hybrid human+AI teams.

→ Learn more at create-awesome-node-app.vercel.app/docs/agents-md

🧪 Interactive Mode Walkthrough

When you run CNA without flags (or with --interactive), the wizard guides you through:

1. Project name — set or confirm your app's name
2. Package manager — npm, yarn, or pnpm
3. Category — Frontend, Backend, Full Stack, Monorepo, Web Extension, UAT, or Custom
4. Template — pick from curated options with descriptions and keywords
5. Extensions — multi-select compatible addons grouped by purpose
6. Custom extensions — optionally extend with any additional URLs

The CLI composes a templatesOrExtensions pipeline and generates your workspace in one shot.

⚙️ Requirements

• Node.js >= 22 (enforced at startup — no silent failures)
• npm >= 7, yarn, or pnpm

We recommend fnm for fast Node version switching:

fnm use 22
npm create awesome-node-app@latest my-app

🔍 CLI Reference

Usage: create-awesome-node-app [project-directory] [options]

| Flag | Description | | ---------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- | | --interactive | Force interactive wizard (default outside CI) | | --no-interactive | Disable wizard — use flags only | | -t, --template <slug\|url> | Template slug from catalog or remote GitHub URL | | --addons [slugs...] | Space-separated addon slugs or URLs | | --extend [urls...] | Extra extension URLs to layer on top | | --no-install | Generate files without installing dependencies | | --use-yarn | Use yarn instead of npm | | --use-pnpm | Use pnpm instead of npm | | --list-templates | Print all templates grouped by category | | --list-addons | Print addons (optionally filtered by --template) | | -v, --verbose | Output resolved generation config as JSON | | -i, --info | Print Node, npm, OS environment diagnostics | | -V, --version | Print CLI version | | -h, --help | Show help |

🛠 Programmatic Usage

Need to integrate CNA into your own tooling? The core is importable:

import { createNodeApp, getTemplateDirPath } from "@create-node-app/core";

Note: The programmatic API is experimental and subject to change. Prefer the CLI for stable usage.

❓ FAQ

Because most CLIs lock you into one stack. CNA lets you compose your stack: pick a curated template, add modular extensions, and bring your own blueprints via URL. No vendor lock-in.

Yes. Pass a GitHub URL (with optional subdirectory path) via --template:

npx create-awesome-node-app my-app \
  --template https://github.com/your-org/your-repo/tree/main/template

They're applied sequentially in the order you specify. If two addons touch the same file, later ones win — just like a git merge.

Yes. Use the turborepo-boilerplate template for a multi-package workspace with Turborepo, Changesets, and shared TypeScript/ESLint configs ready to go.

CNA auto-detects CI and disables interactive mode. All options can be passed via flags for fully scripted generation — perfect for bootstrapping in automation pipelines.

Yes — we target the latest LTS runtime for native ESM support, performance, and modern language features. Use fnm or nvm to switch quickly if needed.

🗺 Roadmap

• Remix and SvelteKit template variants
• Additional testing packs (contract, performance, load testing)
• Template version pinning and diff-based upgrade paths
• Rich template analytics and usage metrics

→ Track progress in Issues and Discussions.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are what make CNA better — templates, addons, bug fixes, docs, ideas. All welcome!

• Main repo: github.com/Create-Node-App/create-node-app
• Template & extension data: github.com/Create-Node-App/cna-templates
• Contributing guide: CONTRIBUTING.md

📜 License

MIT © Create Node App Contributors

🌐 create-awesome-node-app.vercel.app

Built with ♥ for developers who value speed, clarity, and composability.