create-express-modular

Scaffold a production-ready Express + TypeScript backend in seconds.
Choose your database, your validator, and optionally add JWT auth — all from one interactive CLI.

📖 Full Documentation →

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Installation (Recommended)

Install the CLI globally to access the cem executable across your workspace:

# Using npm (recommended)
npm install -g create-express-modular

Quick Start

Scaffold a new project using the cem CLI (recommended):

# Using globally installed CLI (recommended)
cem my-api

# Or using npx / bunx without global installation
npx create-express-modular my-api
# or
bunx create-express-modular my-api

Then start developing:

cd my-api
cem dev

Your server is live at http://localhost:5000. ✅

What Gets Generated

Answer 5 prompts — get a complete, wired-up backend:

| Prompt | Options | | :----------------- | :-------------------------------------------------- | | Database / ORM | Mongoose · Prisma · Drizzle | | Validator | Zod · Joi | | JWT Auth | Yes / No (bcrypt + refresh tokens + rate limiting) | | Token delivery | HTTP-only cookies · Authorization header | | Docker | Yes / No (Dockerfile + docker-compose + DB sidecar) |

🤖 AI Coding Assistants (Cursor & Claude Ready)

To support seamless development with AI assistants (Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, etc.), the CLI automatically scaffolds custom configuration context files during project initialization:

• AGENTS.md — Universal rules detailing code style, technology choices, strictly-enforced directory structure guidelines, and available CLI tools.
• CLAUDE.md — Full project context for Claude with real boilerplates (Controllers, Services, Routes, schemas, and Models) specifically tailored to the scaffolded stack.

CLI Commands

🛠️ Project Management

| Command | Description | | :-------------- | :----------------------------------------------------- | | cem dev | Start the dev server with live reload | | cem build | Run guards + compile TypeScript to dist/ | | cem start | Start the production server with preflight checks | | cem check | Run type-check, lint, and format checks in one command | | cem list | Show a snapshot of modules, middlewares, and env vars |

➕ Generating Features

| Command | Description | | :--------------------------------- | :--------------------------------------------------------------- | | cem add module <Name...> | Scaffold one or more complete feature modules | | cem add middleware <name...> | Create one or more middleware files under src/app/middlewares/ | | cem add env <KEY...> | Add one or more env vars to .env, .env.example, and config |

❌ Removing Features

| Command | Description | | :------------------------------------ | :--------------------------------------------- | | cem remove module <Name...> | Delete module directory(ies) and unwire routes | | cem remove middleware <name...> | Delete one or more custom middleware files | | cem remove env <KEY...> | Remove env var(s) from all configurations |

💡 Command Shortcuts / Aliases:

• cem rm is an alias for cem remove
• cem ls is an alias for cem list

Requirements

• Node.js: >= 18
• Package Manager: npm >= 9 · yarn >= 1.22 · pnpm >= 8

Resources

| Link | Description | | :------------------------------------------------------------------ | :------------------------------------------- | | 📖 Full Docs | Complete CLI reference, guides, and examples | | DOCS.md | Offline version of the full documentation | | ARCHITECTURE.md | Internal project architecture overview | | npm | Package page |

License

MIT