create-express-mongo-ts

Create Express + MongoDB applications with TypeScript, authentication, and best practices out of the box.

Quick Start

npx create-express-mongo-ts my-app
cd my-app
npm install
cp .env.example .env
npm run dev

What's Included

This template provides a production-ready Express.js + MongoDB setup with:

🔐 Authentication & Security

• JWT-based authentication (access & refresh tokens)
• API key management
• Role-based access control (RBAC)
• Password hashing with bcrypt
• Helmet.js security headers
• CORS configuration

📁 Project Structure

my-app/
├── src/
│   ├── app.ts              # Express app setup
│   ├── config.ts           # Environment configuration
│   ├── index.ts            # Application entry point
│   ├── core/               # Core utilities
│   │   ├── ApiError.ts     # Custom error classes
│   │   ├── ApiResponse.ts  # Standardized API responses
│   │   ├── asyncHandler.ts # Async error handling wrapper
│   │   ├── authUtils.ts    # Authentication utilities
│   │   ├── jwtUtils.ts     # JWT token utilities
│   │   ├── logger.ts       # Winston logger setup
│   │   └── utils.ts        # General utilities
│   ├── database/           # Database layer
│   │   ├── index.ts        # MongoDB connection
│   │   ├── models/         # Mongoose models
│   │   └── repositories/   # Data access layer
│   ├── helpers/            # Helper functions
│   ├── middlewares/        # Express middlewares
│   ├── routes/             # API routes
│   └── types/              # TypeScript type definitions
├── keys/                   # RSA keys for JWT (generate your own)
├── Dockerfile              # Docker configuration
├── tsconfig.json           # TypeScript configuration
├── jest.config.ts          # Jest testing configuration
└── eslint.config.mts       # ESLint configuration

🛠️ Tech Stack

• Runtime: Node.js 18+
• Framework: Express.js 5
• Database: MongoDB with Mongoose ODM
• Language: TypeScript
• Validation: Zod
• Logging: Winston with daily rotation
• Testing: Jest
• Linting: ESLint + Prettier

Available Scripts

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | npm run dev | Start development server with hot-reload | | npm run build | Compile TypeScript to JavaScript | | npm start | Build and run production server | | npm test | Run test suite | | npm run lint | Check code for linting errors | | npm run lint:fix | Fix linting errors automatically | | npm run prettier:write | Format code with Prettier |

Environment Variables

Create a .env file based on .env.example:

# Server Configuration
PORT=3000
NODE_ENV=development

# Database Configuration
DB_HOST=localhost
DB_PORT=27017
DB_NAME=myapp
DB_USER=
DB_PASSWORD=
DB_MIN_POOL_SIZE=2
DB_MAX_POOL_SIZE=5

# JWT Configuration
ACCESS_TOKEN_VALIDITY_SEC=3600
REFRESH_TOKEN_VALIDITY_SEC=86400
TOKEN_ISSUER=your-app
TOKEN_AUDIENCE=your-app

# CORS Configuration
ORIGIN_URL=*

# Logging
LOG_DIRECTORY=logs

JWT Keys Setup

For production, generate RSA key pairs for JWT signing:

# Navigate to keys directory
cd keys

# Generate private key
openssl genrsa -out private.pem 2048

# Generate public key
openssl rsa -in private.pem -pubout -out public.pem

API Endpoints

Health Check

• GET /health - Server health status

Authentication

• POST /auth/signup - User registration
• POST /auth/signin - User login
• POST /auth/signout - User logout
• POST /auth/token/refresh - Refresh access token

Docker Support

Build and run with Docker:

# Build image
docker build -t my-app .

# Run container
docker run -p 3000:3000 --env-file .env my-app

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

MIT