create-express-starter-kit

A powerful CLI tool that interactively scaffolds a production-ready Express.js backend. By answering a few quick questions, it generates a robust, modular, and fully configured codebase tailored to your specific stack requirements.

📦 Usage

You can generate your project in an empty directory without installing the package globally. Run one of the following commands:

pnpm dlx create-express-starter-kit

OR

npx create-express-starter-kit

✨ Features & Available Integrations

The CLI prompts you with several configuration choices to automatically wire up your project dependencies, middleware, and project structure:

• Package Manager 📦:
  • npm
  • pnpm
  • yarn
• Authentication 🔐:
  • None
  • Custom JWT-based Auth (with Access & Refresh Tokens, bcrypt, and cookies)
  • Clerk Auth Support
• Database 🗄️:
  • MongoDB (via Mongoose)
  • PostgreSQL (via Prisma ORM - automatically initializes schemas)
  • None
• In-Memory Cache / DB ⚡:
  • Redis (via ioredis)
  • Valkey
  • None
• Validation 🛡️:
  • Zod (generates validation middlewares and example schemas)
  • None
• File Uploads ☁️:
  • Multer + Cloudinary
  • Multer + AWS S3
  • None
• Docker 🐳:
  • Automatically generates a docker-compose.yml for your selected databases so you can start them with one click (includes MongoDB, Postgres, pgAdmin, Redis Stack, and Valkey configurations).

Base Folder Structure

When the setup begins, the CLI scaffolding lays down a lean, base Express app using domain-driven design:

.
├── controllers/
│   └── example.controller.js
├── middlewares/
│   └── example.middleware.js
├── public/
├── routers/
│   └── example.route.js
├── utils/
│   ├── ApiError.js
│   ├── ApiResponse.js
│   └── asyncHandler.js
├── app.js
└── index.js

🔄 How Selections Modify the Codebase

Based on your exact selections, files are cleanly swapped or generated so you are never left with useless "dead code":

Custom JWT Auth Replaces example files with full Register/Login/Logout/Refresh token functionality.

.
├── controllers/
│   └── user.controller.js
├── middlewares/
│   └── auth.middleware.js
├── routers/
│   └── user.route.js
├── app.js          (updated)
└── index.js        (updated)

Clerk Auth Rewrites app.js to mount Clerk's strict express middleware.

.
└── app.js          (updated with @clerk/express)

Database (MongoDB/Mongoose) Adds database connection and relevant model schemas.

.
├── models/
│   └── user.model.js  (or example.model.js)
└── utils/
    └── connectDB.js

Database (PostgreSQL/Prisma) Initializes Prisma schema and singleton database clients.

.
├── prisma/
│   └── schema.prisma
└── utils/
    ├── connectDB.js
    └── prismaClient.js

Validation (Zod) Injects validation middleware and Zod schema definitions.

.
├── middlewares/
│   └── validate.middleware.js
└── schemas/
    └── user.schema.js

In-Memory Cache (Redis / Valkey) Drops a configured client instance strictly for the chosen service.

.
└── utils/
    └── redis.js       (or valkey.js)

File Uploads (Cloudinary / AWS S3) Generates local disk storage middleware and dedicated SDK upload service.

.
├── middlewares/
│   └── multer.middleware.js
└── utils/
    └── cloudinary.js  (or uploadS3.js)

Docker Writes a custom compose file defining services uniquely based on databases/caches opted into.

.
└── docker-compose.yml

🛠️ What it Does Under the Hood

1. Initializes the Project: Creates your package.json configured with ESM (type: "module") and sets up a dev script using node --watch.
2. Installs Dependencies: Dynamically installs only the packages you need (e.g., express, cors, zod, mongoose, prisma, multer, etc.) using your chosen package manager (npm, pnpm, or yarn).
3. Scaffolds Structure: Sets up a clean domain-driven directory structure including controllers/, routers/, models/, middlewares/, utils/, and error-handling utilities like ApiError and ApiResponse.
4. Writes Boilerplate: Injects full, ready-to-use boilerplate code (e.g., fully-functional JWT Login/Register/Refresh flows, Prisma connections, Zod error validators) based on your exact technology stack.
5. Generates Environment Variables: Appends the necessary secrets, Database URIs, and config keys directly into a .env file so you know exactly what is required.

🚀 Getting Started

Once the CLI finishes running:

1. Open the .env file and fill in your missing credentials (like DB connection strings, JWT secrets, Cloudinary/AWS keys).
2. Start up your Docker containers (if generated):

   docker-compose up -d

3. Run the development server:

   npm run dev

📄 License

MIT