create-java-springboot

Interactive CLI to scaffold Spring Boot projects — like create-next-app but for Spring.

Usage

npx create-java-springboot

Or install globally:

npm i -g create-java-springboot
create-java-springboot

Features

• Fetch live dependency list from start.spring.io
• Preset templates (REST API, Full Stack, Microservice, Minimal)
• Interactive multiselect with descriptions
• Choose Java version, Spring Boot version, build tool
• Auto-install Java via SDKMAN or Homebrew if version mismatch is detected

Manual Installation

If you prefer not to use npx, you can clone and run locally.

Prerequisites

| Tool | Version | Check | |------|---------|-------| | Node.js | >= 18 | node --version | | pnpm | any | pnpm --version | | unzip | system | which unzip |

unzip is used to extract the generated project. On macOS it is pre-installed. On Linux: sudo apt install unzip / sudo yum install unzip.

Steps

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/your-username/create-java-springboot.git
cd create-java-springboot

# 2. Install dependencies
pnpm install

# 3. Build
pnpm build

# 4. Run
node dist/index.js

Or run without building (dev mode):

pnpm dev

Java Installation

The CLI will detect whether the Java version you selected is installed on your machine. If not, it will prompt you to install it automatically.

Option 1 — SDKMAN (recommended, manages multiple versions)

# Install SDKMAN
curl -s "https://get.sdkman.io" | bash
source "$HOME/.sdkman/bin/sdkman-init.sh"

# Install a specific Java version (e.g. Java 21 via Eclipse Temurin)
sdk install java 21-tem

# List available versions
sdk list java

Option 2 — Homebrew (macOS)

# Install a specific version
brew install openjdk@21

# Create symlink so the system can find it
sudo ln -sfn "$(brew --prefix)/opt/openjdk@21/libexec/openjdk.jdk" \
  /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/openjdk-21.jdk

Option 3 — Manual download

Download from Adoptium (Eclipse Temurin) and follow the installer for your OS.

Verify installation

java -version
# openjdk version "21.x.x" ...

Running the Generated Project

After the project is created:

cd my-app

# Gradle
./gradlew bootRun

# Maven
./mvnw spring-boot:run

Dev

pnpm install
pnpm dev     # run with tsx (no build needed)
pnpm build   # compile TypeScript → dist/

Publish

pnpm build
npm publish