create-kickstart

Scaffold production-ready fullstack, backend, mobile, and CLI projects in seconds. One command. Any stack. AI-friendly.

npx create-kickstart

Why?

Starting a new project shouldn't take hours. Every time you start a POC or greenfield project, you repeat the same setup: Docker, CI/CD, linting, testing, env management, database configs, deployment. create-kickstart does all of it in one command.

What makes it different?

| Feature | create-kickstart | create-next-app | cookiecutter | yeoman | |---------|-----------------|-----------------|-------------|--------| | Multi-stack (React + FastAPI) | Yes | No | No | No | | Add services to existing project | Yes | No | No | No | | Switch deploy providers | Yes | No | No | No | | AI context files (CLAUDE.md, .cursorrules) | Yes | No | No | No | | Observability (Grafana + OTel) | Yes | No | No | No | | 8 deploy providers + Terraform | Yes | No | No | No | | Analytics SDK (PostHog, Segment) | Yes | No | No | No | | GraphQL + gRPC scaffold | Yes | No | No | No | | Mobile (React Native, Flutter) | Yes | No | No | No |

Quick Start

# Interactive — walks you through every choice
npx create-kickstart

# One-liner — for AI agents and scripts
npx create-kickstart my-app \
  --type fullstack \
  --frontend react-vite \
  --backend fastapi \
  --with docker,ci,lint,test,env,db,ai-context \
  --database postgres \
  --no-interactive

Supported Stacks

Frontend

Next.js | React + Vite | Vue 3 | SvelteKit | Angular

Backend

FastAPI (Python) | Express (TypeScript) | Hono | Django | Go Chi | Spring Boot (Java)

Mobile

React Native | Flutter | Swift (iOS) | Kotlin (Android)

Database

PostgreSQL | MySQL | SQLite | MongoDB

Enhancements

Pick what you need — mix and match:

| Enhancement | What it does | |------------|-------------| | docker | Dockerfile + docker-compose for all services | | ci | GitHub Actions CI workflow | | lint | ESLint/Prettier, Ruff, golangci-lint | | test | Test runner config + example tests | | env | .env management with .env.example | | db | Database configs (Postgres, MySQL, SQLite, MongoDB) | | ai-context | CLAUDE.md, .cursorrules, copilot.md, AI_CONTEXT.md | | auth | JWT authentication (login/register) | | sample-crud | Working /items CRUD API + frontend component | | api-wiring | CORS + proxy + typed API client (fullstack) | | doctor | Dev environment prerequisite checker | | logging | Structured logging (pino, structlog, zerolog) | | observability | OpenTelemetry + Grafana + Prometheus + Tempo + Loki | | analytics | PostHog, CleverTap, MoEngage, Mixpanel, Segment | | api-protocol | GraphQL (client-facing) + gRPC (internal) | | deploy | Deploy configs for 8 platforms | | deps-auto | Dependabot automation | | pre-commit | Pre-commit hooks |

Multi-Service Monorepo

Add backend services in any language to your existing project:

cd my-app
npx create-kickstart add payment-svc --backend express --with db,test
npx create-kickstart add notifications --backend go-chi --with test

Result:

my-app/
  frontend/
  backend/
    api/              # Primary (FastAPI)
    payment-svc/      # Express (TypeScript)
    notifications/    # Go (Chi)
  docker-compose.yml  # All services wired

Progressive Deployment

Start easy, graduate when ready:

# POC — deploy to Railway in 1 minute
npx create-kickstart deploy --provider railway

# Production — switch to AWS ECS with Terraform
npx create-kickstart deploy --provider aws-ecs
# Generates: VPC, ECS cluster, ECR, ALB, GitHub Actions CI/CD

# Scale — switch to Kubernetes
npx create-kickstart deploy --provider kubernetes
# Generates: Helm chart + K8s manifests

| Tier | Providers | |------|-----------| | PaaS | Railway, Render, Fly.io, Vercel | | Cloud-native | AWS ECS (Fargate), GCP Cloud Run, Azure Container Apps | | Kubernetes | Helm charts + K8s manifests |

Cloud-native providers include full Terraform modules (VPC, load balancer, container registry, auto-scaling).

AI-Friendly

Every generated project includes AI context files tailored for each tool:

• CLAUDE.md — Architecture diagram, commands, "how to add" recipes for Claude Code
• .cursorrules — Code style rules, project structure rules for Cursor
• .github/copilot.md — File locations, test commands for GitHub Copilot
• AI_CONTEXT.md — Overview and quick reference for ChatGPT and others

The CLI itself is AI-agent friendly — --no-interactive mode accepts all options as flags, so any AI coding assistant can scaffold projects programmatically.

Contributing

git clone https://github.com/sswapnil2/create-kickstart
cd create-kickstart
npm install
npm run build
node dist/index.js my-app --type backend --backend fastapi --with docker,env --no-interactive

See CLAUDE.md for architecture docs and "how to add" guides.

License

MIT